Comparing light

One of the things I like to do is to try and take the same photo under different conditions and then compare them. It really helps me learn what the effects of the different variables are so I can eventually get to a place where I'll be able to "see the light" as DH says.

So, we were at my sister's for Thanksgiving and being the only one with kids, we were of course, the only ones up early in the morning. While the kids ate breakfast, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to set up some lights and mess around with them. I still don't really have a good handle on what I'm doing, so I'm trying to play around as much as I can to see what does what. The first pic here was done with a bare 430EX off to her right. At least this time I balanced the flash right and got a good exposure on her without that "direct on camera flash" look.


For the next photo, I thought I'd try out my snoot that I had made the week prior. I made it out of a cereal box and covered it with black gaffer's tape. It's about 6" long. I had to make some adjustments to the flash power, but I was able to get the subject properly exposed while achieving my goal of reducing the light on the background.



And for comparison's sake, I took a shot with the 430 behind a shoot-through umbrella (flash was in the same position for all 3 shots). You can see how the light is much softer--the harsh shadows on the background and on her face are gone, and I have some nice catchlights in her eyes. It's very interesting to me how the "mood" of each of the pictures is different, and it was all accomplished by just modifying/restricting the output of the flash.