It's dark out there

It was a revelation a year and a half ago when I started taking photography more seriously and I turned off my flash. I hadn't realized what I was missing by using my point-and-shoot on auto. If it thought it needed the flash, who was I to argue, right? Well, once I started using natural light, I haven't looked back. It can produce great results, a more natural look than with flash. I fell in love with the golden hour. I played with backlighting. I positioned subjects near windows.

But now here we are in the dead of winter. By the time I get home in the evenings with free time to play, it's dark outside. I'm thinking that artificial light might not be all bad. So that leads me to think about lighting. Results from a built-in flash can be less than ideal--overexposure, harsh shadows, red eye--so what to do? Learn how to use my flash correctly for starters. I've also got a couple of shop lights as diy studio lights. I'm doing a portrait session with a friend soon which will be a great opportunity to play. But I also want to take some time this weekend for some test shots so I at least have some idea of what I want to do. I'm thinking that a shoe mount flash is probably in my future.

One step at a time, I'm almost ashamed to admit that getting the right exposure still baffles me. I have Bryan Peterson's highly-regarded book on the subject but the sticking point has been understanding what my camera is trying to tell me. Luminous Landscape has an interesting article and the newly-redesigned Digital Photography School now has all of its exposure articles and more together on one page. Guess I have some work to do!