Flash Question

skysailorskysailor Registered Users Posts: 139 Major grins
edited December 18, 2009 in Accessories
I know nothing about flashes. Perhaps, even less than nothing. Thoughts on the SB600 for portraits of friends, pets, fill in and airplanes in hangars?:dunno Is it wide enough for a 10-20mm?:scratch Camera is a D200. Thanks. Lyle
Gear: D200, G9, Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6, Nikkor 35 f/1.8, Vivitar Series 1 28-105 f/2.8-3.8, Sigma 18-200 f/3.5-6.3

Comments

  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 24,132 moderator
    edited December 18, 2009
    I moved this to the Accessories forum.

    Electronic flash is a form of lighting. Control over lighting is extremely important in photography, more important than either lens or camera. Poor lighting can make even the best camera and lens produce poor images, so I can't emphasize this enough.

    While all lighting doesn't have to be a particular kind, electronic flash is typically balanced with daylight. Most photographic imagers are also daylight balanced and so, cameras tend to have their best combination of sensitivity and complete color tonality and greatest dynamic range using daylight white balance.

    While it's usually advantageous to avoid mixed lighting, many people find it easier to filter flash lighting than to filter the available light. Fortunately, flash illumination is also a fairly continuous spectrum, allowing for efficient filtration.

    Electronic flash is also typically of fairly short duration, generally an advantage to most shooting situations.

    With so much going for it you can see why electronic flash is so popular.

    Questions regarding the particular techniques of lighting for the different purposes you mentioned are probably best discussed in the Technique forum, and searching that forum will yield lots of previous discussions.

    Portrait lighting, for instance:

    http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=125151
    http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=48508

    Much more: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site:dgrin.com+%2Bdgrin+%2B%22portrait+lighting%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • time2smiletime2smile Registered Users Posts: 835 Major grins
    edited December 18, 2009
    Its rated for 18mm with the built in diffuser. But it is a good flash to get for the price. If you bouce it it may cover, if you are far enouf back. My widest lens is 18, maybe someone with one will answer. CLS (remote wireless) is a great feature and your D200 can fire the flash off camera, its really cool.
    Ted....
    It's not what you look at that matters: Its what you see!
    Nikon
    http://www.time2smile.smugmug.com
Sign In or Register to comment.