How to Use an Off Camera Wireless Flash System
Hi, I’m Chris Rutter, and we’ve come along to the high-tech Photo Answers studio, well actually it’s a spare room, to take a look at the basics of how to use off camera wireless flash. I’ve also brought along P.H.I.L., our willing model to pose for a couple of shots. Right, the easiest way to use flash is to simply attach the flash gun to the hot shoot of the camera. If we just take a shot here, we’ll see the result. Now as you can see, the light is very flat. It doesn’t really show off P.H.I.L.’s best features. For more flattering result, we need the flash to be positioned from this side of P.H.I.L. Okay, if we just pop a tripod to the side here, and take the flash gun off the camera and fix it to the tripod. Okay, so now we’ve taken the flash off the camera, but we still need to fire the flash when you press the shutter. In the good old days, you needed a cord. But nowadays, many cameras allow you to fire the flash without the need for wires. And even maintain all the automatic functions such as TGR metering. And we’re using a Nikon D300 and a Sb800 flash gun. This is one of our favorite systems for off camera flash. Right then, first of all, you need something to send the signal from the camera to the flash gun. Now on some models, you have to use a separate flash gun or control unit fitted to the hot shoot of the camera. With the Nikon D300 this job can be done by the pop up flash. This is known as the commander or master unit. Now this flash, known as the slave flash is controlled by the signals coming from the commander unit. Okay, so that’s the basic theory out of the way, so let’s see how we set it up. Okay then, first we need to turn the camera on, and go to the custom setting menu. Then scroll down to the bracketing and flash options and the controls for built in flash. And to make it work as a commander, simply scroll down into the commander mode and this will bring out all the controls to the wireless flash system. Now, for this basic set up, we don’t want any light to come out from the pop up flash. You select this by going to this two dashes on the display. The Nikon system also allows you to control several flashes at the same time. Plus we are only using one flash gun. We’re just worried about the group A settings. So, if we just leave that on TTL and the exposure compensation to null, that will be fine to start off with. Now it’s really important that in the end, just make sure that you then press ok to save your settings. Okay, so now we can turn our attention to the flash gun. It would just feel fiddly and awkward to use as a camera itself. First, we need to press and hold the select button until the display changes to the main set up menu. And navigate to the wireless flash settings and then press select again. Here, go down to the remote option and then press and hold select. Right, we’re almost done, we just wanna check that the channel is set to one and the group is set to A, and you do this by pressing select and then the up and down button to change the settings. So the channel is set to one and the group is already on A. Phew, so it’s finally set up, so we’re ready to take the shot. Now as you can see, the results are more flattering with the flash off camera. Well thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed your first step into the world of wireless flash.