Question on Wireless Flash

[PhotoPatzer]

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me.

I am trying like mad to figure out wireless flash on my Nikon D90.

I have a SB-600 flash unit.

All I want to do is use the flash in wireless mode WITHOUT using my on camera flash. Can this be done?

if so, could you help me understand how to do it?

I have read the flash manual, the d90 manual and my big Nikon D90 guide by David Busch. I cannot get it to work. I can get the flash to work wireless, but only when I pop up the on camera flash and fire a shot. When I go in and change the settings in commander mode to "on camera flash - - (for no flash)" then neither of them fire.

any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[inkista]

Did you change the position of the SB-600 or block the pop-up physically? Using CLS requires "line of sight"--that is, the sensor on the flash has to be able to "see" the infrared/near-infrared command signal.

[OsmosisStudios]

The on-camera flash is required to trigger the SB, but you CAN set it to not contribute to the exposure. If you're really worried, get the SG3-IR that fits into the hotshoe and blocks the light of the flash but still allows the flash to trip the SB

If you set the pop-up to Commander and the output to --, it should still fire. Regardless, I usually set mine VERY VERY low, just to give a little pop to the eyes.

[PhotoPatzer]

Thank you Os and Ink,

I'm sorry if i'm not getting it. If I were to listen to Ink it is possible to have wireless flash w/o the on camera flash working.

On the flip side... If I were to listen to [B]OS[B], it is NOT possible. You have to have the on camera flash.

I get that I can dial down the power of the flash on camera, but there really isn't a way to get the SB600 to flash by it self when used wirelessly? That seems a little odd doesn't it?, I mean... wouldn't it seem logical that people would want to use off camera flash?

[zona5101]

you need to have the popup flash on the d90 up.
you can set the popup flash on the d90 to not fire the flash but to only trigger the sb600.
both inista & os responses were congruent.

[PhotoPatzer]

Thank you all

Zona - How do you do this then? I tried to do exactly what you described, but I can't get it to work.

I go into the braketing and flash settings. Set the on camera flash "- -". From there, when I try to take a picture, no flash on the camera, no flash on the SB600.

The only time that I can get the SB600 to trip is to have the on camera flash... any idea what settings I would use?

Thanks!

[PhotoPatzer]

1. Thank you to everyone who tried to help this newbie out!

2. I GOT MY ANSWER - I went to the camera store and one of their lighting gurus showed me how it worked. The problem that I was having... was the fact that when I was setting "on camera flash" to ( - - ) I was not opening up my on camera flash. I kept it closed, thus NO FLASH!

so in closing, you all were right!

Thanks for your help!

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by PhotoPatzer

1. Thank you to everyone who tried to help this newbie out!

2. I GOT MY ANSWER - I went to the camera store and one of their lighting gurus showed me how it worked. The problem that I was having... was the fact that when I was setting "on camera flash" to ( - - ) I was not opening up my on camera flash. I kept it closed, thus NO FLASH!

so in closing, you all were right!

Thanks for your help!

Good deal. have fun with it!