Philip Wheeler Photography: Nikon's CLS: Part 1

CLS = Nikon's Creative Lighting System, a system of on and off-camera flash units.

"I have never found any sources of information that explain the Nikon flash system as a complete system." Ken Rockwell

I have to agree with Ken: The CLS sounds great and the demo videos on the Nikon site look great, especially the example location demonstrations by Joe McNally. But comprehensive information is just not there. And I want to understand it.

Many cameras have a pop-up flash. While this can help in low-light situations, it gives the photo a flat look. A better lighting setup places the flash off-camera, to one side. Adding additional flash or strobe light units can provide fill-flash, back lighting, bounced light, color fills, and other effects. One of my instructors told me that a typical Playboy centerfold shot uses 54 studio strobe lights!

Flash is not confined to indoor use. It can be useful outdoors too. Speedlight flash units such as Nikon's SB-910 can project light over a distance of 150 feet.

I'm approaching this an the owner of a Nikon D7100 (essentially the same as a Nikon D7000) and thus I will ignore other camera models for now. The D7100/D7000 has no built-in remote control capability, although it does have a pop-up flash.

Fundamental to any flash or strobe lighting system is the concept of remote control. The camera triggers a master controller that in turn triggers all the other flashes or strobes in the setup. Remote control can be accomplished in 4 ways:

Cable: sometimes called a PC cable, this is a wired setup. Some or all of the devices are wired together. You can imagine the danger of tripping over exposed cables and damaging expensive equipment!

Flash: An on or off-camera flash can trigger lights that have optical flash sensors. The sensor detects the flash from another light and fires its flash immediately. Studio strobe lights have this capability.

Radio: Devices such as the Pocket Wizard use radio frequencies for control. A common studio setup places a Pocket Wizard on the camera, and another one is connected to a studio strobe. Triggering the strobe causes all the other strobes to fire through their optical remote sensors.

Infrared (IR): This is the method used by Nikon's CLS. Some Nikon flashes have this, and some do not. Don't be fooled by the "i-TTL" feature in this regard, as it has nothing to do with remote control.

Next time I'll delve into some of the available CLS-compatible equipment.

Philip Wheeler Photography