 Donna Dunbar |
Flash Unit - A Breakdown? This past Saturday I shot a wedding with a brand new flash unit - Nikon SB-600. Everything worked great until about half way through the wedding, when all of a sudden the unit only went off about half the time. I changed batteries and still only about half the shots fired. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Oh, by the way, I use a Nikon d-70s.
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Jon Close |
Newer speedlights often have thermal protection circuits to protect the flash tube from heat damage when it is fired too many times in too short a time. I think that's what you ran into. You can try shooting at higher ISO, which requires a lower level of flash output, or a higher capacity unit like the SB-800. But for a wedding with constant flash for an extended period I think you're simply going to have to invest in a 2nd speedlight and regularly alternate between them to keep them from overheating.
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Donna Dunbar |
Thanks for your comment, and I think you're right. When the unit cooled down, it went right back to normal. And when the batteries were removed, they could have burned your hands they were so hot. Good thing is, I still got some fantastic images.
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Bruce A. Dart |
Donna, Even the SB800 acts like that when the batteries are low. Also the connection to the hot shoe can become loose and cause the unit to fire randomly between shots. I had to send mine back to Nikon -- fortunately, it was under warranty since it was under a year.
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Donna Dunbar |
Hi Bruce , thanks for you comment. I did have very fresh batteries in my camera and I think it was more that it had been used so much and the unit was overheated as Jon had commented. The unit works fine now. the next time I do a wedding I will have more than one flash unit and more than one digital camera. Thanks Donna
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Christy Freeberg |
just out of curiosity, can you post a photo with & without yous speedlight? I have the same camera, without out the extra flash and have had no issues while shooting weddings.(without the extra flash unit) Do you take other equipment with you? reflectors or strobes?? Thanks!
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Donna Dunbar |
When I shoot a wedding, which I have done 3 now I use a removeable flash unit for one the camera's own flash range isn't great for really big churches. I don't take my studio strobes but I did find a really nice item at B&H photo,video which fits over my flash unit giving me a nice look of a studio shot or I should say it's like having a softbox on top of your camera. Camera flash in my opinion is too harsh and throws many shadows. The look I got with my flash unit and diffuser lets just say the results were awesome.
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Bruce A. Dart |
While is is somewhat trendy to photograph weddings with available light using expensive fast lenses, most of us earning a living in photography still use flash. Properly used, flash can give nice results for hard to light areas and photographing groups. An adapter and a bracket so you can raise the flash and keep it over the lens is a must for minimizing shadows. The diffuser also is a great tool and helps with this. I would not advise using the camera's pop up flash to photograph a wedding. It might be OK for a few shots in an emergency but not recommended for professional results. Many pros use extra flash units with radio slaves to approximate studio lighting at weddings but the trend now is to travel a little lighter. While I only do a handful of weddings each year now, compared to my first year in business when we photographed 48, but I have been photographing weddings for more than 30 years and have done probably close to 600 over the years (I have lost count). Keep shooting and have fun.
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