D700 unreliable remote flash?

I use a D700 for wedding photography, absolutely love this camera! But one thing doesn't seem to work as it should.

I love to mess around with remote flashes, using the D700's popup in commander mode as the master, and until recently a couple of SB-800 as the slaves. It seems it needs to be quite close to the camera though, as soon as I start going over 10 feet away it becomes unreliable.

I recently invested in an SB-910. Wow, what a flash! It fires without fail (The SB-800's are getting old, and only seem to fire one in every 4 times, even with brand-new batteries) I figured this would solve my remote flash issue, but even shooting from the D700 (just over a year old) to the SB-910 (brand new) the flash rarely fires.

Is the camera faulty? I've tried various combinations, using the SB-910 as a master to the SB-800, the SB-800 as a master to the Sb-910.

I really want to get this working, the results in winter weddings with a stand-mounted flash in lower light could be so good if I figured this problem out!

Anyone know of any known problems/solutions?

I would seriously think about a radio transmitter to fire the flashes. It seems they are less prone to interference specially if you're shooting outside in the winter. They are not too expensive and seem more reliable than the commander mode.

Other than that, I have no idea of what could be wrong. Hope this helps a little.

I didn't think of using a seperate transmitter! I bought a cheap camera trigger that I occasionally use for a second church position camera etc, just a cheap ebay one from Hong Kong, and it works great! I've seen a remote flash trigger with two receivers for peanuts on ebay (£13 delivered!) May just give that a go! Not much to loose in trying!

would love to know what you have on top of your flash stand at the wedding and where you position it ...you could be talking a flash umbrella or are you talking a bare flash.....would like to know why you go to that trouble when a small flash over the lens would do all you could want...

Usually my remote flash is standing bare on a stand, lighting from a side angle. When its working more reliably Ill use a light stand and umbrella with it too.
I never have my on-camera flash facing forward (unless I'm outdoors needing a bit of fill), its always pointing to the ceiling, or even better off a side wall... Forward facing flash isn't too attractive imo side lighting shows much more texture etc

interesting that because its the exact opposite to how I work (40 weddings last year) I always have the flash on top of the lens and as close to it as possible .....I dont see how you will control the shadows from your bare flash on walls behind or on adjacent faces in a group....
I found this terrible photo of a cake cutting done with a bare flash on a stand ..shadow on wall and on the grooms face...hope its not yours....!!! ( if it is you should secure your website )

At the moment I use the bare remote flash only really during first dance, and then alternate between the on-camera flash (bounced) , and as like you say the shadows can be harsh. My hope with getting the remote flash working better is to take a full lighting stand setup to play with external shots in lower light. Anything that looks too obviously flash-lit doesn't look right to me, I'd rather set the camera to allow more ambient light, then let the bounced flash off the ceiling freeze the subject if the shutter speed was lower than optimum.
I do about 40-50 a year too.
Yes that flash position isn't the best in that pic is it!?

If you are serious about lighting ask Richard Mitchell he knows a hell of a lot more than what I do and yes I agree one sided lighting is very bad. But for the best lighting I would not know, I am presuming something that will fill in the harsh shadows so preparation would be the key.

for muza read my equipment list...
For Ben yes in the disco the D3200/10mm produces great atmospheric shots and the focus works fine ...The D7000 needs a small (4x AA) video light to help it focus ...then its time for a sharpe exit and home...

This may have nothing to do with your problem but you might check it out. On the D7000 you can adjust the power of the on board flash and it may be possible that you have accidentally turned it down and it is not powerful enough to reach the distance this way to set off the remote flashes. I don't know if it has anything to do with your problem but it would be easy to check. I will cut and past how to do this from my tips thread so you can check it. It may be different or not even work on the D700.


Tip #2 in my thread
Nikon built in flash adjustment
I learned something new today and thought I would pass it on. Some of you probably already know this but I have to believe that there are many that don't.

Want to adjust the power of the on camera flash for a Nikon D7000!

Here is how you do it
Press the info button down so you can view the rear screen. Now hold down the button that makes the on camera flash pop up. Next while holding that button down turn the finger wheel button on the front of the camera. This allows you to turn the power of the on camera flash down by up to 3 stops or to also increase it by one stop. When taking pictures up close, having the ability to lower the power of the on camera flash will be very helpful and help you to keep from over exposing as much. Hope this is new information to a few folks out there like it was to me. I am doing this on my Nikon D7000 but it may also work on other models, Jeff
REMEMBER like all settings that you change now and then, be sure to change it back when you are done or it could drive you nuts!!!!
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Grandpaw I think you want to get your logic modules overhauled ...what your adjustment does is adjust the iTTL to under or over expose from standard that is not the same as adjusting the power of the flash..iTTL works by cutting off the flash when exposure is sufficient. If the Guy is in Command mode then the flash sends out pre flashes for triggering unrelated to the flash for exposure.
Note the exposure adjustment it +3 to -3 not as you stated.
Even if you have the setting at -3 the flash may go up to full power dependent on the distance of the object being photographed.

If objects are very close they may be over exposed because the minimum duration of the flash still give too much light.

pistnbroke said:

Grandpaw I think you want to get your logic modules overhauled ...what your adjustment does is adjust the iTTL to under or over expose from standard that is not the same as adjusting the power of the flash..iTTL works by cutting off the flash when exposure is sufficient. If the Guy is in Command mode then the flash sends out pre flashes for triggering unrelated to the flash for exposure.
Note the exposure adjustment it +3 to -3 not as you stated.
Even if you have the setting at -3 the flash may go up to full power dependent on the distance of the object being photographed.

If objects are very close they may be over exposed because the minimum duration of the flash still give too much light.

Click to expand...

You are correct that this method adjusts the compensation and not the power of the camera flash. I have added a clarification of this on my tips thread. It and also has no effect on the pre flashes in commander mode.

The camera flash power can be adjusted in manual mode within the menus but does not apply here.

It seems you are using CLS wireless triggering which uses IR light to trigger the remote flashes.

A few points to note when using CLS:

1. Your commander (be it your pop up or master flash mounted on your camera) needs to be pointed in the general direction of where your remote flashes are. So, you shouldn't be pointing your commander flash upwards or have the remote flashes behind you.

2. On the side of every flash unit you can find a IR optical detector window. It looks like a blackened plastic circular window. For every remote flash, that windows needs to be pointed in the direction of where you are position with the commander.

3. CLS's range is not very far.

4. CLS needs line of sight.

5. In day time with strong good light, the range and reliability of CLS is severely compromised.

6. If you reduce the flash power of the Master flash in the Commander menu, you are only decreasing the power for the actual flash. It does not reduce the range of the CLS trigger. So if you set it at zero, it means it will not contribute to the flash exposure of the subject even though you can see a flash go off. That flash is for the pre-flash and for communications with the remote flashes. But the range of the CLS stays constant.

i will strongly suggest you consider some radio triggers. If you want to maintain TTL functionality with zone control you can check out:
a. Radiopoppers
b. Pocketwizards FlexTT5/MiniTT1/AC3 combo
c. Phottix Odin

If you just need TTL with no need for zone power control:
a. Pixel King
b. Pixel Knight
c. Phottix Strato TTL

For non-TTL (manual flash) triggers, there are a whole load of different options out there, and cheap too.

Hope this helps.

One more thing to add...

Since CLS needs line of sight, if someone stands in the way between your remote flash and your camera, reliability goes down. So it is really not the optimum solution for weddings where people move around a lot, and things happen fast. Going the radio way is the better way. CLS is better when you are doing setup shots like posed portraits etc...

For my personal work, I most often use manual triggers or Pocketwizards FlexTT5/MiniTT1/AC3 combo when I need TTL functionality.
THis is one I shot using CLS when I was teaching some folks how to use it. Shot with D700 popup as master. SB910 into small beauty dish gridded on camera right high, SB900 subject left as kicker. And in this case the popup flash power is set to zero ("-") so it does nothing to add to the flash exposure.

Your way of triggering strobes remotely can be a hit and miss proposition. You are much better off getting an RF type transmitter. There are sets you can get on Fleabay for $30 that has one transmitter and two or more receivers. They even have dip switches so you can change the frequency in case someone in also using them. Each receiver has both a PC socket and a hot shoe. I have used the same set for about 3 years now with great success. The receivers use two AAA batteries and the transmitter uses a special 123 battery, which are easy to find.

Here is a set for sale now on Fleabay that actually comes with FOUR receivers:

PT 16 GY 16 Channels Wireless Radio Flash Trigger Set with 4 Receivers | eBay