Shoe Slave Flash
Slave flash fires but the picture is dark, please advice.?
Hi,
First, my gear.
Nikon D80 (has flash commander mode, which I use to fire slave flashes)
Flash SB600, SB26, SB28.
Only SB600 supports iTTL and, with it, the picture is properly lit.
The SB26 has slave mode and it fires from using D80′s built in flash, but the picture is dark. (It worked before, but I totally don’t know why it doesn’t now).
SB28 doesn’t have slave function, but I have the light trigger, which works. I see the flash fires, but the picture is dark.
When using, I used only one at a time (to test if all work). Now, let’s only look at SB26 and SB28. I set all the flash modes on both camera (so, no small fire for iTTL first) and flashes to Manual. Still didn’t work. I put flashes on the camera’s shoe and it fired fine.
What is wrong and how can I fix this?
Thank you for the advices,
T.
The flashes (sb26 and sb28) were set to M mode as I just wanted to first make the flashes fired before I start getting more creative (if that). And, it did, but the pictures were just dark. I thought it was ‘timing’ problem. So, I increase the shutter speed from 1/100 to 1/10. Still dark.
So, as suggested, I called Nikon’s USA help line. After only 5 min wait, a tech picked up the phone. I asked why my pictures are dark using D80′s commander mode with SB26. He told me the commander mode can only be used with SB600 and SB800 in Creative Lighting System. I told him that the D80 did fire the flash, but he just told me the same thing again. That was all I talked to the tech.
So, I went back and tried again after reading a little bit more about SB26′s ‘Delay’ mode. After fiddling with both flashes a little and made ‘no’ major change, they both worked!?! I just don’t know what is going on. And, hopefully, they will continue to work when I want them to tomorrow.
Hi LEM,
Thank you for the advices. The timing I mentioned wasn’t about the exposure actually. I was thinking about the flash timing lack or something, so I increased the shutter time. My camera setting is f10 with 1/100 sec.
Now, they are working fine and that really puzzles me. I just don’t know why they didn’t before. Could have been because of light from another flash get to it.
Hi Cabbiinc,
Thank you for the link. I already used M mode on everything just to get the flashes to fire. But, at first, they didn’t. Now, they do?….just can’t explain why. But, the link is helpful.
I’m not familiar with particular units, but I’ll try to give you a general answer based on what I believe is going on.
How do you set the non-TTL flashes? Do you set them on manual or on automatic mode? If flashes don’t support TTL as slaves – you need to either manually meter and set the aperture or flash power (camera on manual of course), or to use automatic mode and again set the camera to the appropriate aperture as per the specific automatic mode.
It may help to read the manuals of your flash units to see exactly how it’s done. Because when no TTL is present, it’s all in your hands to set the lightning right. No help from camera automatics!
–RE: additional info –
Shutter speed has nothing to do with flashes. Try to open up your aperture if you want to see the picture lighten up. Set it to “lower” number.E.g. if you’re shooting at f/8, try 5.6, or 4. If your lens can’t open that wide, increase your ISO sensitivity. You need to get more light in, and since your flash onli lights up for about 1/10000 of a second – chaning shutter speed won’t help. Aperture and ISO are the only things you can control about it. Also with manual, flash may have output level (usuallu full, 1/2, 1/4, etc) make sure it’s at full or set it higher than it was…
Mr. Lif – Status
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