The goal of the blog is going to be off-camera lighting, and showing what can be done with the same suject, simply by moving the lights around. I'll start with no lights, no modifiers, and make images that are increasingly complex.
This is the bear. 1/100th at f/1.8, ISO 1000
This is a shot taken with a D800, and AF-S 85 f/1.8G lens with everything in automatic. Program mode, auto ISO, auto everything. This is what happens when you let the camera make all the choices.
Wow. A $3,000 camera body, and this is whatcha get, huh? Maybe we shouldn't let the camera drive the bus. We'll try a few more automatic settings, then go into manual. Maybe manual lights, maybe TTL lights. But the camera itself will end up always using the same settings, and we'll figure those out as we move more in depth.
This image is duct chock full of flaws. The colour sucks. The depth of field doesn't work for the subject. There's a nasty shadow falling behind the shoulder. White balance is off. we're going go try to fix all that.
Moving forward, the bear will always be in the same place. The camera will use the same settings (as I morph this into a manual mode). Ultimately, what I want to do is to show what can be done with lighting. How can we change the picture, just by adding or moving lights?
