I’ve always been a fan of the strobist and just a few days ago I decided to actually try & practice his Lighting 101.
It was pretty easy to get started as over they years I, Eric & Scott have accumulated all the necessary gear, and it just happens to be currently in my closet. We share a nice Manfroto tripod with a good head. I have a Canon 600EX-RT flash and Eric has a Canon 430EXII flash, so I’m good for a two light setup. Eric also has a Cowboy Studio kit with 2 stands, multiple umbrellas, and all the bits and pieces to mount the flashes and umbrellas to the stands etc. A while back I bought a 50′ flash cable for connecting the off-camera flash to the camera and the two Canon flashes can be configured for wireless triggering as well. Yahoo! I’m ready to go!
So, following the first part of Lighting 101 I set up for the one flash off-camera at a 45° angle and 45° up configuration and get it all jammed into my office. Here is what it looked like.
After a few test shots and some flash power level adjustments I’m getting some pretty nice results IMHO. I’m hopping up and down to check the image on the back of the camera after every shot as I’m using a timed release to shoot myself as the subject, sitting in the office chair. Then I remember that Lightroom will do tethered capture. I have a cable for that and the computer is close, so a new experience using the tethered capture which is pretty sweet.
Part of the tethered capture allows you to apply a bunch of presets so here is a black and white look.
Then there is a more normal unprocessed look.
Even Shirley got in on the action.
Looking forward to more experimenting and learning with the rest of 101 and then 102, 103.