"Nick" <primz@bigpond.com> wrote in message news:5766495c.0306300008.383fe638@posting.google.com...

> I have been asked to take photos at a friends wedding, using a rather

> new combination of my F90x (no d-type lens, just AF) and an SB-25

> flash. The flash is newly aquired, without a manual, and I need to

> shoot in three days. Can someone give me some tips on the best

> settings I can use. Shoult I flick the flash into Auto or TTL?

With all Nikons I know of, and all recent (SB24 and after), with

*color negative* materials only, results are consistently excellent in

light levels sufficient for full normal hand-held exposures with the flash

set in TTL mode (I prefer "rear-curtain" and "slow shutter" options

on, with A or S or M exposure modes used, not P), with the auto-fill

defeated (press the "M" button to remove the "sun and person" symbol

on the SB25, I think...), and minus one stop dialed in for the fixed

fill-ratio ("settings", then "-1", which is three 1/3rd stop increments

on the scale, not 3 stops...). This works well for indoor and outdoor

photos. When the light is too dim for secure hand-holding, dial

the compensation back to "0" and use the flash as the primary light

and the ambient light as fill (by allowing as little underexposure of

it as possible - preferably about one stop). With all, rerate the film

about 2/3rds stop low (400 at 250, for instance) for best results

(color negative only). With "matrix metering" on (Oh, how I have

ranted and railed against this in the past for serious work - but this

is for "quick and guaranteed" results - not perfection with slide

film...;-), you should have at least 99% good exposures under a

wide variety of lighting conditions when using this system. Of

course you should check out the camera thoroughly before

shooting a wedding with it, and use fresh batteries in both camera

and flash (and carry 2-3 spare fresh sets - and preferably an

identical spare camera and flash, too...). Use of a bracket (with

TTL remote cord) that permits switching flash position so that the

light source remains over the lens for both H and V camera

orientations is also desirable... (BTW, you can see some results

of using this method at www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/wedding3.html

and following pages.)

--

David Ruether

d_ruether@hotmail.com

http://www.David-Ruether-Photography.com

Hey, take a gander at www.visitithaca.com, too...!