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Hello all,
I have a Nikon f-100, the sb-800 flash and an assortment of nikon lenses and can not for the life of me take a decent flash photograph indoors!
HELP,sos, assistance, please.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas

Not being able to see an example, I am making some assumptions here. You are using the flash on the hot shoe of the camera. The results are very harsh shadows. If you want good results with the flash, it must be diffused and placed higher above and preferably aligned with the camera lens.

You need a bracket that will bring the flash high above the camera and is adjustable to center the flash above the lens (Stroboframe, Flash Frame, stratos for example). Usually that is sufficent but I like softer shadows so I also use a small softbox designed to mount on a camera flash (Photoflex, Westcott and Chimera all have small softboxes).

At the very minimum, get s Sto-fen diffuser for your flash- these are designed to slip right over most camera flash heads or slide into a flash's accessory bracket. I have gotten good results with it but no matter how you go, you may need to compensate for any diffusion by about 1 - 2 stops.

Jeff thank you,
I am using a Stroboframe and with or with the diffuser the photos still come out very dark.
If you have an e-mail I will send you a couple of examples of my flash photograph failures.
Thomas R. Ziegler

Tom, my e-mail address is on my profile - rather not put it here because web-bots will pick it up and before you know it, I will be undulated with hundreds of junk emails.

I understand, thank you, I am as computer savy as I am flash savy!

Tom,
I hope you didn't misunderstand me, my e-mail is listed in my bio for usefilm.

Here is my email address but remove the part. the prevents people from using my email that they get from webbots.

jfiorephoto@gmail.com

One thing to remember that guide numbers on flash guns are precisely that - guides.

You may have to lie to your system, by opening the lens half a stop, or even a full stop, more than the aperture suggested by the flashgun.

Mine suggests that I use F4, I often go to F2.8, especially if there are no reflective walls or ceilings around, or if they are very dark in colour.

Thank you Peter.
I thought the camera and flashed "talked"
TTL and all of that?

Well I don't know your setup.

But what I put was nonsense anyway, as it isn't the lens aperture that determines the amount of light, it is the duration of the flash, which IS controlled by your gear.

But if there is a manual override on the flashgun, maybe you could lie to the flashgun by telling it that you are using a different ISO film? If you are using 100, fib to the flashgun and tell it that you are using 50 ISO, and it will increase the flash length by about 1 stop.

Sort of.

I think.

Try it out, see what happens.

So I shall, we only learn by trying.
Nothing to lose and a great deal to be gained.

Tom more info would have helped figure which has gone wrong.

If you are getting one good one or two bad then one good for example it has to do with recharge time for the capacitors (wait 1 sec after the light says ok).

Another all time occurence is battery run down especially if your using this often it will weaken very quick.new batterys will help.

I find an a4 piece of white paper helps diffuse my flash perfectly and is a easy reflector to bounce off.cheap practical and multipurpose.

off camera cords can be good(provided they arent too worn out).

Finally its still wise to select an aperture around the exposure guide so if your subject is twenty feet away f16 is not such a hot choice.
and if the subjects close its probably better.

Best of luck

SMcFadden

You will be hard pushed to get away from flat looking portraits all the time you have the flash on the camera. A good method of getting a more natural looking light is to bounce it off a reflector, or, better still, take it off the camera completely and light your subject from the side and slightly in front + a reflective surface from the other side. Not that I know what your subject is but this worked reasonably well for quick head & shoulder shots.

The first thing to consider is exposure. Several things affect this. The flash has an ISO setting that should be set to match your film. It also has an aperture setting, which should be set to match your camera. For indoor people shots, F8 to F11 is a reasonable choice.

Set your shutter speed around 1/125 or 1/250 for this; it doesn't matter exactly because the flash will stop motion for you anyway. If you used a slow shutter speed (like 1/30) you would start to pick up ambient incandescent light from indoor light fixtures. If you use a very fast shutter speed, the only light affecting your exposure is the flash, and it also keeps color balance towards flash rather than yellow incandescent.

You also need to set the zoom level on the flash, to match your lens choice; probably around 50mm to 70mm, whatever matches your lens. This affects how wide the beam from the flash is.

I see that the SB-800 has a distance readout as well; you'll have to read in your flash manual about that, as I haven't used this particular flash.

Once you have all the settings matched to your camera settings, make sure the flash is turned on and fully charged / ready. Then stand in front of the camera and take a picture, and make sure the flash is actually firing. If it is, move on to test shots.

Keep notes on what you're doing (written down by frame number if you want). Take pictures of objects at varying distances from the camera. Also try some with the flash angled up and out, bouncing off the ceiling of the room. Pay attention to how far away the objects are, and keep notes on distance and on the angle of the flash. Then when you get your photos back, check whether you're getting reliable exposures at each distance, and with direct flash and bounce flash.

For people photos, you will get more natural lighting by bouncing the flash off the ceiling. This gives a soft light coming down from above, which casts subtle shadows towards the floor that look just like what we expect people to look like. They will look round and 3D.

Direct flash and bounce flash both rely on distance to affect exposure. I think the sb-800 used on a nikon camera, with a D lens, might be able to pick up the distance reading off of the lens as part of the TTL metering. You'll have to consult the flash manual for details, but the test shots I listed above will also show you the results.

After you fire a shot, you will need to wait for the flash to fully recharge before you fire another; otherwise, it might not be able to produce enough light, resulting in a dark picture. Depending on the flash, that can take 5-15 seconds.

Notice that the flash has --45--, --60--, --75-- on its bounce head. Those are angle measurements that it uses to properly calculate exposure when you're bouncing light off the ceiling. It already considers that internally, so you don't have to worry about it; just angle the flash and it will adjust accordingly. If the objects are far away, you'll want it pointed more out horizontally; if they're really closer, you'll want it pointed almost directly up.

A lot to say, but I hope that helps.

a. S.	Andre D.	Nuno M.	Riny K.	Ann .	Salvadormarial L.	SHIHAB .	Srna S.

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