Hello! I am new to this forum and a novice at photography, so maybe someone can help me.
I take hi-res photos of black machine parts on a white background for my company. I use two strobes w/umbrellas for lighting. I use the camera's flash to trigger the strobes. Prior I used a coolpix 5700 that worked PERFECTLY for this task. Now I have a D70S with which I have problems. 1. The photos are all dark even though the strobes are flashing. 2. Second problem is the camera's flash only has an auto or off mode. How can I make the flash fire regardless of the lighting to fire the strobes? My Coolpix had a setting that allowed this, I can't believe the D70 does not, I also cannot believe that the D70 won't take TIFFs only JPEGs.
As I said I am a novice, could be something simple I am missing ANY assistance would be appreciated!
I'm not familiar with the Nikon flash anymore (had a SB-50DX for my 995, but that got passed on a while ago). However, I am certain that you can set the flash manually--Nikon's flash system is known to be a very good one and the DSLR will be more flexible than the P&S. Also, DSLRs will not save to TIFF, instead you have the choice of JPG, RAW, or both. RAW is best for complete control, but you then must spend the time on the computer the "develop" the image.
I would start by reading the manual for both the body and flash, all the information on how to set them will be there, if a little bit of a dry read.
With the photos being dark, I'll bet you are on matrix metering & the light background is throwing things off. Try center-weighted to force the camera to mainly meter on the dark-colored parts.
For running the strobes, I'd set one on the background & one on the part. Then set my exposure for the part manually (example, set the strobe for say 1/125 at f4), then set the background strobe to 2 stops over that to blow out the background. I also use a PC cord--more reliable & no messing with the on-camera flash.
You will need a pc cord adapter on your hot shoe to control you strobes and avoid the use of the pop up flash. You may also consider setting the camera to shoot in RAW that way you have 2 stops either side to adjust you exposure this requires " Nikon capture software.
Frank, have you set the D70 as "Commander" unit? What this does is enable the built in flash to trigger your strobes. By popping up the flash alone to trigger your other strobes, you will have sync issues. Check the manual and you will see how this is done.
