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Second day with the SB-800. First day's work is not worth sharing at all, I had pretty much no idea what I was doing... But having read up, and experimented a bit, I think tonight's pics turned out a bit better...

#1 - My long-suffering fiancée/model, not looking impressed at all that she's going to spend another night with a flash going off at her every 5 seconds. No PP at all apart from a smidgen of unsharp mask and resize. Got a bit of motion blur around the edges, probably due to the slow shutter speed. I think I like this one the best, it is basically flash fill, still plenty of natural light coming in the door at that stage.

#2 - A couple of mates who think they are the wiggles. This scene was basically black as I looked through the viewfinder, the only other lightsource in the room is the light over on the RHS. Tweaked the colours/exposure a little, and a bit of unsharp mask.

#3 - Er. Mad Cow. Tweaked exposure a little, a bit of unsharp mask.

All 3 pics taken with the 18-70, bounce flash with diffuser. A Priority @ 4.5ish, ISO 400

Any suggestions? I'm not sure how to eliminate the blurry edges, apart from learning to hold the camera a little steadier, or maybe a slightly higher shutter speed. I love the SB-800, the pics just seem to come out more natural looking than the onboard flash, with not a red eye to be seen! Still a lot more learning / experimenting to come.....

Hi losfp
ain't it a great piece of equipment !
My findings using the SB800, indoors, have been to let the flash do more of the work and try shooting manual. This way you can choose your own aperture & shutter speed to suit the situation.

I typically shoot at f8-11 when using the 18-70 kit lens (as it's the sharpest range for this lens). I then choose between 1/80 - 1/125sec. as a shutter speed. As long as the subject isn't too far away, the SB800 stands up to the line and performs every time.

I have also found that I get better results without using the clip-on diffuser....but that is probably just a preference thing on my behalf.

Enjoy playing around with the SB. I'm sure you're already wondering how you ever did without it

losfp, some nice shots here and your dead right about the more natural looking colour from the SB-800 rather then the pop up flash. I guess I'd better get of my but and spot some images as well... (sigh.. sometime today).

Good work for 1st efforts. The balance of fill flash and ambient light in #1 is great.

They do get a bit testy being flashed repeatedly, don't they?

Cheers, John