Nikon Creative Lighting System Digital Field Guide

Chapter 1:

Exploring the Nikon Creative Lighting System

Like most sophisticated camera equipment, Nikon Speedlights are complicated devices with many different parts and features. To get the most out of your Speedlight or Speedlights, it helps to be familiar with all of the moving parts. In this chapter, I dissect each of the Speedlights and explain what each button, switch, dial, and lever does, as well as discuss some of the accessories and the different cameras that can be used. By the end of this chapter you should be familiar with all of the different accessories and terminology.

Knowing when and how to use such features as slow sync allows you to add creative aspects to your images.

The Nikon Creative Lighting System, or CLS, mainly consists of a couple of different components: a CLS-compatible camera and a Speedlight. This is just the start, however, because CLS is a completely modular system that can comprise a camera and many different Speedlights functioning as commanders and/or remotes.

Main Features and Functions

Nikon Speedlights offer many different features and functions, each of which is designed to make Nikon Speedlights a flexible and powerful tool for any photographer — from a complete newcomer to photography to a seasoned professional.

Once you understand what each of these features do and how to use them, you can unlock your creative abilities by utilizing them to get the utmost control out of your Speedlights.

The main features and functions of the Nikon Creative Lighting System are as follows:

arrow i-TTL/i-TTL BL. This is Nikon’s most advanced flash metering system. It uses pre-flashes fired from the Speedlight to determine the proper flash exposure. The pre-flashes are read by a 1005-pixel RGB metering sensor. The information is then combined with the information from matrix metering, which is a reading of how much available light is falling on the subject. The Speedlight uses this information to decide how much flash exposure is needed (i-TTL) or to balance the flash output and ambient light for a more natural-looking image (i-TTL BL). All CLS-compatible cameras can use this function when attached to any of the CLS Speedlights. The built-in flash also uses i-TTL technology.

arrow Advanced Wireless Lighting (AWL). This is probably the most exciting and useful feature of the CLS and probably the main reason why you bought this book. AWL allows you to control up to three groups of flashes, which gives you a total of four groups if you use the built-in flash or an SB-800 or SB-900 Speedlight in the hot shoe as a commander. You can control an unlimited amount of Speedlights assigned to each group with one single commander, which can be a built-in flash, an SB-800, SB-900, or SU-800. This option is available on all cameras when using an SB-900, SB-800 or SU-800 as a commander and another Speedlight as a remote. Cameras with a built-in flash that acts as a commander can also use this feature. The D40/D40X, D50, D60, and D5000 built-in flash doesn’t support this feature.

arrow AUTO FP High-Speed Sync. This feature allows you to use a shutter speed that’s faster than the rated sync speed for your camera. This is achieved by firing a series of low-power flashes during the exposure. This feature is used for adding fill flash to an action shot that requires a fast shutter speed. It’s also handy when using a fill flash on an outdoor portrait that requires a wide aperture, which necessitates a fast shutter speed. Please note that this feature is not available with all camera bodies.

crossref1.eps For more information on sync speed, see Chapter 3.

arrow Flash Value Lock (FV Lock). This feature enables you to lock the flash exposure to maintain a consistent exposure over a series of images. It’s also used to ensure proper flash exposure when recomposing your shot. When enabling the FV Lock the camera fires the pre-flash to get the correct flash exposure reading. This reading is locked giving you the opportunity to recompose the shot without causing the flash output level to change, or to wait for just the right moment or expression. You essentially make the pre-flash several seconds before the exposure instead of milliseconds before. This feature is available with all cameras and flash combinations with the exception of the D40/D40X, D50, D60, D3000, and D5000. In most cases, the FV Lock must be assigned to a Function button using the camera’s Custom Settings menu.

arrow Multi-Area AF-Assist Illuminator. The SB-900, SB-800, SB-600, and SU-800 have a built-in LED that projects an array onto your subject when shooting in low light to assist the camera’s AF system in locking focus on a subject. This feature works with all camera and flash combinations. Note that the AF-Assist Illuminator does not function when the camera is in Continuous AF or Manual focus.

arrow Flash Color Information Communication. As the flash duration changes, the color temperature of the flash output changes as well. Longer flash durations are required for bright output and cause the color temperature to shift a little cooler. The opposite is true for shorter duration flashes; the color temperature tends to get warmer. When your camera is set to Auto White Balance, the Speedlight communicates this information to your camera, which allows the camera to compensate for the color shift. This can be more accurate than simply setting your camera to Flash WB, which is fixed at 5500K. This feature is available with all camera and flash combinations. Please note that the camera WB must be set to Auto for this feature to be enabled.

Depending on your camera and Speedlight combination, all of these features may or may not be available. Certain cameras, especially the entry-level models, don’t allow the use of some features of the Nikon CLS such as Auto FP High-Speed Sync and FV Lock. Your camera must be CLS-compatible in order to take advantage of any of these features. Here is a list of current CLS-compatible cameras:

arrow F6

arrow D3/D3X

arrow D2X / D2H / D2Hs

arrow D700

arrow D300/D300s

arrow D200

arrow D70/D70s

arrow D80

arrow D90

arrow D40/D40X

arrow D50

arrow D60

arrow D3000

arrow D5000

note1.eps The Nikon COOLPIX P5000, P5100, and P6000 are equipped with a hot shoe for an accessory Speedlight. Although they can accept the SB-400, SB-600, SB-800, and SB-900 Speedlights, these cameras aren’t CLS compatible. They use i-TTL metering, but cannot perform any Advanced Wireless Lighting or other CLS functions. The Commander function is disabled when an SB-900, SB-800, or SU-800 is attached to the camera.

Understanding DX and FX

As you may already know Nikon offers two different sensor sizes within their line of dSLR cameras, DX and FX. The DX format sensor is approximately 24 × 16mm while the FX format is 36 × 24mm.

SLR camera lenses were designed around the 35mm film format. Photographers use lenses of a certain focal length to provide a specific field of view. The field of view, also, called the angle of view, is the amount of the scene that is captured in the image. This and is usually described in degrees. For example, when a 16mm lens is used on a 35mm camera, it captures almost 180-degrees horizontally of the scene, which is quite a bit. Conversely, when using a 300mm focal length, the field of view is reduced to a mere 6.5-degrees horizontally, which is a very small part of the scene. The field of view was consistent from camera to camera because all SLRs used 35mm film, which had an image area of 24 × 36mm.

With the advent of digital dSLRs, the sensor was made smaller than a frame of 35mm film to keep costs down because the sensors are more expensive to manufacture. This sensor size was called APS-C, or in Nikon terms, the DX- format. The lenses that are used with DX-format dSLRs have the same focal length they’ve always had, but because the sensor doesn’t have the same amount of area as the film, the field of view is effectively decreased. This causes the lens to provide the field of view of a longer focal lens when compared to 35mm film images.

Fortunately, the DX sensors are a uniform size, thereby supplying consumers with a standard to determine how much the field of view is reduced on a DX-format dSLR with any lens. The digital sensors in Nikon DX cameras have a 1.5X crop factor, which means that to determine the equivalent focal length of a 35mm or FX camera, you simply have to multiply the focal length of the lens by 1.5. Therefore, a 28mm lens provides an angle of coverage similar to a 42mm lens, a 50mm is equivalent to a 75mm, and so on.

What does this mean to you and your Speedlights? Not much actually. The SB-600 and SB-800 were designed to cover the full-frame format so, although the widest setting shown is 14mm, that is the FX setting, which, in terms of the crop factor, allows coverage for a 10mm lens on DX format (10 X 1.5 = 15mm), although you will get some slight light fall off when using the 10.5mm fisheye lens.

The SB-900 was designed to automatically recognize between DX and FX sensors and is optimized to provide even light coverage for either format all the way up to the 10.5mm fisheye lens

Anatomy of the Speedlight

For the most part, Speedlights are all pretty similar. Each Speedlight has a few parts that are common to all Speedlights. The higher up the chain you go and the more expensive the Speedlight gets, the more features, knobs, dials, and bells and whistles you find.

Although some Speedlights, such as the SB-900, seem to have more dials and buttons than you can shake a stick at, it’s pretty easy to master the controls once you know what each button and dial is intended for. That’s where this chapter comes in. I cover each part of the Speedlight to help you learn what it does so when it comes time to master the settings and modes, you are familiar with the layout of your Speedlight.

SB-400

The SB-400 is the simplest Speedlight. For its diminutive size, this little flash is a powerhouse.

Figure courtesy of Nikon, Inc.

1.1 The SB-400

arrow Tilting flash head. The flash head contains the business part of your Speedlight, the flashtube. Simplified, the flashtube is a sealed glass tube that contains xenon gas and electrodes that pass a high-voltage electric charge through the gas that makes it light up very brightly for a relatively brief duration. The flash head of SB-400 can be tilted up vertically to execute a bounce flash. The head can be pointed straight ahead horizontally or tilted vertically at a 60-, 75-, or 90-degree angle. The flash head is optimized for 18mm coverage with a DX camera and 28mm with an FX camera.

crossref1.eps For more information on bounce flash, see Chapter 3.

arrow Battery chamber lid. Sliding this cover toward the back of the SB-400 opens the battery chamber where you install the two AA batteries.

arrow Mounting foot. This slides into the hot shoe on top of your camera. The mounting foot has contacts that convey the flash information between the camera and the Speedlight.

arrow On/Off switch. Sliding this switch turns the Speedlight unit on or off. Be sure this is switched to Off before attempting to mount the SB-400 to your camera to prevent any accidental damage that could be caused by any electrical charges between the contacts.

arrow Ready light. When the ready light is on, your SB-400 is fully charged and ready to fire at full power. This light also blinks as a warning if there is a problem with the Speedlight or camera it is attached to.

• 3 seconds at 4 Hz. If immediately following your shot the ready light blinks at this frequency, your image may be underexposed. Adjust your ISO setting higher, open your aperture, or move closer to the subject to increase the exposure.

• 40 seconds at 2 Hz. When the ready light blinks at this frequency, the batteries are nearly depleted and need to be replaced or recharged.

• 1/2 second at 8 Hz. When the ready light repeatedly flashes at this rate, the SB-400 is attached to a non-CLS-compatible camera. The SB-400 cannot be used with non-CLS cameras.

• Repeatedly at 1 Hz. When the ready light is repeatedly blinking one time per second, the SB-400 is overheated and should be allowed to cool down before shooting more flash exposures.

arrow Mounting foot locking lever. Move this lever to the right to lower the mounting pin, which locks the SB-400 in place in the camera’s hot shoe.

SB-600

The SB-600 is a full-functioning Speedlight that can do much more than the SB-400, but not quite as much as the SB-900 or SB-800. The SB-600 is a big step up from the SB-400 and has many more buttons to change the different settings and make adjustments. The SB-600 is still pretty easily understood especially when compared to the SB-900 and SB-800.

arrow Zooming/tilting flash head. This is where the flashtube is located. Inside is a mechanism that moves the flashtube back and forth inside the flash head behind the Speedlight’s lens to provide flash coverage for lenses of different focal lengths. The zooming flash head allows the Speedlight to conserve energy by focusing the flash output on the appropriate area. The flash head is adjustable; it can be tilted upward to 45, 60, 75, or 90 degrees. It can also be moved horizontally 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, or 180 degrees to the left or 30, 60, or 90 degrees to the right.

arrow Wide-flash adapter. This built-in diffuser provides you with the ability to use the Speedlight with a lens as wide as 14mm without having light falloff at the edges of the image. The diffuser spreads the light out a bit more, which gives you even illumination with wide-angle lenses. The SB-600 doesn’t recognize DX or FX; however, it is set up to cover FX sensors or 35mm film.

arrow Flash head lock release button. Pressing this button releases the flash head lock allowing you to adjust the flash head angle vertically or horizontally for bounce