Portrait Studio Flash - Help!!

[SlipMat]

Hi All

I am posting this in the beginners forum, although I am not sure if this is the correct place?

I have been photographer at several weddings with a degree of success... so I thought I'd give portrait photography a go.

I have a Nikon D70 with an SB-800 and two 180W studio flash lamps, umbrellas and a white background (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/360W-Studio-Fl...item5d26b9bb57).

Anyway... having no experience with off-camera flash photography I have been playing (ok - not for very long!). What I have found is that if I have the SB800 on the camera and the off camera flashes working I just cannot set the camera up to take anything other than a black image. I am guessing this is because the camera is expecting the on-camera flash only and as such the timings or other settings are miles off.

When I remove the SB800 and just use the two external flashes I do get results, but seem unable to change any settings to improve/alter the results. I realise that the aperture is more important than the shutter speed with flash photography, but regardless of speeds/f-stop settings the final image always seems identical.

Last night with the SB800 running off camera in commander remote mode, I played about and took an identical photo of a book resting against a wall (no not a particularly appealing picture)... what I found was that regardless of the shutter/aperture setting the image seemed to look as bright and with the same shadows every time!

Whilst normally I'd muddle on and have a play - in her wisdom my wife has arranged for some friends to come over at the weekend for some portraits for me to add to my portfolio. Obviously I don't want to look completely useless (especially as they think my landscape work is great!) and would welcome as many helpful tips as possible.

Thanks in advance

[PaulMontgomery]

Hmm its a bit late for the weekend now, but here are some of my thoughts.

Using the SB800 off camera it has to be in remote mode with the channel and group set according to the camera (which can't be changed) A3 rings a bell. The camera flash must be in commander mode. (Apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs).

To use the camera flash or the SB800 (mounted on the hotshoe) to trigger the main lights, the flash must be in manual (not TTL etc mode) as the pre-flashes used by the metering will trigger the externals.

Hope this helps.