I am starting g to venture out it is always cloudy here in Washington state. I was playing with my camera to learn this flash SB700 I bought last week. The pictures are coming out too bright and with just the camera flash they are to dark. This week they want me to photograph an indoor event all because I have a nice camera. It is a military formal with dim lights. They know I am a very very beginner. They said its a learning opportunity. I did this before a few years ago I did not own the camera it belonged where I worked that's what hooked me up on photography now 3 years later the pictures were more in depth then the pro they paid $1000 for and all I did was push buttons it was only a D90. I am looking for an online college or class in beginner photography .

Tacoma Community College offers courses in beginner, intermediate and advanced photography. The courses are very well regarded.


Google and Bing are your friends. If you do basic online searches for "photography courses in tacoma" and "photography clubs in tacoma" you will find a large number of resources.

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Try shooting in Program or Auto, and turn ISO down to 200 or 400, making sure Auto ISO is turned off.

Also make sure exposure compensation is 0.0.

Those settings should properly expose your image when using an SB-700.

When outside use matrix metering so the flash will balance the image, filling in shadows, inside I prefer spot metering.

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Also, see if you can get some people indoors and take pictures of them, and learn about bounce flash. The D7000 and SB700 will meter it all automatically.

What settings are you using that are coming out too bright? Are you, by any chance, using Auto ISO when taking those shots? If so, images will likely be to dark since the ISO is increased by the camera to expose well for the aperture and speed selected without regard to a flash mounted or not. Any light added at the time of exposure will cause the image to be over exposed.
A good thing to remember is the metering in the camera is considering the light reflect now, not when the flash fires. One way to get around that is simply turn off Auto ISO or just switch to full manual exposure so you have control over how much of the exposure is from ambient light and how much is from the flash. By setting your exposure meter to show ambient lighting is going to leave the image 1 full tick under exposed according to the light meter at the bottom, the flash will supply the rest, about 1/2 the light needed for full exposure. Two tick marks under exposed on the meter will mean the flash will try to fill in 3/4 of the light for the full exposure.


Stan
St Petersburg Russia

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I often use a flash exposure compensation of EV -1 when using TTL-BL outdoors to tone down the bright look.

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