Nikon Pop Up Flash as a Commander (help me solve my problem?)


niteblade

New Member
Feb 23, 2008
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hey!

i've been trying to use my sb800 as an off-camera flash along with my pop up flash(set it just to trigger the sb800 without affecting the exposure)

when i try to shoot at higher apertures such as F7.1 or F8 with shutterspeed of 1/160, the picture is just pitch black. When i set it to F2, it gets better

For the exact same settings but with the sb800 mounted on top of the camera, i get totally different results though. F7.1 or 8 is properly exposed while F2 is overexposed.

Am i missing something here or is there a problem with the flash/camera?

PS. im pretty okay with photography but this off-camera flash/strobes thing is pretty new to me
 

Did u check if your flash actually trigger? What camera body are u using? There's a need to set these 2 things:

1. Your SB-800 to remote listening to a particular group and channel
2. Your camera body built in flash to be in commander mode, and set the relevant group and channel to fire off the flashes when trigger.
 

Are you using TTL or Manul flash?
 

is it possible that you forgot to make sure the channels are the same on both your camera body and your flash?
 

I don knw bout SB800. I am using SB900 with a D700.
I use to have the same problem only to realize tt i did not set the off camera flash to TTL.
Don need to go rushing to touch your flash yet. Try this 1st
1) Go into the camera menu
2) Select Custom setting
3) go to "e3"
4) Set it to Commander Mode, and tt will bring you to another menu
5) If you don want your built in to affect your lighting set it to "Mode: --, and comp: --"
6) Depending of wat group u are using set the "Mode" to TTL

and your problem should be solved.
 

Are you using the correct settings? Are you using the CLS functions or the more basic SU-4 mode in your SB-800? Also, what mode are you on? TTL or Manual?