Why is my flash doing this to my pictures?

I just got a neewer flash for my nikon. I was just shooting and the bottom of my picture burns out black. Why? What do I need I do?

You do not understand that you need to make sure that your cameras shutter speed is set to the flash sync of your camera. This can be from 1/200th to 1/250th second. When you shoot at faster shutter speeds, part of the shutter is in the way when the flash goes off.

This is all in your user manual

Set your camera's menu for flash use. Otherwise the flash is not compatible for use on the camera. Flash guns fire at a set speed, this speed must be recordable by your camera. Setting the camera for too high a shutter speed gives you the results you encountered. Reread you flash instructions and the instructions in your camera manual regarding using flash units attached to the camera.

With a TTL compatible flash like the Nikon SB models, when the flash is on the hotshoe and turned on it electronically coomunicates with the camera. The camera then does not let the shutter go faster than x-sync speed, even in manual mode. However, with a cheap flash like the Neewer there's not this interaction, so it is possible for you to exceed the x-sync speed, causing the leading or trailing curtain of the focal plane shutter to be in the way as the flash goes off.

You need to read the manual.

There could actually be two problems.

The first one, the one everyone is talking about, is due to using too high of a shutter speed. When a shutter gets above about 1/200th of a second, the shutter becomes more of a moving slot rather than the whole photo. And the slot is what is blocking part of the photo - and you get a black area.

The fix for this is to try 1/60th of a second shutter speed and see if the problem goes away.

Here is a video that explains the issue:

http://www.adorama.com/...-AdoramaTV

The second issue which is totally unrelated to the first is that some lenses are rather long on the camera, and especially if it has a lens hood on, some 3rd party flashes that are rather low profile may actually have a shadow on the bottom of the photo from the lens hood blocking the flash output.

So if you are using a lens hood, remove it and see if that is the fix.