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e1 - e6: Bracketing/flash
How to Get Here
Press MENU, go to the left and select up and down to the pencil icon. You'll then see CUSTOM SETTING MENU on the color LCD. Click down to e BRACKETING/FLASH and click to the right.
What it Does
It sets flash function and completely unrelated bracketing options.
What I Change
I change e3, and leave the rest alone.
e1 Flash Shutter Speed top
This selects the slowest shutter speed used with flash with normal sync in the P and A exposure modes.
1/60 is default. I usually set about 1/30 or 1/15 to let in more ambient light to prevent my backgrounds from blacking-out indoors.
Slower speeds like 1/8 let the backgrounds stay much lighter, but greatly increase the chances of motion blur.
e2 Flash cntrl for built-in flash top
This sets what the built-in flash does.
TTL (default)
By default it works like a TTL flash. That's good; it works great.
M (Manual)
You set the flash brightness manually. I use this mode if I'm shooting my studio strobes and using the built-in flash to trigger my power pack.
RPT (idiotic repeating strobe mode)
Har har, you can start you own hamster disco with this one.
C (commander mode)
This is how to set the built-in flash to become the commander to talk to a wireless remote flash, which today is the SB-600, SB-800 and SB-900.
Under this menu you can set two groups of external flashes separately, as well as how much light comes from the built-in flash.
"Comp" is the exposure compensation (brightness) for each of these groups of lights.
You can set lighting ratios of remote flashes, right from the D90!
Trick: You have to set Channel 3, not the default of 1, to get this to work! My SB-600 defaults to channel 3. You can use any channel, but the flash and camera have to match. Different channels are handy if you have a lot of photographers shooting in the same arena. No, I have no idea why the D70 defaults to 3 as does the SB-600, and the D90 defaults to ch. 1.
Leave the rest of it alone. Set your flash for remote operation, and away you go.
See my page on how to use remote flash. It's an incredible feature, and it's free if you have an SB-600, SB-800 or SB-900.
e3 Modeling Flash top
Leave this off!
Otherwise you'll go blind, because when turned on it fires a zillion flash shots as a modeling light if you tap the Depth-of-Field preview button.
The D90 is superior to other Nikons because it's the first Nikon to default this setting to off.
e4 Auto BKT Set top
This controls what changes when you bracket exposures.
You can have everything change, or just the flash, or just the ambient light, or have the WB bracket.
I never use these. Bracketing is for the weak. Use your LCD and look at your pictures.
This feature is a left-over from film cameras, and real photographers never used bracketing with film either.
e5 Auto FP top
This lets the D90 play with the trick FP flash sync mode. I've never used this feature in ten years of having other cameras with it.
Auto FP lets you shoot with faster shutter speeds than 1/200 with flash, but with an abysmal loss of flash power as you go to faster speeds.
I never use this.
e6 Bracketing order top
This sets the order in which the various bracketed exposures are made.
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