sb-600 question

[JBO]

Hello everyone!

I just got a sb-600 and I am starting to understand guide numbers and aperature.

What role does shutter speed play while in manual mode on the flash? All they talk about is aperature, guide number and distance. If the flash is too bright, you have to stop down the aperature. Can you just speed up the shutter or is there more to it?

If not, what speed does everyone keep there shutters at? I am not sure if there is a common speed?

Thanks for the help

Josh

[achuang]

Congrats on the new purchase, you'll love having a flash and learning all about it. Shutter speed plays no role in how much light from the flash gets to the sensor. ISO, aperture and distance to subject control the flash exposure of the subject. This is all in manual mode though. In TTL mode adjusting the flash exposure compensation is the only thing that will adjust flash exposure as the flash compensates for changes in ISO, aperture and distance to subject. Using a faster shutter speed does increase the working range of the flash at a given power output as a faster shutter decreases the amount of ambient light so the flash has less ambient light to overpower. Have a read of this http://planetneil.com/tangents/2007/12/26/manual-flash-ttl-flash/

Strobist is also a great place to learn about flash lighting, I've been visiting the site daily for the past few months and have learnt a lot. http://strobist.blogspot.com/