Thursday, April 19, 2012

I'm in love with my SB800!

I've been working hard at understanding two new things to me: off camera flash, with my Nikon SB800, using the D300s as the "master", and the SB800 as the "slave", set on remote.

The second thing I'm working on is using my SB800 on manual rather than TTL or TTL-BL. (I know, I know. . . I've had the flash for over two years, but it's only now that it all seems to be coming together for me now!)

One thing which has made a huge difference was picking up the "One Light" DVD by Zach Arias on eBay, and it is incredible! He is making the concepts so clear that I'm finally making some headway with this!

The second thing that has been helpful has been getting a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Flash Photography." The only down-side is that he focuses pretty heavily on the Nikon SB900, which is difinitely different from the SB800, BUT he focuses extensively on putting the flash in manual. What a difference this makes!

Now, I can finally read some of the information on Strobist, and chunks of it are making sense to me now! Like, whole sentences full!


Literally, I can barely sleep at night, wanting to play with my flash now. (Doesn't that just sound wrong?)

Anyway, here are two rather serendipitous shots of Ruby, shot immediately after first learning how to put my camera in off-camera remote, the flash sitting on the couch next to me, Ruby walked up, and I "shot" her.

She's such a good sport! Like Bonnie, she knows Camera=Treat. None of the rest of my family will work so cheap for food.


8 comments:

Nicki said...

I am impressed. I am still on auto - and 'trial and error' a good bit of the time with that.

shirley said...

I've always wanted to buy a SBxxx, but have always been too afraid. I am glad there are lots of resources out there (because when I read Strobist I think I'm reading Greek!).
Wonderful captures!
And thanks for the encouragement on my ACL recovery - I've been finding my patience wearing thin recently - thanks for helping me keep things in perspective :-)

pat said...

Good for you! I avoid flash at all costs...and I applaud you for tackling it and learning how to use it. Can't believe how big Ruby is getting. What a sweet face!

Maria said...

What a nice puppy! Very cute, too!

Reds said...

I'm scared of flash... there, I said it ;) I will maybe one day try it again! And Ruby did awesome again!

Kerry said...

Great shots of Ruby! Good dog. :)

I have been saying for quite some time (nearly 2 years) that I really should learn to use my flash. Like some of the others, I've been a bit a bit afraid of it.

Do you have a Pocket Wizard to use with your flash?

Angela2932 said...

Kerry, no, I don't have a pocket wizard, and that's one of the wonderful things about the Nikon system; many of the cameras use the pop flash as the trigger for the external flashes. Pretty cool, huh? I'm still not at a point where I feel like I immediately know what to do with flash, but I feel like I'm accumulating some of the intial steps, finally!

Kerry said...

Angela--thanks for that information. Guess I should read up on the pop flash trigger, huh?