Introduction
From its origin in the Greek language, the word photography literally means painting (or writing) with light. It’s fairly safe to say that if you were to remove light altogether from the photography equation, you’d have a difficult time capturing the perfect picture. You could also say that the addition of light, or the ability to create it quickly and efficiently, could go a long way in helping you create your very own masterpiece.
When Nikon introduced the Creative Lighting System (CLS) in 2004, it was mostly overlooked. The industry was focused on the rapidly changing advancement of digital SLR (dSLR) cameras — more specifically, how many megapixels could be jammed into a new generation of image sensors. This was a shame because the Nikon CLS was the most amazing development in creative photography in decades. The ability to completely control the output of multiple lights, and do it wirelessly with full Through-the-Lens (TTL) metering was a true breakthrough.
The popularity of the Nikon CLS has grown exponentially in recent years as more people are becoming interested in off-camera, photographic lighting. With the SB-400, SB-700, SB-900, and SB-910, no other company comes close to offering such a multitude of tools for specific lighting needs.
The main features of the CLS are its ability to get the flashes off of the camera and control them wirelessly. Nikon refers to this as Advanced Wireless Lighting (AWL). Simply put, when the flash is on top of your camera ...
