As I understand it, one of the features of the Creative Lighting System is that you can shoot flash photos with fast apertures (low f stop). When I tried it with my D5100, I couldn't get it to work. I put the camera in manual and selected a shutter speed of around 1/600 and a minimum f stop. As soon as I turned on my flash, the shutter speed reduced to the default (I guess) of 1/200. I have a SB700 flash. Thanks,
Shooting flashes with fast apertures
- Thread starter Robocheme
- Start date
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Are you trying to use HSS (High Speed Synch) on your camera? I ask because that feature is not supported by the D5100.
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Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Well... Tell us more about what it is you're trying to do and maybe we can help you find a solution.I guess that I'm trying to and you've answered why I can't do that. I'm discovering more and more limitations to my camera. The first was that it can't act as a flash commander.Thanks,
What is it you need HSS for?
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Nothing specifically. I've recently gotten interested in flash photography to take pictures of my bike and my granddaughter. When I read about CLS and the fast aperture capability, I just wanted to try it out since it seems like a good way to get a narrow depth of field outdoors when you're taking a portrait. Do you know if the D7100 has the HSS and flash commander capability? thanks again.
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Well, a couple of things you should probably explore is that shutter speed becomes almost inconsequential when using flash since the strobe, or pulse, the flash produces is orders of magnitude faster than the fastest possible shutter speed... If you're worried about being able to adequately "freeze" action with your D5100 because of the 1/200 shutter speed, I wouldn't be.
As to your questions, yes... The D7100 supports HSS and will work in Commander mode.
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Unfortunately the D5100 do not have High Speed Sync (Nikon calls it FP mode). Your D5100 have a max sync speed of 1/200 sec. You have to go to the Flash Sync setting to select it to be 1/200 (and leave it there.) I think it defaults to Auto.
Now to make use of it, you have to shoot in manual mode which for the Nikon CLS System is very simple. Think of transferring the Auto function from the camera to the Flash.
1. Set ISO to 100 or 200
2. Set Shutter speed to 1/200
3. Adjust aperture for the DOF you like for the shot. Now shoot!
What the CLS system does is it will send a "pre-flash" and the camera will read the light condition set up by the flash. The camera will than tell the flash what power to use - that's how the exposure is made - so when you shoot "manual" with the SB700 in TTL mode, you are really shooting "auto" - but the auto is done by the speedlight. Hope that makes sense. Because of this "pre-flash" way to determine exposure, you can point your flash head in any directions to get good soft bounced lighting - to the ceiling, to a wall behind your or point it to a reflector etc.
Adjustments: up the ISO if image too dark. Or to change exposure of image, change Flash ev offsets + or -
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