Off Camera Flash with 2 x Nikon SB-900

A few months back, I wrote about off camera flash technique which is much more preferred than having your flash fixed on to your hot shoe. You are most certain to achieve better lighting result if you have your flash off the camera. The new Nikon SB-700 can now be used as a commander to allow you to trigger remote speedlights, so you no longer need to own a Nikon’s flagship speedlight such as SB-800 and SB-900 to have this commander function.

2 x Nikon SB-900 in remote mode, triggered by Nikon D700 onboard flash

Basically there are many ways to set up off camera flash.

Method 1: Most  Nikon’s DSLR can use the onboard flash as a commander to wirelessly trigger remote flashes. This is an area which Nikon does better than Canon :D. All you have to do is go to menu and look for flash control for built in flash (eg:menu e3 for Nikon D700) and set it to commander and then set your off camera flashes to “remote” with the right channel settings. The onboard flash will then act as the commander to trigger the remote flashes.

Method 2: Instead of using onboard flash as the commander, you can either use a SU-800, SB-700, SB-800 or SB-900 which can all be switched to commander mode.

Method 3: Use an off camera remote cable such as Nikon SC-28 or SC-29.

Here is an image taken in a recent wedding using off camera flash. I used method 2 in this case where I trigger a SB-800 using a SB-900.

You can tell by the shadow that the remote flash is positioned on my right.