Force Flash even in Bright Light ....

S

simonwar

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Hi,

My hair is on the floor, because I pulled it out.

I am triggering a Studio Flash Kit using the Kaiser 1301 on my Nikon D90, and mounting the Flash Kit supplied Trigger onto the Kaiser 1301 and connect up the sync cable.

I work in Manual, and set Flash to the "Flash Symbol", and even though I pop the flash back down, the Nikon sends the signal to the hotshoe and then through the wireless trigger - bingo.

Well nearly bingo. Problem is as soon as the background light from the modelling lamps start illuminating the room the D90 thinks it doesn't need to flash?

Why it does this beats me when I am in Manual, anyway, how do I make it flash, i.e. set it to FLASH ALWAYS?

I have scoured the manuals, read about Commander mode, read about setting to Manual, but fact is D90 does NOT fire when enough background light tells it all is Exposeur friendly, even in MANUAL?

I AM GOING CRAZY?

Appreciate Any Help, Simon.
 
simonwar said:
Hi,

My hair is on the floor, because I pulled it out.

I am triggering a Studio Flash Kit using the Kaiser 1301 on my Nikon D90, and mounting the Flash Kit supplied Trigger onto the Kaiser 1301 and connect up the sync cable.

I work in Manual, and set Flash to the "Flash Symbol", and even though I pop the flash back down, the Nikon sends the signal to the hotshoe and then through the wireless trigger - bingo.

Well nearly bingo. Problem is as soon as the background light from the modelling lamps start illuminating the room the D90 thinks it doesn't need to flash?

Why it does this beats me when I am in Manual, anyway, how do I make it flash, i.e. set it to FLASH ALWAYS?

I have scoured the manuals, read about Commander mode, read about setting to Manual, but fact is D90 does NOT fire when enough background light tells it all is Exposeur friendly, even in MANUAL?

I AM GOING CRAZY?

Appreciate Any Help, Simon.
Click to expand...

Not sure about the D90 - I would think that it would send the signal from the hotshoe in manual, regardless of the exposure settings/requirements.

As a test, set the camera to manual, say 1/125 and f8 and set the focus to manual. Put the lenscap on the lens (therefore making what the camera sees is completely black) and fire - see what happens - does the flash fire?
 
commander mode will only fire nikon speedlights
 
You might get more response in the Talk Lighting forum below.
 
OK,

1. So we are saying forget Commander Mode, (deffo or just a thought, I now about Nikon's CLS and its the nearest I can see to forcing the flash - but will go with it if you are sure its not the answer)?

2. The Nikon Flash will fire no probs in dark areas, lens cap or not, when the on-board pop-up flash is UP. What is happening is that as I do NOT want the on-board flash to fire, as I am using a studio flash kit, but still want a trigger signal sent to the hotshoe, (to trigger my studio lights kit)..... Sometimes it does happen and sometimes it doesn't, and I can only see that when more modelling lamps come on, and therefore the ambient light in the studio lifts, the D90 decides not to send a signal to the hotshoe, whereas if I turn off a few modelling lamps, hey presto, the D90 is happy and triggers the hotshoe.

A thought: this must be an issue most studio users would have experienced as it has happened to me in less than an hour of setting my studio up and clicking away?

Its a teaser but I bet there is a straight forward answer or a simple setting on the camera - I'll keep playing but appreciate any help and your patience, S.

P.S. I chose this forum because I don't think its a lighting issue, even though its relating to flash, I think its my D90, (or me rather), and its functionality - makes sense?
 
The onboard flash shouldn't come into the equation at all if you have trigger on the hotshoe or a pc cable connected to the camera. Out of interest, why are you using the Kaiser at all, can't you put the trigger directly onto the D90 hotshoe?
 
The lights kit is supplied with a hotshoe mounting trigger, its not a Pocket Wizard, this Trigger is kicked off using a "sync cable" which you cannot fire from a Nikon D90 directly, as it does not have a PC/Sync out, and therefore you need to use an adapter like the kaiser 1300, (not 1301 as i indicated earlier), to convert the hotshoe trigger into a sync cable compatible trigger. (I chose the Kaiser 1300, as oppossed to an AS15 as it has a hotshoe on its back to mount the supplied lights kit trigger onto - quite cute all in all).

Kaiser1300
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-kaiser-hot-shoe-adaptor-1300/p1006113

AS15
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-nikon-as-15-hot-shoe-adaptor/p1001412

And as I have indicated this works perfectly when the ambient light is low enough.

So I am assuming this is a D90 functionality issue, and is simple in its request, FLASH ON always in MANUAL even when POP-UP FLASH is DOWN, but I am stumped!

Still looking, S.
 
Okay, what settings are you using in the camera? If the onboard flash is popping up and the trigger is also not being tripped when the ambient light is raised then that suggests that the camera isn't in manual mode.
 
Example Settings:

Main Dial set to "M".
ISO "L1.0" (100 equiv), but have had same prob on 200.
Shutter to "1/200" (I use this speed to tally with sync speed delay).
Aperture - usually about F4-F8, depending on lights setup and shot.
Focus to single point centre.
No compensations no bracketing, etc.


Observation:
The on-board FLASH being down bit is the key I feel, if the FLASH is up in MANUAL it fires even if the onboard metering is glowing overexposed. However if I pop it down, it doesn't work at all, even when the flash symbol in the viewfinder is flashing and the metering comp indicator is showing under exposed? All this being said when I have somethig in the hotshoe, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't dependant on the ambient light.

So I am led to believe that having something in the hotshoe, (e.g. my trigger), changes the way the D90 thinks? (I am at home at the minute with nothing in the hothoe and I cannot get the FLASH to fire with the on-board FLASH down).

?
 
Forget last para, I cannot tell if anything is happening as I have nothing in the hotshoe.
 
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