I've been experimenting with Manual mode on my SB-800 & SB80-DX and Sunpak 422D with Nikon's CLS (for the 1st two flashes), and with optical Wein slaves for the third.
These two pictures confront different scenarios that I shoot a lot.
The first pictures is one taken in shade. I made sure my manual setting was -1 for the background, and then I placed the SB-800 on camera right. This meant I had to switch the SB-800 so that the sensor was on flash left. This placement allowed my on-camera flash to pop the SB-800. With a difuser on the SB-800, I dialed the CLS Manual so that the on-camera flash was at "--" (no flash, but controlling the Sb-800), and the main SB-800 on Manual about 1/8th power. The difficult aspect was to make sure I didn't have flash in my glasses (I had to switch viewpoint 180 degrees), and that my shirt was not over-exposed. The later was done in Lightroom with the recovery feature. I liked this picture because it looked natural, with hardly any flash.
The second picture features David Hobby's cross-lighting. The setting sun was coming off my right shoulder. Manual exposure for the background at EV -1.7. I placed the diffused SB-800 on camera right, again switching the SB-800 so that the sensor was on flash left, about 50 degrees and well-above my head. At ASA 400 that meant the flash was set at 1/8 or 1/16th. I tried flash from the on-camera flash to moderate the shadow on my right side of the face, but that lit up my glasses frog-eyed. As it was, I had reflections in my glasses. As a self-portrait that could not be helped, with out more exposures. But alas, the sun set too quickly (or maybe I was too slow!) A better solution would have been to use a reflector, but I had no one to hold it. I really wanted the waning sun's rays to backlight my back, to separate myself from the background--that's why no 2nd flash. You can see the effect of the sun's rays on the car's rear view mirror next to my right elbow. Next time it will be with 2nd or 3rd flash.
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