Just a quick FYI for you Nikon shooters out there. In case you didn't know already, Nikon does something really cool (yet can bite you in the you know what) when you are shooting in Av, Tv or P modes.
Cameras are getting smarter, but they are still stupid. The technology now is better than ever yet the cameras still can (and do) get fooled.
When you set your camera up to shoot in Aperture Priority (Av), Shutter Priority (Tv) or Program (P) mode, all that the camera does is set your Shutter and/or Aperture values for 18% gray. Awesome if you are shooting concrete, crummy if you are shooting a bride.
We therefore have to "enlighten" the camera and tell it that what it 'thinks' it knows is wrong and override the settings. This is done via the Exposure Compensation button. Set it to some plus or minus value and the camera will then over/under expose each shot by however many stops you choose...
But how does that work if you have a flash mounted to your camera?
Nikon has the best flash technology that I have seen par none and they thought long and hard about this and came up with the following:
Nikon takes the flash exposure compensation that the speedlight is set to AND THEN factors in what the camera's exposure compensation is. What this means is that if your flash is set to -1 ev (exposure value) while your camera is set to +1 ev then your flash will actually be outputting 0 ev.
If your camera is set to -.3ev and your flash is set to -.7 ev then your flash will actually operate at -1 ev...
If you are studious enough then you may be asking yourself "...but what happens when we switch our camera over to Manual mode?"
Great question and I'm glad you asked that...
When you switch over to Manual mode, the flash exposure compensation will still honor the -.3ev or -.7ev or whatever your exposure compensation (along with flash exposure compensation) is set to.
So make sure your camera's exposure compensation is set to 0ev when you want to make sure that it isn't going to affect anything.
Enjoy!
Michael
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