Nikon CLS

coolbus18

Senior Member
thanks for making this a sticky. I'm just starting to get into my Nikon Speedlights. Boy, they sure are neat at what they can do!
 

Paliswe

Senior Member
I have read the article mentioned above and it gives not much of a hands on, to get to work properly.
When I started with CLS I had a D7000 and I had big problems to get it to work, so I attended a Nikon course one evening, and since then I have set up the flashes the way I learned there. Now I have a Z6 and since there are no build in flash in Z6 I have an external flash mounted in the hot shoe. I use the controls in the menu system (Command mode) and the only flash that can work as a camera flash is the SB500 if you want to control it from the menu.
As external flashes I have one SB800 and one SB910.

The settings I use when taking picture on a mingle party is:
Camera on M. ISO not on A (Auto). Choose what ISO you like, I usually set it to 400-800. S 1/60 - 1/200 depending on ambient light. Set flash control to Command mode. In the menu system the Alternative for remote flash has to be set to AWL.
External flash: Remote position. I have two external flashes set to A and B, All flashes must be on the same channel. SB500 requires channel 3.
In the menu system, camera flash is set to TTL, external flash are set to M (Manual).
Place the external flashes so they lit up the roof (preferably the roof is white), or wherever you want to have the light.
Twist the flashes so the little IR eye looks at you wherever you walk around in the room. The camera flash send out control flashes prior to taking the picture. This is done so quickly that you don't see it.
The remote flashes gives an ambient light in the room and the camera flash will lit up the object.
It will not work to have TTL on all flashes, they will be confused and interfere with each other. Only the camera flash shall have TTL, since the distance to the object is shifting all the time

If the light is too strong or weak you adjust that in the command menu on the camera individually for group A and B in intervals from 1/1 to 1/256.
The camera flash is also adjusted here, however note that the flash has one adjustment in the command menu and the camera itself has one in the flash compensation and these two adds up. If you have +0,7 in the command menu and -0,7 in camera flash compensation, the result will be +-0,0. Or if you have -0,3 in the command menu and -0,7 in camera flash compensation the result will be -1,0
Usually I set the camera flash to -0,3 or -0,7 .

There are limitations to this, in strong sunshine the control of the remote flashes are not stable. it also has to be a more or less a straight line between the camera flash and the remote flash.

Hopefully this will help a little, however this is not the system that Nikon has promoted during the last years, trying to use radio instead of light. The latest news in this area is that Nikon has gathered with Nissin, sending some signals that Nikon will not produce any more flashes themselves. I have no knowledge of Nissin or their systems so far, time will show hos this will work out in the future.
 
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Paliswe

Senior Member
Remember, the original posting was 07-26-2013. Probably pretty out of date today.

I'm well aware of that, but I have been using this equipment for a decade and still do. As late as yesterday I used it, taking some portrait pictures for a customer, and next week I have a mingle party where they will work just fine. No need for buying new flashes as long as this technique works for me and the camera supports it.
 
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