How much difference should a flash make?

[NickHopkins]

Hi guys,

Hi guys,

Simple question I think!

I picked up a fairly simple ring-flash on the cheap (maybe that’s where my problem resides!) with the intention of using it for macro photography when the light isn’t too great, I find I have real difficulty getting light into the camera when I make the aperture smaller, so I though for those dull days when I still wanna get out into the garden, this ring flash might be a relatively inexpensive way of helping things along.

Anyway, I don't know if it's my expectations, not set up properly, or the flash itself, but I'm finding if I put the camera into aperture select, as is the way I like to shoot, frame the shot, and take a note of the shutter speed, then turn the flash on, the shutter speed in the viewfinder doesn't seem to increase. My understanding was rthe camera would take into account the extra light and meter accordingly?

Am I doing something wrong, or my understanding just wrong?

Am using a D300 and this flash:

http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-...nikon/p1026072

Thanks

[NickHopkins]

I wondering if thee might be something funky with this flash unit, I've noted on a couple of occasions that the camera has seemingly stooped responding with the flash unit attached, with the dials no longer affecting the shutter/aperture settings when rotated, with the camera needing to be switched off and on to come back to life. And I was just out in the garden taking some shots on fully manual, and I noticed there seemed to be a noticeable difference in a series of three pictures, with them getting darker one after another, and then noticed the aperture had changed from f18 to a triangle followed by f7. And it wouldn’t change until I turned the camera off and on, and the camera had recorded no aperture or focal length information on those pictures.

I've given the connectors a clean with a micro fibre cloth, is this anything anyone else has encountered?

Thanks again

[jinky]

Don`t quite get what you are saying here Nick. Attaching any flash does not lead to there being an increase in shutter speed - normally it would just change to the syb flash speed of the camera or 1/60th second etc. Does this camera work with your TTL mode or are you using it in manual. If using it in manual the light fall off will increase as you change your aperture from f7 to f18 and you will lose light. There is a relationship between shuitter speed, aperture and ISO which you need to practice with in using with this flash which i understand in reviews is generally OK for macro but no good for portrait work. Try shooting in manual and start off with an aperture of 5.6 and see what you get ad work from there. If using TTL and this ring flash will not work with all lenses in this positon according to a review on WE, use A mode ad again start with 5.6.
I`m no expert on flash use but just give the the above a try

[NickHopkins]

Cheers for that jinky, I'll give those tips ago and see how I get on.