Flash! Bang! Wallop! Wot a Picture!

Karen bought me the most fabulous present for Christmas. The Nikon SB600 Speedlite is an accessory flash unit for my D70S camera, and it has totally transformed my attitude towards flash photography.


Up until now I've always just used the built-in flash that comes with whatever digital camera I'm using, and it's those results that have put me off flash photography in the past. When you're using an artificial light source that's flashing directly in the face of your subject, you too often get either bleached out faces, or red eyes, or both.

Direct, on-camera flash

The SB600 gets around these problems by having a head that can tilt and swivel, thus enabling you to "bounce" the light from the flash off other surfaces such as ceilings and walls. Of course you have to give some thought to the colour of the reflecting surface and best results are obtained from white or off-white surfaces, but this bouncing technique has some very nice effects. First, the light from the flash is diffused by the reflection, so it's not as harsh as direct flash. Second, because it has been bounced at an angle you can get some very nice side and top-lighting effects on your subject, which give your photos some real depth.

Flash "bounced" off the (white) ceiling

I've known about bounce flash for many years, even before the digital revolution, but had never owned one or played around with one seriously before now. The SB600 is perfectly matched to my camera too. When you switch the camera on and off the flash switches on and off in sync, the flash head zooms in and out in step with my zooming the lens, and best of all there is a remote wireless mode in which you can stand the flash unit anywhere you like -- even behind the subject -- and the little built-in flash acts as a master unit, setting the main flash off wirelessly.

SB600 Flash mounted on a tripod below and to the left, aimed directly at subject. The side lighting is preferable to front-on, but the direct flash is too harsh.

A much softer effect is achieved by "bouncing" the off-camera flash off a nearby (off-white) wall.

I used the new flash and played with bouncing the light during our Christmas visit to the UK, and I've got some much better examples of what is possible on my other blog: Neal of Arabia.