Off-camera flash so far!

I've been doing a high "density" of outdoor-with-flash sessions the last three days here at Inglewood Golf Course, and in a quick note, I'll share what I'm doing. I'm shooting with a Pocket Wizard radio-transmitter unit on the camera hotshoe that triggers a Pocket Wizard receiver on the stand with the SB800 "on-camera" flash head. It's very reliable, and as I am constantly moving with it I don't have to worry about the line-of-sight issues with the Nikon CLS system, which is controlled by infra-red.

Also, using Pocket Wizards does make metering easy, as the Nikon CLS sytem's infra-red signal trips a light meter before the flash goes off, so it is hard to meter your flash. In some uses, the CLS system's ease-of-control-from-the-camera would be the better choice.

As to the images I get, I've found that I like the look I get when the flash is just a small amount of the total light "energy" of the shot. So I figured out how to meter and set the camera and the flash through a lot of trial and error.

My current technique is easier to do and quicker than it sounds. I meter the "ambient" light with my Sekonic L-358 light/flash meter from the place my subjects will be, looking back to the camera. I choose the f-stop I would to use for adequate (but not TOO much) depth-of field, and then adjust that on the meter until I get the best compormise of f-stop and a usable shutter speed at the ISO I'm using. I need the shutter to be above 1/30th of a second and no higher than 1/250th of a second. Then I set the camera to its manual mode and dial in this f-stop and shutter speed.

Then I turn on the flash unit, and test-fire it while holding the meter just where it was before. I want the flash to add just a titch to the total light, so that I get an f-stop reading on the meter just one-third f-stop higher than when I metered the "ambient" light alone. When I've got that reading on the meter, I'm done. I DO NOT SET THE CAMERA TO THIS!

I'm now ready to go ... I like the bit of "main light" look I get, with the hint of highlights and shadow added by a touch of flash. And it doesn't scream "FLASH!" at you when you look at the image later.

If you are using the the camera's built-in flash or an on-camera flash to trigger your remote of "off-camera" flash, set your off-camera flash to (for Nikon and Fuji cameras) the "SU-4" setting in the "Remote" options on the flash, and your on-camera flash for a very low power manual output I mean very low, just enough to trigger your remote flash, and small enough to have no visible effect on the scene. Meter as I do above, first without flash to set the camera, and then with flash until you get that reading of 1/3 f-stop more light, and you should be good to go.

If you don't have a separate hand-held meter, use your camera's meter and the view on the LCD screen to choose a good "ambient" exposure, with the f-stop and shutter chosen to balance your needs as I mentioned above. Then start with the off-camera flash on a VERY low power setting, and keep increasing it until your image on the camera's LCD screen shows just a hint of added highlights on your subject. Or more, if you prefer. I suggest, especially when you are starting out with this technique, to use a VERY LIGHT touch with the flash.

I'll write a more specifically detailed article later on, but for now, go and play with this!

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