Camera Labs

Hey,


I got my SB-600 for about 6 months and I'm finally gonna tell about something that really annoyes me a lot!

Here are some pictures I made:



Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 1600



Exposure 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 26 mm
ISO Speed 800



Exposure 0.033 sec (1/30)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 32 mm
ISO Speed 400

As you can see they are all overexposed...
All 3 pictures we're taken with my SB-600 at 45° and with aperture priority
The flash was always on TTL.

Now my question is: why are they overexposed? What did I do wrong or is there something wrong with my flash?

Thanks in advance

- Joren

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D90

Hi Joren,

yes, the faces are overexposed for sure. No, it doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything wrong with your flash.

There can be several reasons why they are overexposed:
1) The metering: You can try to change to center-weighted or spot and make sure it meters on their faces.
2) Exposure bias: Do you have your camera at a positive exposure bias? In my experience, most Nikons benefit from a negative exposure bias -0.3 or -0.7. However, that is a nuance...it will not explain this level of over-exposure.
3) Do you have flash-compensation ON, on your flash itself perhaps? I.e. a power-ration over 1?

Good luck with the diagnostics!

Cheers

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Nikon stuff and other stuff, but not nearly as much stuff as I really want!

Thanks for your fast reply LahLahSr.

1) I also tried center-weighted (and had almost the same results), but if I change my sharpnesspoint does that center that dertermines the amount of light to enter, move with it?

e.g.: Like when I set my sharpnesspoint to the right, does it determines the light that's around that sharpnesspoint?

(I got no idea how to say this in an other way:) )

3) Flash compensation was off, it was neutral.

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D90

Hey,

I had to shoot some pictures 2 days ago and I have to say that spot metering worked the best for me.. I really thought that this was only used to make pictures from e.g. a heron (which is kinda white).

There still were some incorrect exposures, but most of them were pretty fine!

So thanks for that mate!

Grtz Joren

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D90