The Nikon Creative Lighting System: Using the SB-600, SB-700, SB-800, SB-900, SB-910, and R1C1 Flashes

I have read many books on flash, most of them excellent in their own ways. But I wish I'd started with this one. It gives just enough of the properties of flash so that you understand it and apply it in the field. Mostly it's a practical guide, giving you the basic rules of thumb on how to use each specific flash. This was very helpful for me since I use the SB600, which has a terribly unintuitive interface. He gives guidelines for when to use each flash mode and which camera sync mode to use in specific scenarios. Read this book once and you can show up in most situations, armed with a few rules of thumb, and confidently use you flash to get good, well exposed photographs. He covers the basics: including how to use lights for a typical studio portrait. He gives lists of flash packages depending on how serious you want to get. The next step is to more creatively use your Nikon CLS, and while he hints at the possibilities, to fully explore them is for some other book to help you, of which there are plenty. I highly recommend this book, to help you demystify flash.

Perfect for Beginner to Intermediate Flash Users This book is so great - I have read only half of it so far and it has already doubled or tripled my flash understanding. The author is clear and concise and gives real-world examples. He doesn't teach everything just to teach it - he focuses on what you REALLY need to know for most real-world stuff like weddings and portraits. This covers the latest flashes, and I only wish it covered the D4/D800, but most of what applies to the D3/D700 applies still, so it's ok. After reading the first half of this book, I finally "got" the flash thing. It "clicked" (no pun intended). I never understood the rules and how flash applies in conjunction with in-camera metering, what all of the terms in the flash's manual meant, etc. If you are interested in getting better with flash or learning about the basis and beyond of using flash, buy this book! It is easy to read and very informative.

I like this guide because it's not expensive , it's simple and it covers all the function of the current Nikon flashes line. Actually, there's information from the SB600 to the SB910 and if you happen to have several models, it is really convenient to have all this information from all your Nikon flashes in just one guide. It also makes an introduction on how to use your flashes but I think there are other books better for this matter. However, at its price, highly recommended.

I struggled for years trying to master Nikon's CLS. For some reason I just could not get a handle on it...perhaps because it is so versatile and there are so many different combinations of settings to learn. When I saw that Mike Hagen had a book on the subject I jumped on it. Mike is not just a great photographer but an excellent teacher as well. The book is written in straightforward clear easy to understand terms with a minimum of technical jargon. It was like having a light go on...literally. If you want to take advantage of the Nikon CLS and have struggled with it like I did, than this is the book for you.

I love all of the books I have purchased from the NikoniansPress. I am a hobby photographer, and have the SB-700 (only one) flash. Over half of the book is on specific SB flashes, then the other half is flash photography and CLS setup. The book features a 5-step plan for flash photography and also gives common mistakes and common shooting scenarios (great for those new to flash photography), and a section on white balance and gel usage (I found this really helpful!). I also have the Nikon D7000 (Magic Lantern book) on CLS and absolutely love it...if you have a D7000 you will want to get that book too! If you get this book and like it, check out the other Rockynook- NikoniansPress books, you won't be disappointed!

It's a reasonably useful book as far as it goes, but it's shot in the foot as a reference by an almost totally useless index. For instance, high speed synchronization is an important element of Nikon speedlights, but you won't find an index listing for this under H for "high speed" or under S for "synchronization." There's a single listing under A for "Automatic FP High Speed Sync Mode." The material's there in the book, but if you're new to the subject and need to look it up, forget it. This, by the way, seems to be normal practice for RockyNook books. Making a decent index evidently is too much like grunt work to bother with. This, the second edition, is copyrighted in 2012. The book barely touches on the SB-910, which came out at the end of 2011. Yes, there's a list for the custom settings menu, which is right out of the manual, but there are some significant differences in things like the use of the buttons on the SB-910 and SB-900, and these are barely mentioned. It looks as if Mr. Hagen spent about fifteen minutes going through the first edition and adding a word or two here and there about the 910. Once he was finished he called it the second edition. Another problem is the repetition. The Author regurgitates the information that's in the manual that comes with each speedlight, and that you can download in PDF form from the web. He seems to have set up a template for this task because the exact same wording is there for each of the functions common to all the lights. This is pure padding. If this kind of repetition weren't there the publication would be a pamphlet rather than a "book." One factual error: Mr. Hagen claims that exposure compensation on the camera only changes shutter speed or aperture. In fact, it also changes flash output. If you dial down exposure compensation on the camera you need to dial up the flash to compensate. Joe McNally explains the relationship in "The Hot Shoe Diaries." I don't mean to nitpick the book to death. It's a useful book, but with a little more work it could have been made a lot more useful.

Decisamento consigliato per chi voglia sfruttare appieno il sistema Nikon CLS utilizzando un sistema di flash multipli gestiti in remoto. Con la mia Nikon D600 e 2 flash Nikon SB-700 riesco ad ottenere immagini di qualita' notevole. Questa guida e' en fatta perche' scritta da una persona che ogni giorno applica in maniera PRATICA queste cose.

I can truly recommend reading this book and learn more about Nikon CLS. The author describes very practically how to use flash and the CLS and helped me to improve my flash photography a lot. There is a section on every Nikon flash and transmitter unit which is partly interesting, because no one will have every device. The section on those devices I own were very good indeed and better written than the usual manual. Anyway, If you want to learn a few more things about using flash effectively you should read this book.

Excellent livre. La version kindle vous permet d'accéder très rapidement aux sections qui vous intéresse, sur une tablette c'est un vrai bonheur ! Les photos en exemple d'ailleurs, ressortent mieux en version kindle que dans le livre. Ne me manque alors, que les sensations du contact avec le papier... Comme il n'existe pas de livre où vous trouverez les réponses à toutes vos questions, je vous conseille celui ci, il donne d'excellentes informations qui vous permettront de mieux utiliser vos flash Nikon.

Wanted a clear reference book , no waffle and straight to the point, this gives all, Have a similar book which is very well written, but lacks the extra clarity given by the use of actual flash gun photos, which are used in this book, should have bought this book first. ps when I say no waffle I am talking about the books information on using the specific flash guns. Mike Hagen is an American, so the usual personal history is obligatory. Any way I would still recommend this as a well written/informative book

Highly recommended to any level of photographer. I wouldn't be able to use my flash properly without it. Mike knows how to explain technical issues so that anyone can operate with a good understanding of the functions and the purpose.