Nikon SB-900 Flash - Turning Off The Thermal Cut-Out Function

Jika sekiranya anda menggunakan flash Nikon SB-900 anda berkemungkinan pernah menghadapai masalah overheating yang menyebabkan flash anda tidak berfungsi buat sementara.

Jurutera-jurutera di Nikon telah membuat satu sistem, dimana untuk mengelakkan flash menjadi overheat, flash akan dimatikan selama 10 minit secara otomatik untuk menyejukkan flash apabila jumlah flash menyala secara berterusan tercapai. Berikut adalah jadual "Maximum Number of Continuous Firing":-

Untuk menutup fungsi ini, lakukan seperti ini :-

1. Hidupkan flash anda
2. Tekan butang "OK" selama satu saat sehingga "user menu" muncul
3. Pusingkan "Selector Dial" (scroll wheel) mengikut arah jam dan anda akan melihat user's menu highlight bar bergerak ke bawah. Scroll ke bawah sehingga highlight bar menanda ikon thermometer. Di sebelah kanan anda akan melihat menu pilihan On/Off
4. Tekan butang "OK" sekali dan dan anda akan dapati menu pilihan On/Off ditanda. Pusing "Selector Dial" sehingga menu pilihan "Off" ditanda dan tekan "OK" untuk mengesahkan pilihan
5. Tekan butang "Mode" (sebelah titik hijau) bawah label "Exit". Ini akan mengeluarkan anda daripada user's menu dan kembali kepada sistem operasi biasa

Sekarang anda boleh ambl gambar dengan berterusan tanpa ada gangguan lagi. Flash anda akan memberi amaran kepada anda dengan mesej Error di skrin dan bunyi beep, sekiranya ia menjadi terlalu panas. Jangan biarkan perkara ini berlarutan atau ia boleh menyebabkan flash anda rosak dan membatalkan jaminan (sekiranya ada)

Flash Photography Techniques-How Many Flash To Use

Here is another flash photography techniques which I think you should know. When you want to light your subject, how many flash should you use? 1, 2, 3 or 4? The answer is, it depends on what you want to do. So, it could be  1, 2, 3 or 4.

For me, I will start with 1 flash and it could be bare or not. By not, I maybe using umbrella or a softbox or any other kind of light modifier. If I think the light is not giving me the result that I want, then I will add another light and so on.

Here is an example of a picture I took at my niece wedding where I used only 1 flash. The flash is handheld and fired using a phottix trigger. Why I didn't placed it on my camera? Because it will produce unflattering pictures. It is more like DMV or JPJ (this is what we call in Malaysia) photos.

And here is the lighting diagram and also please excuse the drawing. It's the best I can do....

Studio Photo With Megat and Epiphone

This is my latest studio photo project with Megat and his Epiphone. What is Epiphone? It's a guitar and it costs him a few thousands. So knowing that he has this Epiphone, I decided to call him up and ask if he would like to photograph his guitar. And he said yes..

So on one fine day he came to my studio and brought along 2 guitars. The Epiphone and i don't remember the other one. Then just before we started shooting he told me he forgot to bring his guitar strap. So we went   to his house (which is so far away), get the strap and return to my studio and start shooting.

For this picture, I placed an octabox on camera left and a bare flash also on camera left pointing towards the wall.

And for this picture, I placed a beauty dish on camera right and a bare flash at the back of Megat. I also dimmed the ambient to hide the ugly red curtain.

Adakah Gambar Anda Overexpose?

Sekiranya anda ingin mengetahui samada gambar anda mempunyai kawasan yang overexpose atau tidak, maka anda perlu menggunakan function Highlights yang ada di dalam kamera DSLR anda.

Bagi kamera Canon anda cuma perlu menekan secara tegak butang multi directional di belakang kamera anda (butang yang sama untuk melihat gambar anda).

Bagi kamera Nikon pula, tekan butang Menu > Playback Menu > Display mode > pilih Highlights > pilih Done > tekan OK.

Apabila selesai, tengok gambar anda dan sekiranya gambar anda ada bahagian yang berkelip-kelip, maka bahagian itu adalah overexpose.