Nikon Flash And The Commander Mode

Nikon Commander Mode allows you to control the remote flash unit(s) from your camera wirelessly. If you use an external flash, this blog might be helpful to understand what is the commander mode, what is it used for and how does it work on your DSLR camera? Commander mode is one of the very powerful feature available in most of the advance Nikon DSLR cameras including Nikon D80, D90, D200, D7000, D700 and D300 that allows your camera's built-in flash to control the remote (off camera) flash by sending an infrared signal over the wireless media. Most of the today's flash unit like SB-600, SB-800, SB-900 and SB-R200 support commander mode except SB-400. Nikon SB-400 is not considered as an Advance Wireless Lighting strobe. It can only be used in the hot-shoe or with a sync cord connected to the hot-shoe. Let’s discuss few possible scenarios in which you can use SB-900, SB-800, SB-600 and SB-R200 speedlights.

Nikon’s SB-800 or SB-900 unit can also be used as a master unit (like the camera’s built-in flash in a commander mode) to control other flash units like SB-R200, SB-600 or even other SB-800 and SB-900 units wirelessly. But SB-R200 and SB-600 can't trigger other units and can only work in a slave mode (to be triggered by either camera’s built-in flash in a commander mode or other master unit like SB-800 or SB-900). So, based on their capabilities to act as a master unit or slave unit, we can use them in three different scenarios.

First scenario - If you have Nikon SB-900 or SB-800 flash unit, you can place it on the camera hot shoe and set it in "Master Mode" to trigger other master or slave units wirelessly.

Second scenario - If you have SU-800 Wireless Commander Unit, you can place it on the camera hot shoe and control any external flash unit (in slave mode) wirelessly.

Third scenario - And if you do not have SB-900 or SB-800 or SU-800 but only have slave flash units, SB-600 for example, you can trigger them using the built-in flash of your camera by configuring it in commander mode and that is what we are going to discuss in our next section.

Let’s go through the camera settings for Nikon DSLRs to set up a built-in flash unit into commander mode so that we can control the external flash units using camera's built-in flash.

How to set the commander mode in Nikon DSLR?

In this setup, I am taking Nikon D90 as an example but you can use this setup for any other Nikon DSLR that supports built-in flash to be in commander mode. Let's go right into the setup now.

1. Press the Menu button on the back of your camera.

2. Go to Custom Setting Menu option (pencil icon).

3. Select e, Bracketing/flash, menu and press OK.

4. Select e2, Flash cntrl for built-in flash, and press OK.

5. Choose the Commander Mode.

When you are inside the Commander mode, you can set different parameters to control the remote flash unit. You just have to be careful about which Group and Channel you select because you are going to use the same Group and the Channel settings in your remote flash units as well. Group is set to combine the multiple flash units in a single or different groups for the exposure settings and the Channel is used to avoid any interference with other camera's settings around you (used by different photographers if there are any).

Now, let's discuss about the different options your camera’s built-in flash unit can be set to.

1. TTL - Through The Lens. If you select this option for the built-in flash, it will fire the pre-flash first, collect the exposure information from your subject Through The Lens (TTL) and send that information to the external flash unit(s). Then, your built-in flash also fires the main flash along with other external flash units to illuminate the subject.

2. AA - Auto Aperture Mode. This is an older implementation of the TTL system and not used much these days.

3. M – Manual Mode. This mode allows you to set the flash power manually rather than auto adjusted based on TTL information your camera gives.

4. - - If you set the built-in flash into - - mode, your built-in flash will fire the pre-flash first, collect the exposure information from the subject and send that information to the external flash units so that the external units can set the flash power to illuminate the subject properly. In this setup, built-in flash doesn't fire the main flash to control the exposure but only send the exposure information to the external units. But if your subject is too close to the camera, pre-flash from the built-in flash might have some influence on the overall exposure of the image.

Important - After finish setting up your camera's built-in flash into the commander mode and an external flash unit to receive the signal, please do not forget to pop-up your camera's built-in flash. When you are ready to trigger an external flash units, it is important to pop-up built-in flash of your camera because this is how your camera sends the signal and the exposure data to an external flash units. It works great with my Nikon D90 and D700 using a SB-600 as an external unit and controlling it using camera's built-in flash. If you are having any problem working with this settings, please let me know and I will be happy to help you in any way possible.

Introduction To Different Exposure Modes - Which Exposure Mode Should You Use?

Today's most of the consumer level DSLRs have dedicated scene modes like close-up, portrait, sports etc which sets exposure automatically when you dial into the mode. Besides these pre-programmed modes, it also comes with few other exposure modes (A, S, P and M) to allow you control over camera’s default settings. When you dial into those pre-configured mode, portrait mode for example, you really do not have a control over exposure. If you want to manually set the exposure, you have to use one of the four modes (Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program Mode and Manual Exposure) available in your camera.

Image Source : Wikipedia

Out of these four modes, three of them are semi-automated modes and one is fully manual mode. When you want to change from one mode into another, you would have to rotate the Mode Dial and select the mode you want to change into. These settings are not specific to any particular camera model but different companies may use different alphabets to denote these modes. For example, Nikon’s shutter priority mode is denoted by letter S whereas Canon’s is T but the idea behind it’s functionality is the same. But in this blog, I will be taking Nikon DSLR as a reference camera when I explain these different modes. Now, let’s get into our first exposure mode which is an Aperture Priority (A) exposure mode.

1. Aperture Priority

In an Aperture Priority (A) mode, you set the lens’ aperture value or give priority to the aperture value and your camera sets the shutter speed to control the overall exposure of the image. This mode is probably best when you want to control the opening or the closing of your lens to gain shallow or deep depth of field. You would have to use the smaller F-stop (f/stop) value to get the shallower depth of field (famous for portrait or close up shots) and you might want to use the larger f/stop value to get everything in focus (widely used in landscape photography).

This mode is best if you want to lock the aperture at fixed value and want your camera to set the shutter speed according to the aperture value you set. If your current aperture value and the shutter speed doesn't match to give you optimal exposure for the subject, you will get Lo or HI indicator in the camera viewfinder telling you that subject is too dark or too bright resulting into underexposed or overexposed photograph. If you get the indicator on, you might want to consider adjusting your settings.

2. Shutter Priority

Our second exposure mode is the Shutter Priority (S) mode which is just an opposite of the Aperture Priority mode. In this mode, you set the shutter speed and your camera will adjust the aperture value for the corresponding shutter speed to give you the balanced exposure. You might want to use this mode when you want to shoot fast moving subjects to freeze the motion (shooting sports events for example). This mode is also famous for landscape photography specially if your frame contains moving subjects like water falls or vehicles where you can control the speed of shutter to produce long exposure effects.

3. Program Mode

Third exposure mode is the Program Mode (P) which is almost like an Auto mode but it will let you override some of the settings on the camera. Nikon uses sophisticated algorithm to determine the best exposure by using the combination of aperture and shutter speed. The algorithm takes the present lighting conditions and other variables into account and program the camera setting to the best of it’s ability. When you frame your photograph and the correct exposure can't be achieved using pre-set value, Lo or Hi indicator in the camera viewfinder warns you about the underexposed or overexposed image. If you get the warning, you can adjust ISO setting to change the light sensitivity and see if that makes any difference.

Unlike Auto mode, Program mode allows you to change the camera parameters such as Exposure Compensation, Metering, ISO, White Balance etc. If you want to change the shutter speed and the aperture value, use the main command dial (also called rear command dial) and it will give you the different combinations of aperture value and shutter speed with the same exposure. When you do that, the letter P (for the Program Mode) changes into (P*) into LCD screen which Nikon calls the "Flexible Program". If you want to go back to the default settings of P mode, you just have to rotate the command dial to the left or the right until P* changes into P.

4. Manual Exposure

Our fourth and final exposure type is Manual Exposure (M) mode. If you want the complete control of your camera, Manual Exposure mode is what you need to dial into. Most of the experience photographers and the professionals use this mode very often because they know how their camera metering system is going to react under certain shooting environment. In the Manual Exposure mode, you can set the shutter speed and the aperture value in whichever combination you like. When you are in Manual mode, rotate the main command dial to change the shutter speed and the sub-command dial (also called front command dial) to change the aperture value. In this mode, you can set everything manually including ISO, White Balance, File Type etc.

Personally, my favorite for the landscape or the cityscape photography is an Aperture Priority (A) mode where I can set the lens aperture to certain value and let the camera decide the shutter speed. If the lighting situation is tricky, I use the Manual mode and control both the Aperture value and the Shutter speed individually.

Understanding White Balance In Digital Photography

White Balance (WB) is the technique of managing colors in your picture. Unwanted colors which appears in the photograph are unpleasant and the process of removing or editing such insignificant colors is called the White Balance. White Balance is used to manage the color temperature, contrast, warmness of colors etc to get the real color tones. Digital cameras sometime get deceived with the light source and produces unpleasant photograph by mixing different colors in your photograph. Many photographers do not care about this option and they edit the colors during post-processing. But, in my view, its always worth to know about any technique that your camera has to offer so that you can apply it on the fly whenever you need it and probably save some editing time as well.

The basic principle and the simple reason we adjust the white balance is to get the colors of the photograph as accurate as possible. Most of the time, Auto White Balance works perfectly. But in some cases, applying Auto White Balance may produce extra orange, green or blue colors in your photograph. When we see subject with a naked eye, we see it pretty normal but camera's sensors apply different color settings to the photograph based upon different light sources. For example fluorescent light affects photographs with blue color whereas tungsten light source (Incandescent/Bulb) produces yellow color in your photographs. We can correct this problem with the help of White Balancing technique.

Photograph affected by the Bulb light source

Photograph after adjusting the White Balance

Today's advanced DSLR cameras have many more pre-defined White Balance settings. Nikon D90 also comes with many White Balance options such as Auto WB, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct sunlight, Flash, cloudy, Shade, Choose color temp or Preset Manual White Balance. You can choose different Balance techniques depending upon the light condition you are shooting at.

Personally, I shoot RAW images if I doubt the lighting condition and then edit the White Balance later during post-processing.

Advantage of Shooting RAW Images

If you have a doubt on the given lighting condition, you may choose to shoot in a RAW Format and then edit those RAW images during post-processing. When you shoot picture in a RAW format, you will get the exact image taken by the camera's sensor without applying any adjustments like White Balance, Active D-lighting etc. In fact, camera will bypass all these settings and gives you RAW image. This is the beauty of shooting in a RAW format; let the camera take picture as it likes and edit them later on the computer.

And just in case if you want to shoot in a JPEG Format to save some space on your camera memory or for any other reason, Auto White Balance does a pretty good job most of the time. You can always take a shot, preview it on the LCD screen, set the white balance to one of the available presets and take another shot again.