{"id":729,"date":"2009-03-25T07:18:03","date_gmt":"2009-03-25T13:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetneil.com\/tangents\/?p=729"},"modified":"2018-01-03T23:38:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T03:38:09","slug":"more-subtle-nikon-fill-flash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/more-subtle-nikon-fill-flash\/","title":{"rendered":"more subtle fill-flash with your Nikon speedlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

In blending flash with available light, I am often after that delicate balance where the flash is just barely perceptible.\u00a0 This\u00a0can be with flash as an equal partner to the available light, or with flash as a subtle fill-flash.<\/p>\n

But what I’ve found with my Nikon D3 bodies, when used with the SB-900,\u00a0 that the fill-flash flash is still too much, even when turned down -3EV on the flash exposure compensation.\u00a0 I’ve found similar with the various\u00a0Nikon D300 and Nikon D700 bodies that attendees to my workshops use.\u00a0 In other words, this isn’t just my cameras – this is repeatable with other cameras too.<\/p>\n

Here’s the set-up:<\/p>\n

With the model close to a window, and positioning her so that we have the typical window-lit portrait, our light is great. No flash needed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

[ Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S; no flash\u00a0]<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span>
\nNow, the moment our subject looks at the camera, we have strong contrast, with one side of her face being much darker.\u00a0 If the room was less bright and reflected less light on her, the difference would be more stark.\u00a0 The image here isn’t too contrasty, so it will still work .. but I would still prefer a touch less contrast and more light on the shadow side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

[ Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S; no flash\u00a0]<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span>
\nI can now control the contrast\u00a0with flash …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I do this\u00a0by bouncing flash into the large room.\u00a0 No specific wall or ceiling\u00a0really – just into the room behind me and to my right.\u00a0 I\u00a0can control how much flash by adjusting the flash exposure compensation. (FEC).\u00a0 Ideally I want just a touch of flash … so here\u00a0I dialed down the flash as low as I could on the speedlight itself.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

[ Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S;\u00a0\u00a0SB-900;\u00a0 FEC -3EV]<\/span><\/p>\n

This looks good, but is in my opinion too much flash for what should be a minimum .. ie, the flash (imho) should’ve been\u00a0barely perceptible at a FEC value of -3EV.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So how to pull the TTL flash exposure down even more?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s the trick … exposure compensation on the Nikon bodies are cumulative<\/strong>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With the Nikon D700,\u00a0 D300, D200, etc .. where you have flash exposure compensation on the body (that little button to the left of the prism), and you have flash exposure compensation on the speedlight .. you can double-dial the FEC down.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So it is now possible for you to dial down\u00a0 say, -2EV FEC on the body, and then an additional variable amount on the speedlight.\u00a0\u00a0 So you can now reach -5 EV (or less) .. but around -5EV on the Nikons are were I feel the flash is barely perceptible. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With the Nikon D3 and D2x, it is a little trickier. That the pro bodies don’t have flash exposure compensation on the body itself, is a huge oversight in the design of these wonderful machines.\u00a0 The work-around that I have, relies on the fact that I only shoot in manual exposure mode on the camera.\u00a0 So I can now turn down my overall exposure compensation (which does affect my camera’s light meter while in manual exposure mode!), and then turn down my flash exposure compensation on my speedlight. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This way I was able to get to -5EV FEC on the following image:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[ Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S;\u00a0\u00a0SB-900;\u00a0 FEC -5EV]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This for me is a good starting point if I wanted to play around and find my preference for fill-flash in this scenario.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How did I arrive at -5EV as a base?\u00a0 That’s part of the next blog entry on how Canon and Nikon’s TTL flash metering differs<\/a>.
\nHang in there .. this gets interesting.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In blending flash with available light, I am often after that delicate balance where the flash is just barely perceptible.\u00a0 This\u00a0can be with flash as an equal partner to the available light, or with flash as a subtle fill-flash. But what I’ve found with my Nikon D3 bodies, when used with the SB-900,\u00a0 that the Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,22,27,1],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[5147,5925,1393,9174,9173,1337,1350,9171,6272,1416,1425,9172,9170,4127,1120,1026,5144,5131,4151,9175],"class_list":{"0":"post-729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-flash-photography","8":"category-lighting","9":"category-nikon","10":"category-uncategorized","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40447,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/40447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}