Lighting is a whole new world - kitty pics

[virtuamike]

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Finally got all my gear working properly last night. Picked up a lightmeter and found that it's super accurate - dropping 1 stop on my light shows up as 1 stop on the meter which shows as 1 stop on the camera. Also takes all the guesswork out of metering which helps speed things up bigtime.

Using a 60" Softliter. Found that with the diffuser on, the light is super soft and even. With the diffuser off, the light is more dynamic but shadows are harsher. Also found that the closer the light is, the better. Modeling lamp really helps with trying to figure out where everything's gonna end up. Really gives off some beautiful catchlights.

Shooting tethered with a sync cord for now. I wasn't getting consistent results trying to fire the strobe with my built-in flash. Plus this way, my D70 battery should last a lot longer.

So much to learn with lighting. This is gonna be seriously fun.

 

[greyflash]

The first image is really nice with great lighting. Well done. By way of critique the second image is a little busy and the position of the cat makes one want to turn their head to look at the image.

 

[Flew]

Mike,

These are very well exposed. I agree with Gordon that I wanted to turn my head to look at it though, and that was before I read his post.... :lol:

Regards,

Frank

 

[CraigH.]

Nice work Mike. the second one is very commical.
Yes, the light meter is the best route. I also tried to use the camera meter at first, took forever to set up a shot.

 

[mike mac]

the first one is right on very well done, I agree with the others on the 2nd one

 

[PhotoDawg]

Hey Mike,

That cat looks exactly like my first cat Alex. Nice shots!!