Off Camera Flash

These days, I don't get excited about shooting something unless I can light it. It's a matter of preference, but whatever it is, I like it better when its lit.

So, with a bit of free time today, I had to test a lens that I'm selling on eBay. This should enable me to show the difference between lit and natural light shots.

For today's exercise, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with the Contax Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* f/2.8 lens. It's actually a fantastic portrait lens, but I didn't have anybody around, so I'd have to settle for some object.



Here is the natural light shot:


And here are two shots that were lit by a single light. That was a Vivitar 285 at 1/4 power coming from camera left.





These shots were processed the same way. Not a whole lot into it, but I shot these in RAW, so it needed some sharpening and a little tiny bit of adding fill light to bring out some details. I kept the amounts the same though.

So while the natural light shot is not bad (or at least, I think), I prefer the punch of the lit shot and that the background is not blown out.

But that's just me.