Matt Laur 
, May 20, 2009; 12:44 p.m.
I frequently test camera, lens, or light behavior on my dogs - they're a familiar subject, they move around, and they have features that quickly expose challenges in my technique or equipment: fine contrasting hair, lots of curves, shadows, bright spots to overexpose, etc. And they'll work for cookies and don't care about model releases. Plus, I'm a devoted dog owner, and that completely distorts one's thinking.
So there I was sitting on the back patio, playing with Nikon's Active D-Lighting feature in the D300, trying to understand what I really think about it (summary: it's pretty cool - just don't use it on "High" unless you have a good reason to).
I was deliberately shooting in the splotchy, harsh afternoon light, before the sun went low and got nice and sweet looking. Obviously, this was reflector or fill-flash territory. Pay no attention to the composition, here - this was just a test of some in-camera settings, and a reminder of why even the pretty good dynamic range on the newer bodies can struggle with light this contrasty. But that's good. It's exactly what I wanted to play with. In this shot, the sunlight is coming from over my right shoulder (note
the shadow from the dog's ear).
Active D-Lighting set 'High,' with ISO 500, f/3.2, 1/1000th. Quite snap-shot looking, of course.
Matt Laur , May 20, 2009; 12:45 p.m.
Having satisfied myself on undertanding a couple more things about Active D-Lighting, I popped inside and grabbed an SB-600 and an SB-800. I put an amber warming gel on one, a blue cooling gel on the other, and the simple hot-shoe table stands on both of them. The blue strobe went on top of the charcoal grill, pointed at the fence in the background. The
warm-gelled strobe went up on top of the fence, with a diffuser cup on it. The dog is almost looking into that strobe, which is high and right. The cooler strobe is well behind the subject, camera left, shooting at the fence on the right rear of the scene.
I went to a lower ISO, dragged the shutter at 1/20th of a second to preserve the green folliage outside the gate, and let Nikon's CLS system trigger the two strobes from my D300 (I used it's pop-up flash for a trigger, but had it dialed down to provide no light to the scene by itself).
So, the sunset-ish looking light on the dog's head is coming from one strobe. The blue-ish tint in the upper left is intended to help reinforce that "evening" feel and to contrast with the warm light on the dog. The diffusing cup on the warmer strobe was hanging out over the fence just enough to throw some light on the fence elements facing the camera, and to reinforce the sunlight that was still hitting them a bit.
Why is this an ode to Nikon's CLS system? Because it took me less than five minutes to set up those strobes. No monolights, no AC power, no radio triggers, no stands. Once you've mentally internalized the menu systems on the camera and the strobes, it just becomes
painless to take better control of the light in situations like this. This actual shot doesn't have to be your cup of tea, but I'm hoping it will remind people to get a little more theatrical with the strobes once in a while - it's good exercise.
Same ambient light. Now ISO 200, f/5, only 1/20th, two gelled Nikon speedlights at TTL -2EV.
Matt Laur , May 20, 2009; 12:46 p.m.
A quick diagram, below. And, if anyone cares, this was shot with a 30mm lens. Yeah, it's a bit heavy-handed with the saturation. Just goofing around, and hoping that more people remind themselves to color those light sources once in a while when they're bringing the strobes out in daylight. The real point here is that Nikon's CLS makes this so quick and easy to play with that there's no excuse for not experimenting once in a while.
What went where.
Eric Arnold 
, May 20, 2009; 12:57 p.m.
thanks, matt. great post!
dan sutton , May 20, 2009; 01:17 p.m.
at first i was confused. you said ode to CLS and then talked about the d-lighting. but that is a phenomenal pic. i really like it. well done. i have one sb900 and i've been really wanting an sb600 to complement it. i really need it now.
Matt Laur , May 20, 2009; 01:21 p.m.
Thanks, guys. Just for fun, I put a couple hundred more pixels worth of that resulting image right here.
Richard Thomas , May 20, 2009; 02:09 p.m.
pretty slick, thanks for sharing! i would love to try give this a try but my husky won't stay still. last time i tried to take photos of him, he grabbed my 85mm 1.8 while i was changing lenses and run around with it thinking it was his kong. thank goodness nothing happened to it when i finally got a hold of him.
Jay Poel , May 20, 2009; 02:44 p.m.
Pretty cool. Something I am looking forward to playing around with - I currently have a SB-600 and a friend is selling me a lightly used SB-800 and accessories for $200 US - should have it by late next week.
I wonder how I can bribe my 2 year old daughter to sit still - LOL.
Ken I H 
, May 20, 2009; 03:10 p.m.
Thanks Matt. Very educational and informative. Got to get color gel for my SB-600 to try out.
Brian Duffy , May 20, 2009; 03:46 p.m.
You have great dog photos. Next time I go bird hunting, I'm bringing my camera too.
