Anyway, took Clay out to the field behind my home to photography him about 20 minutes before sundown. The set-up I used for the following photos was a small Octa-box from Amvona, these are inexpensive boxes that happen to work well. To the outside of the box I mounted 3 SB-800's using 3 Justin Clamps. Here is a photo of the set up. All but the last photo shown used high speed sync, Nikon's CLS (Creative Lighting System).
My son Chris and his friend (let's call him Billy) held a 42" Flexfill to shade Clay from direct sunlight. The EXIF data on the photo below tell me I shot this photo at 1/3200 @ f4.0 the focal length of the lens was 12mm.
I took several shots from various positions, here I placed Clay with his back to the sun and me shooting straight into it. I was using my 85mm f1.4 lens, shot at 1/6400 @f2.5.
When the sun did set, we turned back facing east where the only clouds in the sky were to be found. We even had the moon in the sky that night, shot with the 12mm-24mm lens at 12mm. The shutter speed was 1/250 @ f 4.0.
Lighting like this is fun-fast-easy. If you would like to learn more about lighting with small strobes, visit my workshop website "Small Strobes, Big Results". I have two workshops in Denver this August 2008. The August 2nd workshop has 4 spots available and the August 23 rd has 5 openings. I want to thank many of my readers who have offered to sponsor a workshop in their hometowns. As soon as I have the time available, I'll be contacting each of you who have offered to sponsor a workshop with more details.
10 comments:
David,
"1st Time, Long Time": How did you sync the strobes up to 1/6400th? I guess you have to be hard wired in but how?
The beauty of the Nikon CLS system is that you can sync at High Speeds using SB-800's.
I used my D300 as my command unit which allows me the possibility to sync at high speed.
The SU-4 syncs to 1/6400? Wow.
Thanks David. You Rock!
Anthony- You misunderstood me. The flashes where fired using the CLS system build into the Nikon system.
SU-4 sync is a slave setting of sorts, it allows the flash to fire when it receives a flash impulse from another flash. I'm pretty sure that setting an SB-800 to the SU-4 setting would "not sync" at higher speeds than normal sync speeds.
For High Speed Sync the SB-800's must be in CLS Remote mode not SU-4.
Use either the internal flash, SB-800 or an SU-800 as the commander.
I only use SU-4 mode as a Sync mode for manual strobe operation. Like when mixing in non Nikon strobes.
Which I seem to of accumulated several of over the years.
It takes quite a bit of flash be be brighter then the sun.
Hey Ron,
Not sure about the D300 but w/my D200 the max flash sync speed with the pop-up flash is 1/250th. So for a set-up like David has here I'm gonna use the 10' SC-27 to the first off camera flash in the softbox: That will be the Master. Then I'll CLS the other 2. Let me know what you think. Thanks.
Anthony, what you say about the D200 and it´s internal flash is wrong. It do sync with higher speeds. Go to meny e1 and choose "1/250 Auto FP".
David, thanks for a great blog.
Thanks Tobias,
But no, it doesn't work. I just picked up cam to quadruple check. I also checked the CLS with 2 SB-800 and you can run the shutter up to 1/6400th. I guess what I'm really trying to figure out is how David (hello David?) fired his 3 unit off camera. You could do so using a 4th SB-800 but then you're $1200 into strobes.
UPDATE: Problem sovled. An SU-800 Commander Unit will sync with SB-800s to 1/8000th. Thanks Guys.
Anthony- I was shooting with my D300 and firing the 3 SB-800's using the build in commander of the camera.
The build in commander in the D300 only allows you the ability to control 2 channels (A & B channels)
If you need a third channel (C) you would need to use an SU-800 external command unit.
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