For those who have been following my “Techie Talk” posts, I’ve been playing a lot with Nikon’s CLS (Creative Lighting System), i.e. using my D200 built-in flash in “commander mode” to talk wirelessly to SB-800 off camera flashes.
Over the holidays while searching for a good photography book for a friend, I stumbled upon “The Hot Shoe Diaries” by Joe McNally. It is a compilation of the author’s images using flash units in place of big studio lighting for the very reason that I’ve been researching this concept – the ability to travel light and provide more options for creativity.
Pro Photo Supply, located in NW Portland, had some “toys” I’d been researching in their rental department. I rented a 15″x15″ Lastolite’s Ezybox Hotshoe (image of product to the left below). There is a 24″x24″ version but Pro Photo only has the smaller version.
I experimented with photographing a “reluctant” Derek to see the difference between using this softbox vs. umbrella.
Making these images black and white will emphasize the transition and the contrast between the light and the shadows.
With this experiment, I noticed that the transition and contrast weren’t that different between the softbox and the umbrella. However there is a significant difference between these two and the diffuser.
I’ll need to play a bit more but this gives you an idea of how you can manipulate light to give you different looks. Its all a matter of taste and a matter of what you are trying to “evoke” with your image.
Stay tuned…
by Joni
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