Quote:
Originally Posted by ValleyFan  Hmm, of course I don't have an SB800 to try this out, but you can change the flash exposure by hitting the sel button then the + or - buttons, then hitting sel again to set it, you should be able to get 3 stops out of it that way. Something else sounds fishy though as the flash should automatically change it's output as you change your aperture if the flash is using i-ttl. Is the flash in TTL, TTL BL, or...., and is it set as the master in the group? |
Yeah it was set in TTL and as the master. I think that I'm just asking too much of it. In fact, the incessant beeping and the -3 EV that's displayed on the flash after I shoot is telling me that very thing.
From what I've read (and been told at Nikonians), direct illumination wouldn't have been a problem at f/8 and ISO 200, but asking it to bounce off the ceiling (and therefore asking it to illuminate the whole room rather than just the subjects I'm photographing) is just asking it for more power than it can put out.
Looking back on the images I shot last night at f/2.8, I thought I'd focused on my wife's eyes. But when I got into the picture next to her, it moved her just enough to the right so that the focus point I'd chosen in the viewfinder was now on the Christmas tree behind us. The tree is in perfect focus, of course. My wife and I are slightly soft, and my little girl is noticeably out-of-focus.
And here, when I looked last night, I thought it was a too-shallow DOF thing when instead it was an operator-error thing. Had the focus point stayed on my wife, I think we all would have been tolerably sharp in the captures.
I'm not a portrait guy to begin with, but I'm learning more every time I try it.
I really do think I need a second (and perhaps a third) SB-800 and some umbrellas. Or maybe just an inexpensive studio kit.