[Dave]

Scenario as follows:-

Shooting subject close to wall. With built in flash on D200 getting too much shadow behind subject. Reduce flash output by 2 stops & perfect exposure with minimal shadows.

Now move to SB800

Set to TTL - BL, shoot & get perfect exposure but too much shadow again. So on SB800 drop flash output by 2 stops via "select" button & shoot again. Now whole shot is 2 stops under exposed, plus still shadows. D200 is in Aperture Priority mode, flash to front curtain.

So how do I drop the amount of "fill in" from SB800 without it causing the shot to beunder exposed ?

[Soupdragon]

Bigger aperture or slower shutter speed spring to mind!
Slowing the shutter speed will help reduce the shadows unless you are in total darkness.
If it's annoying shadows that are the problem the you could try bouncing the light off a reflector.

[Dabhand16]

I know next to nothing, OK, nothing about this issue. I do know that it is said that the Nikon flash system is excellent and can do pretty much everything, and it is complex and really you need to go on a three month residential course to get the best out of it.

The system is obviously reading the whole shot, so I'm guessing that maybe there is another way to set the SB-800 so that it is just outputting less light, but without the camera 'knowing' that it is. Maybe a different control mode?

I've also got to ask, if the built-in flash gave you a perfect exposure, why did you feel the need to use the SB-800?

[JMitchell]

I'd be interested to know this too. Been having the same problems, but didn't know how to word it...

[Soupdragon]

How about a bit more detail as to the ambient conditions?
When working on indoor portraiture for instance, I could not get a shadowless illumination without using two studio flashes and the on camera flash diffused.
The long and the short of it is, light will not pass through solid objects so, will cause shadows.
If you are snapping away indoors you really should bounce the flash off the ceiling or the wall but even then you will see "under nose and chin" shadows.

Given your set up, I would tripod mount the 800 at a fairly obtuse angle to your subject triggered by wire or some other remote method and then use the on-board flash, diffused, as a fill light.

[Dave Canon]

I would not use the built in flash. My external flash is a very old Vivitar 285 but this allows you to do a couple of things that would help:

a. you can angle the head to bounce the light of a ceiling
b. Attach a reflecting card to the flashgun

The latter allows a much softer light and works OK but obviously not as good as a studio lamp. This will also work for small groups as well as individuals.

[Dave]

Ah, I probably didn't describe my problem properly. The reason for mentioning the built in flash, was to show I can correctly back off 2 stops via flash menu & it all works perfectly. If I now try & do same with SB800 it under exposes the whole shot. I can try using the camera for altering flash stops , or the menu on the Flash itself, but same problem.

All I want to do is lower the amount of fill in flash via the SB800, with everything in Auto mode ..... it should be able to do this from reading the manual (eg. as per my 1st post)

[VikingPhotography]

Just set the SB-800 to iTTL BL FP and dial in -2/3 flash exposure on the unit (down arrow twice on the strobes thumb pad) and that's it. Ensure your camera is in Matrix metering mode as well.

If I'm bouncing the 800, I might want to leave it at 0EV compensation or add between 1/3 to 1EV extra, depending on the distance to subject and height of ceiling.

If doing this underexposes the whole shot, then there's some other factor at play. The iTTL function of Nikon's strobes gives has given me consistent, repeatable results all the time.

[Dave]

Cheers VP. Exactly as I had it setup & even Steve double checked it. After going through god knows how many sub menu's for customisation, I reset whole camera & voila it now works Main concern here is I'm sure I hadn't changed any default settings re Flash ....darn complicated these cameras

[silver]

I've never used ittl-bl (one day I'll give it a go!)

what I normally do with nikon flashes is set the camera to manual mode and set the exposure for the background / ambient light,. then put the flash on ittl and adjust the flash comp as needs,.

the flash / camera is v clever but if you know you want a certain exposure for the background then set that manually and let the flash work out the fill,. this works out really well shooting people in dark rooms where you want to keep some background interest etc

Sil

[VikingPhotography]

Sil,

iTTL BL automatically does what you're doing already; it balances the fill flash vs. ambient exposure so that the overall scene is well-lit. Of course you may want to deliberately under/overexpose the background and you'll need to work the way you're already used to.

[silver]

thanks, yep I can understand the theory and I know some ppl swear by it,. it's just you get used to doing it one way when it works :lol

Sil