The course starts with the basics about how the flash (speed light) works and how to read the information on the display on the back of the flash unit. It was particularly useful to understand what the distance scale means and how it can be affected by the other factors such as the focal length, the aperture and the ISO.
Then John explained two of the main modes TTL and TTL BL. In both settings, the camera calculates the correct exposure but in TTL mode, the camera considers that the light from the flash is the dominant light source, whereas in TTL BL mode, the camera balances the light from the flash and the ambient light so that only the brightness of the dark and mid-tone areas is lift up. The TTL BL mode is particularly useful for fill-in flash (or I should say TTL BL mode is designed to be used for fill-in flash).
Things are getting more interesting if the TTL BL mode is combined with slow synchronisation. By default, when the camera is set to P or A mode and the flash is set to TTL BL mode, the shutter speed of the camera is restricted between 1/60 sec to 1/250 sec. However, by choosing the slow synchronisation mode (flash mode button + main command dial), a slower shutter seed can be chosen. The advantage of the slow synch is that it is possible to control the amount of the ambient light without changing the brightness main subject.
When choosing a slower shutter speed, the brightness of the main subject does not change because amount of the light from the flash does not change. What will be changed is the brightness of the background lit by the ambient light because more light will come in to the sensor from the background.
If you can understand this principle, it is probably easier to use the manual (M) exposure mode on the camera with the TTL BL mode on the flash in order to get more control of the output. In M mode, there is no "slow sync" mode, so you can choose any shutter speed. Choose the aperture for the main (foreground) subject (then the camera decides the flash output using TTL meter) and select the shutter speed for the background.
The course contained some shooting exercises, so I could actually see the results of the theory above, and I found this method worked very well. Using the M mode involves some initial trial and error of choosing the shutter speed (unless using a separate hand-held light meter), but this will decrease as I get more experienced. I just need more practice.
Although spending £180 just to learn how to use a piece of equipment sounds a bit stupid, particularly considering the fact that I have already spent quite a lot to buy the expensive kit, I felt it was worth as long as I could get the understanding and skills to take better pictures afterwords. It will hopefully pay off sometime in the future.
The other reason I feel the course is worth the money is because John Clements is teaching it. I quite like John's professional style of teaching in the course. He is a great photographer and his knowledge and experience of the Nikon's equipment are remarkable, but that's only part of his greatness. Before the workshop starts, he always comes to the lobby where we are waiting for the workshop to start, and has a chat with us, individually and frankly, to understand our background, skill level, experience, interests, etc., so that he can make slight adjustment to the contents of the course. During the course, he is always friendly to all the participants and encourages us to ask any questions, and more importantly, controls the questions very well, so the atmosphere in the class becomes vibrant. I think Nikon UK is very lucky to have John with them.
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