Flash Advice

[Iggy Soup]

I have a D90 and while taking 'portraits' of my daughter, in my annoyingly dark house, the subject does seem to be very overexposed and blown out.

As I really do want to record her early years, I've decided to bite the bullet and buy a decent flash but I need some advice.

1. Bouncing Flash. If I wanted to bounce the flash do I have to recalculate the exposure or would a decent flash recognise that the head is in a bounced position and calculate it according (if on auto)? I plan to use a 50mm 1.8 (which i have been doing wide open) but still there are bad shadows. Bloody low energy bulbs are useless I have recently found.

2. Do I go for the SB600 or the Nissin Di866? I realise the Nissin is quite advanced but eventually I do want to learn flash photography to a more advanced level. Or will the 600 be more than adequate for what I need? I have been asked to take some family portraits as well, so I really want to give the best pictures I can.

Any advice on this would be greatly received.

 

[corbystock]

If you're going to bounce flash you may well have to dial in some +flash comp. I have an SB600 but i have just seen a YN467 on ebay for around £50 it also comes with a built in bounce card so it may be worth a look BUT i should wait for some other replies because i have never used the YN467.

 

[HoppyUK]

A decent flash gun is the way to go, and it will do everything you want and more, once you get to know how to get the most from it.

Nikon for preference, but Nissin are good, and Metz. The key difference in price between the top end models is those with and without a master/commander function for controlling remote guns automatically. Your D90 also has this feature built-in to the pop-up.

 

[Iggy Soup]

Yeah I think I will go with the SB600. Just need to find a decent price or wait until my 40th in April.

Does it matter that much that it only zooms to 85mm? At present I habe the 18-105 , the 50mm 1.8 and the sigma 10-20. Does flash really help with telephoto stuff?