Nikon® Creative Lighting System Digital Field Guide, Third Edition

Quick Tour

Any photographer who uses a camera with a built-in flash usually realizes very quickly the limitations these little light sources present. While a built-in or pop-up flash may serve well in a pinch, adding one or more speedlights to your photographic arsenal enhances your capabilities well beyond those that a built-in flash can provide.

Speedlights are not only useful in low-light situations. The benefits range from using fill flash in direct sunlight (which I cover later in the book) to completely lighting a subject in the studio.

The SB-910 and SB-700 are great for quick snapshots, but they can also be configured for complex wireless, multi-flash photo shoots. So, get ready: you are about to explore the world of the Nikon speedlights and the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS).

Right out of the box, you can use a speedlight to capture dramatic portraits like this one.

Getting Started

If you want to get up and running quickly with your Nikon speedlight, all you really need to do is insert the batteries, attach it to your camera (it’s a starting point; you’ll get that speedlight off your camera soon), and then turn both the speedlight and the camera on. While you may not shoot any album covers this way, you’ll be amazed at the quality of flash photos you can take with the speedlight as soon as you take it out of the box, whether it’s the entry-level SB-400 or ...