I posted this photo in the night photography thread, but figured it should probably have it's own little discussion. I took this photo last night.


From the night photography thread:
Here's what you're seeing in the photo working left to right:

• Nikon SB-800 on a cheap stand I got to hold my reflector
• Nikon SB-600 mounted to my tripod
• Nikon SB-600 sitting on the ground

All flashes were firing as remotes and triggered by my D200's pop-up flash in Commander Mode. That shot was done hand held, since my tripod was pressed into service to hold the flash and the speedlights can throw off enough light together to shoot handheld.

Here are the other shots from that set, but I'm happiest with the way the photo above turned out.

 

Sweet pictures.

Good backgrounds can be hard to find. My husband and I knew of a good one (an abandoned industrial facility) that we got to use exactly once for night pictures with his Z4 (freshly detailed by yours truly) and my newly-purchased SB-800s and stands. After fiddling with the positions of the strobes for 15 minutes, I had gotten the camera and light output settings just about right, and I had taken one keeper when the local constabulary showed up and politely asked us to leave. She explained to us that there have been problems with thieves taking copper wire and cable from the facility to sell for scrap.

Ten pictures, one keeper. Shortest shoot ever.

 

Thanks for finally showing us a little behind the scenes, dave! I knew you were using flashes but no idea you had such a setup.

You did however inspire me to finally get a flash and a pocketbounce, so still not your setup, but whenver I have time (and if this rain ever stops), I'll go out and experiment. Can't wait!

 

Very impressive setup and great pictures, as usual.

 

Nice Dave!! Thanks for sharing.
Just picked up a second SB800 myself. Time to experiment. I'll have to root around in my "Gear Closet", I'm sure I have some stands and stuff.
Jim

 

Ditto here! I ended up popping for an SB800. (and wondering if I should get another after seeing the cool pics above.)
Still haven't experimented much with it though, what with all the new school year preparations underway. (I still have a slew of MTTS pics to go through.)

 

really nice mate

 

Been there. That story reminds me of the evening I got chatted too by three different security people at different locations. Not one of my more productive shooting nights.

I'm a big fan of the SB-600, especially if you already have one SB-800.

• SB-600 is almost as powerful, but I'm rarely firing mine at full capacity.
• costs about $100 less
• Can only act on camera, or as a remote, no commander mode to the SB600, but since you already have an SB-800, you have that base covered.

My $0.02, would be to get yourself an SB-600. The only thing I don't like about owning both the SB-600 and the SB-800 is that they have totally different menu systems.

 

Thanks Dave for all the details!

On a side note, do you or others here have any experience using rechargeable batteries in your Nikon flashes? I've got some 2300mhA AA rechargeables that I put into my old SB-25 and the flash recycled in less than a second from full output, but had the smell of burning transistors after a few flash pops. Not really keen on trying the same experiment in my SB800, but sure would love to improve the cycle time between flashes (and dependency on Costco bulk battery bricks).

 

I started using 2100mAh Kodak AA rechargeables initially with my SB-600, but when I got my SB-800 I switched over to 2500mAh Energizer AA's. I couldn't even find 2500 mAh bats when I got my Kodak's, plus the Energizer 2500 mAh's are pretty cheap at Target.

I haven't had any complaints with the output of either type in my SB-600 or SB-800. I do tend to put the 2100's in an SB-600 though so I have the 2500's for the higher output SB-800.

When I'm shooting with the stands (as pictured above) I usually shoot pretty frequently and try to move around a bit, so I think I'm being fairly tough on the flash cycle time.

My experience to date. Your mileage may vary.

 

Tonight's experimenting has been added to the first post.

 

Ooooh! I like those first two.
Did you zoom in or get up closer?

See, now I want to get out and experiment also!
(If only September could whizz by quicker. )

I looked up the SB600s. They're a good deal at $185 on Amazon.

 

I've been looking at getting a couple of these: http://www.alienbees.com/

I already have an SB800 and have found that I use it more often off camera than on camera. I figure that perhaps I can pick up a couple of the smaller Bees and use them as slaves.

 

Juan has the B400
Itzdchz has the B800

See this thread for more discussion on the Alienbees

I got closer. They are both shot at 29mm. I feel like there is a little more flexibility for framing closer up, since you can work around the lights a bit easier.

Also, since it's been a while since I got any camera gear, I ordered up two most stands and another SB-600 last night.

 

Love those shots Dave. It really makes me jealous of the Commander Mode on the Nikons. It's going to be expensive to get myself a couple more flashes and an ST-E2 or some pocketwizards.

 

The 2500mAh Energizer AA's are the best I've used, and they are cheap

 

Excellent new pics. Can I ask what you did to expose both the background with the flashed car? Complete manual with the flash power manually throttled way back? Would take plenty of test shots...or is there an easier way to do that?

 

Based on my experience to date, there is only about 20-30 minutes of available light where the background (ambient) and the car (flash) can be brought into a balanced exposure. So far, I haven't found any special secrets to pass along, other than to watch you preview window and historgram and make adjustments accordingly. The faster you can settle in to a configuration that works, the better.

I usually shoot with flash compensation, because in those 20-30 minutes of quality light, the ambient lighting is still changing quite a bit. I have not experimented with manual flash settings, but it seems like more time may be wasted making adjustments with manual flash than flash compensation given a highly variable ambeint lighting environment.

I wish I had more to empart, but that's where I'm at with it right now.

 

Dave,

Looks great! I have been playing with lighting as well, but your tutorial and set up shots add's the necessary behind the scenes information needed for a better shoot!

I am considering the powerpack units for my 2 Alien Bee B800's for on the location shoots, as a few weeks ago I was shooting a model in the mountains and had my SB800 and SB600 on tripods similar to your setup, but knew I could get a little better coverage, but then you loose a little portability. I think I will consider another SB600, maybe. The D200 does great in commander mode with either setup, but maybe bringing the AB's and the SB800/600 would give that much more punch... In studio I tend to favor the 2 AB's and 1 SB, usually the 800. Now that you posted some great setup shots I will have to go out tonight and play...

 

Goofing around with the new flash and bounce tonight and discovered I could freeze the dog mid-air:


I'm very satisfied with the exposure considering there is almost no other light in the room but the flash.

 

GREAT!! That's TOO funny!!
Jim

 

The little guy looks a little surprised that you caught him.

That's a pretty cool 1/60th of a second.

 

The flash didn't even phase her...too focused on the toy flying into the other room! :D I have a bunch more but not as good of an angle.

 

 

hahahahaha

pause


hahahahahaha