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Introduction
W
hen Nikon introduced the Creative Lighting System, it was mostly overlooked.
The focus was on the rapidly changing advancement of digital SLR cameras. This
disregard was a shame because the Nikon Creative Lighting System was the most amazing
development to happen to photographic lighting in decades. The ability to infinitely control
the output of multiple lights
and to be able to do it wirelessly, without the need of an
expensive light meter was unheard of.
Even now, the praises of the Nikon CLS are largely unsung. Other companies have tried to
replicate the Nikon CLS with marginal success. Nikon simply offers more options and a
wider variety of accessories. With the SB-800, the SB-600, the SU-800, the R1, and the
R1C1, no other company comes close to offering such a multitude of tools for specific light-
ing needs.
The main feature of CLS is the ability to get the flashes off of the camera and to be able to
control them wirelessly. When you’re stuck with the flash mounted on the camera or even
to a flash bracket, your ability to control the lighting is severely impeded — leaving you stuck
with full frontal lighting.
With the CLS, you can direct the light. Thus, you can create the same lighting patterns that
professionals achieve with expensive studio strobes, at a much lower cost. This is the key
to professional-looking images: controlling the lighting to get the effect you want.
The Evolution of the Nikon CLS
Nikon started toying with wireless Speedlight control in 1994 with the introduction of the
SB-26 Speedlight. This flash incorporated a built-in optical sensor that enabled you to trig-
ger the flash with the firing of another flash. While this was handy, you still had to meter
the scene and set the output level manually on the SB-26 itself.
With the release of the SB-28 in 1997, Nikon dropped the built-in optical sensor. You could
still do wireless flash, but you needed to buy the SU-4 wireless sensor. Wireless flash still
had to be set manually because the pre-flashes used by the TTL metering system caused
the SU-4 to fire the Speedlight prematurely.
In 1999 Nikon released the SB-28DX; this flash was made to work with Nikon’s emerging
line of digital SLRs. The only change from the SB-28 was the metering system. The Nikon
film-based TTL metering was replaced by DTTL. This metering system compensated for the
lower reflectivity of a digital sensor as opposed to film’s highly reflective surface.
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