Okay, I am soooo excited!  Last night I finally figured out how to use my wireless lighting system with my SB-600 speedlight and my D200 camera!  I’ve had my speedlight for a year and my D200 for 9 months — yeah, I know… I’m totally slow.  LOL.  Actually, I just never took the time to do it.  I basically used the SB-600 on my camera as a bounce flash.  Truth be told….the thought of using strobe lighting for my sessions scared me.  Mainly because I just wasn’t educated enough on it.  But last night, I finally was determined to get this setup and begin growing more as a photographer – utilizing off-camera strobe lighting.

The effects with strobe lighting is amazing!  You can create so many different looks to your photos by just moving the strobe(s) in different areas.  It’s so cool!  :D  What’s great is that my D200 already has a built-in CLS (camera lighting system), so I did not have to buy extra equipment or accessories to get the CLS to work remotely.  Awesome!

Well, as you can imagine, I needed to photograph someone to test it all out.  So of course, I asked the only person who would model for me at the last minute – my handsome son!  :D  As usual, he was a good sport!  Here are a few shots from my first “strobe session”.  :D  These shots were taken around 4pm’sh.  The strobe was on my tripod.  I raised and lowered the tripod to achieve different looks.  You can also set the speedlight to increase or decrease the spread of the flash.  Totally FUN!

 

Strobe is at the bottom (camera left) – at knee length, with strobe-head pointing up at a 45* angle. Focus zoom is at 86mm (like a spotlight).

 

Same setup as above, just a different angle and exposure .
(I was having a difficult time getting the exposure on the first few shots.  My exposure comp. kept increasing on me!)

 

Strobe is camera left, bottom – with strobe head pointed up 45*.  I also changed the color of the walls. :) Focus zoom is 50mm (wider spread)
My only complaint here is that I did not have my son’s face totally in the DOF area so his face is not as sharp as it should be.

 

Strobe is camera left, same height as model.  Strobe head is pointed straight at model.

 

No strobe used here – just natural light.  I just wanted to get a different perspective of him – and his “hole-y” jeans!  LOL.
I gave this shot more of an urban look with saturated colors and increased contrast.