Sync speed and DOF

ouki

I'm getting more involved in portrait shooting under daylight environment. A few things I'd like to hear your opinions on-

I'm shooting with Nikon D7000 and SB700. According to the camera specs the max sync speed I can go is 1/250 s. If I'd like to shoot with fastest shutter speed with best result, should I go a little slower like 1/200 or 1/160? Where is the sweet spot?

DOF is my favorite when shooting portraits. I'd like to shoot with wide open aperture using a 50mm 1.8 lens. I'm not sure how many f stops I need to reduce and which ND filters to buy. Can you recommend the ND filter for outdoor portraits?

divamum

I don't know the spec on the sb700/d7000 combo, but if it will do high speed sync (or whatever Nikon calls it) that's probably an even better bet. It will allow you to use fill flash at much higher shutter speeds, thus solving the problem pretty much entirely.

ouki

divamum wrote: »

I don't know the spec on the sb700/d7000 combo, but if it will do high speed sync (or whatever Nikon calls it) that's probably an even better bet. It will allow you to use fill flash at much higher shutter speeds, thus solving the problem pretty much entirely.

I have confirmed my SB-700 does support Auto-FP high speed sync. Will the SB-700 do high speed sync in full manual mode or off-camera triggered by pocket wizard?

divamum

Hopefully a Nikon person can chime in to answer your questions - I know my Canon setup will do both, so I'm guessing yours will too.

Qarik

yes it will do HS sync in full manual..you just get less power from the flash. off camera? if you use pocket wizards then I think the answer is yes.

studio7

You have to use the pocket wizard flex series; the plus series doesn't support HS sync. You also have the option of using the built in flash as a commander to fire the sb700 off camera. You can use HS sync this way but if you are using it outside in bright daylight it can be a little iffy. You'll have to practice to make sure you have the optical pickup on the 700 facing the camera so that if will see the commander flashes.

ouki

studio7 wrote: »

You also have the option of using the built in flash as a commander to fire the sb700 off camera.

I didn't know you can trigger the sb700 in high speed sync mode using the built in flash as a commander. How does the sb700 know when to do high speed mode when not directly attached to the camera? Is there any configuration I need to enable on the sd700? Thanks.

Bryce Wilson

Nikon's "Quick Use" guide.

Scroll down to find your flash.

http://www.nikonusa.com/en_INC/IMG/Assets/Common-Assets/PDF/FastTrack_To_WirelessSpeedlights.pdf

ouki

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

Nikon's "Quick Use" guide.

Scroll down to find your flash.

http://www.nikonusa.com/en_INC/IMG/Assets/Common-Assets/PDF/FastTrack_To_WirelessSpeedlights.pdf

Thank you!

studio7

If you put the onboard flash into commander, make sure you set it to '---' otherwise the camera will default to max flash sync speed (limited by the onboard flash). When set to '---' the remotes can go into high speed sync.