Hi everyone! I'm new here and have a question I havent been able to get an answer to. I hope I can explain it correctly. I use a Nikon D200, and when using my SB800 flash off camera it will occasionally "over flash", causing an extreme overexposure - essentially blowing out the entire image. For instance, I can take say eight to ten shots in a row with perfect exposure, and the next one the flash will fire way too much, though I have not changed the settings. Anyone have a clue what might cause this to happen? It is on a stand, and I am using either a morris softbox or a photek softliter. I am using it in ttl mode, usually dialed up a bit. The pop up flash is my commander, but I have that dialed way down. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

Aloha DS! Welcome aboard!!

Really...you get 8 or 10 perfect exposures B4 it screws up?! That's pretty good judging by my experience. What I found when working with the SB lights off camera and using the CLS built into the Nikons is that the CLS reads the exposure for the whole scene and sends that exposure info to the flash. If a cloud passes over the sun, the overall exposure will cause the flash to over expose the subject. And when you have your subject in shade with a fully sunlit background, you get UNDERexposed subjects! I HATED that. Made for way too much post production.

So I invested in Pocket Wizards to fire the flashes, set them to manual, and problem solved! Now I'm using the Skyports. They are half the price of Pocket Wizards, and half the size and weight. And they work great.

I had called Nikon a number of times complaining about not being able to use the flashes in manual when using the CLS, but they had no solution.

Of course there may be a problem with your SB800, but I think you're just experiencing the same problem I did.

See if you can borrow or rent some Skyports or Pocket Wizards and put your flash on manual, meter and shoot and see if that doesn't solve the problem. I've found that the SB800 at full power, and an SB600 at half power, both set at 10 feet from the subject, I can shoot at f8 or 9 depending on the ambient.

I hope this helps.

Aloha,

Thanks so much for your help! I keep reading about how flawless CLS is for other photogs so I thought it had to be me. I was trying to avoid buying triggers but its looking like I will have to - I cant deal with the inconsistency. Glad to hear you like the skyports - I will take a look at them.

If anyone else has experienced this issue I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks again!

where can I learn from start to finsh how to shoot off camera. I finally bought my D300, and have and SB800, and I REALLY want to learn about shooting like I know what I am doing! I am so confused when it comes to setting that thing manually, and what if you move around?

I learned a lot from stobist.com. Its a great site full of info for anyone looking to take their speedlight off camera. Another great resource is the book Minimalist Lighting by Kirk Tuck. Good luck!

Thanks for recommending my book! I sympathize about the inconsistency of CLS but it's only inconsistent if you use it in one of the automatic settings. If you set your main flash to the manual mode and shoot a test frame all the ensuing frames will be absolutely consistent and you'll probably spend less time in post production finessing individual frames. Since you already have the flash on a stand the lack of total automation shouldn't really be a problem. Might be a blessing.

Best, Kirk Tuck