Hi there Angelo …

Is it safe to say that you still exposed for the correct tone (dress or skin) and then added manual flash.

The flash isn’t merely fill-flash in that example. So I wouldn’t have determined correct ambient exposure for her dress. The flash is what provides correct exposure.

That the dress is cream instead of white doesn’t affect anything in terms of the metering and use of flash.

Neil vN

I read that the window shot (bride on purple seat) was in fact manual flash. Taking this away, you indicate “I did want to expose properly for her where she was sitting in front of the window”. Is it safe to say that you still exposed for the correct tone (dress or skin) and then added manual flash. If so, it looks like the dress is cream and not white. So im curious to see if exposing correctly for this tone (dress or skin) did make the dress white, or is the dress just cream to start with. Hope you understand what I mean.
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Also in this shot, would exposing for the outside ambient light and then using flash as a predominant source, would give a pleasing result. Or did you decide that fill flash was all the shot needed.

Cheers

Angelo (Australia).

Cliff .. your observations are the same as mine. You might notice that most of my compositions, especially when with the 24-70 lens, is fairly central in the frame. It’s partly my preference, but also partly motivated by wanting to make sure the images are sharply focused.

For off-center subjects when I have time to do so, I will double-check the image for sharpness by zooming in on the camera preview. I usually focus-and-recompose with the 70-200, but with the 24-70, I quite often move the camera’s focusing sensors … but rarely too far from center. I still find the central focusing sensors to be more consistently accurate on the D3 than the outer sensors. It’s just one of those things to be aware of and adapt to.

Setting the D700 controls so that the Multi-Selector Center Button zooms in to medium zoom, helps a lot. It’s more helpful than the thumbnails option.

Neil vN

More subtle fill-flash from your Nikon speedlight. The article is true for the D3 in how much FEC I need and would like. However, I haven’t tested whether the D700 etc need a similar reduction in FEC.

The way of doing it works for other Nikon DSLRs, but it would appear that the different models might act differently in the brightness of the TTL flash exposure.

Neil vN

??? My Nikon 800 & 900 flash only do -3. I was wondering in the past how to get lower – could you explain please? THANKS!

Hi there Donald ..

A neutral density filter would only have helped in controlling the depth-of-field. That isn’t an issue in that photo though. The balance between flash and strong available light is a problem though.

Neil vN

Donald R

PK .. I knew the gel plus the red interior would give a very warm color cast. So I flipped the gel off the flash. So it was un-gelled flash for that shot. At the settings I used, the elevator lights didn’t register.

Neil vN

Thanks