Nikon CLS 4 flash gun set up

[John Soliven]

Hello, would like to have your opinions about this scenario. This set up is bugging me for awhile now hahahaha

Here's the set up: 4 speedlights (SB1, SB2, SB3, SB4) and I want to control them via CLS:

SB1 group A, channel 1, M 1/1 power
SB2 group B, channel 1, M 1/2 power

on what group, channel do I need to configure SB3 and SB4 if I like the SB3 on M 1/4 power and SB4 M 1/8 power and control them via CLS.

Im using the onboard commander flash of Nikon d90.

Thanks in advance

 

[f1charlie]

All speedlights should be set to the same channel - this only needs to change if someone else is using CLS and you don't want to be using the same channel as them. If all speedlights are set to manual you can assign them all to the same group. Set up another group if you want to use a different mode for those speedlights eg TTL.

 

[John Soliven]

Thanks for the note Charlie, but your recommendation to put all the flashes on the same group will not work.*
I'm looking to control the 4 flashes power manually and independently via the CLS commande mode...

 

[specialman]

It seems you can set two groups but all flashes in each group have to be on the same channel and it looks like flashes in each group have to have the same power setting.

I think you'll have to use a bit of inverse square law - i.e. making a flash set to 1/4th give an exposure of 1/8th relative to the other flashes by moving it further away. Of course, this affects the apparent light size and the look of the shadows among other things...

You're better off setting two of the flashes to manual mode and placing them in SU-4 mode. This means you have two other flashes that can be controlled via TTL.

To get more individual flashes on the same CLS 'circuit' you need to opt for a more functional master controller, which means going for an SB-900 I think - that has four groups I believe. Even the SU-800 only has three.....

 

[JonathanRyan]

You can't control 4 groups via CLS (well you can but one of them has to be the master i.e. on camera group)

Put some ND on one of the flashes.

 

[John Soliven]

It seems you can set two groups but all flashes in each group have to be on the same channel and it looks like flashes in each group have to have the same power setting.

I think you'll have to use a bit of inverse square law - i.e. making a flash set to 1/4th give an exposure of 1/8th relative to the other flashes by moving it further away. Of course, this affects the apparent light size and the look of the shadows among other things...

You're better off setting two of the flashes to manual mode and placing them in SU-4 mode. This means you have two other flashes that can be controlled via TTL.

To get more individual flashes on the same CLS 'circuit' you need to opt for a more functional master controller, which means going for an SB-900 I think - that has four groups I believe. Even the SU-800 only has three.....

You can't control 4 groups via CLS (well you can but one of them has to be the master i.e. on camera group)

Put some ND on one of the flashes.

Thank you all for the replies!
I already thought of putting some of the flashes on remote mode, but I intend them to control all via CLS, so my plan set up will now work :|