Review: Nikon School Hands-on Guide to Creative Lighting (I)

When Nikon sent me their usual marketing email message with news of their new DVD from the Nikon School – “A Hands-on Guide To Creative Lighting”, I thought to myself, “At last! Some real material to help get the most out of my SB-800 flash units.” I checked out the promo video online and was suitably impressed, so I ordered the DVD and also a companion book to go along with it.

The DVD can be previewed and ordered here. The blurb on the back of the DVD reads as follows:

Subject matter and light are the heart of every photograph and discerning attention to both separates exceptional from everyday pictures. Learning how to make light work for you with the power and versatility of the Nikon Creative Lighting System, featuring the SB-900, SB-800, SB-600 and SB-R200 Speedlights, delivers the ability to turn an ordinary subject into something special or elevate a striking subject to a stunning work of art.

It goes on to say:

Bob [Krist] will lead you on a tour of lighting fundamentals and techniques in the studio, joined later by Joe [McNally] in the field. Watch and learn as the amazing potential of Nikon’s Creative Lighting System is unleashed in a variety of real-world scenarios – from the Boston Ballet School, to the charm of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Does the DVD live up to its promises and deliver what it says? After viewing the DVD, I thought I would post a review to give my thoughts on it and whether I felt it was worth the investment.

General:

The DVD came in a nicely packaged DVD box, with an insert about the different Creative Lighting System (CLS) speedlights – SB-900, SB-800, SB-600 & SB-R200. The insert describes how to set each one to use advanced wireless flash, both as master and remote units. It also describes the commander modes found on the D700, D300, D200, D90 & D80 digital SLRs. On the back is a nice glossary of terms related to flash lighting and the CLS.

The DVD runs for 2 hrs 34 min and is divided into two main segments:

• Lighting Basics
• In The Field

Section 1 – Lighting Basics:

Bob Krist hosts this section of the DVD, and talks about the following topics:

• Introduction
• Color, Direction and Quality of Light
• Fundamental Lighting Techniques
• Flash Sync Speeds
• Color Correcting For Fluorescent Light
• The Nikon CLS Setup Step by Step
  • SB-900 Setup
  • SB-800 Setup
• Close-Up Lighting For Online Auctions
• Bob’s Portable Lighting Kit

The first few minutes of the DVD are taken up with a basic introduction to natural lighting and artificial lighting, and the similarities and differences between them. Not too much information is given at this stage, but there is enough to set the scene and introduce us to the important section of lighting techniques.

Bob leads us nicely through his introduction into an illustration of different lighting techniques in a studio with a live model. He gently progresses from using a single on-camera flash to using multiple lighting with wireless flash and reflectors. His concise way of explaining everything is perfect, and there’s something here for intermediate photographers as well as the beginner. Even for advanced users, it’s great to sit back and refresh one’s mind about the basic principles involved. Each setup is beautifully explained and illustrated, giving a wonderful picture of the many ways to illuminate your subject with a flash.

He pays very close attention to detail, showing how to build a portrait with key lights, reflector, background lighting and hair lighting. The pace is fairly quick, but not so fast as to leave anyone behind.

Next, Bob shows us how to use slow-sync flash to capture the background in an image – very useful for outdoor portraits or those where you do want to see some of the natural background behind the subject.

One of the problems that photographers inevitably face is coping with the different colors associated with various light sources. He tackles this problem with one example – correcting for a fluorescent light source by using the camera’s white balance adjustments and gel filters for the flash. The same principles can be applied to tungsten lighting, so any explanation of this on the DVD would simply have been filler; therefore I’m glad they didn’t need to overdo things by covering that as well.

Bob goes on to explain the CLS in quite a lot of detail – way too much detail in some instances. Most of the information in this (long) part of the DVD can be found simply by reading the appropriate camera and flash manuals. I really didn’t find this section to be either interesting or earth shattering.

Moving on, there was a brief discussion of the R1C1 close-up lighting system, which was interesting and then Bob took us through a good demonstration of lighting small objects to create images for use on online auction sites. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who would find this section useful.

The final part of the first section gives us a look into Bob’s box of tricks – his portable lighting system. As interesting as it was, I really didn’t see the point of this part, except as a short filler. It really didn’t convey any useful information about lighting per se.

One annoying feature of this section of the DVD was the music. To begin with, the volume of the soundtrack became so intrusive that I found it difficult to concentrate my attention on what Bob was actually saying. Thankfully, the rest of the DVD didn’t suffer from this problem.

In part II of this review I’ll take a look at the second section of the DVD, which deals with hands-on examples in the field with Joe McNally.

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General CD/DVD, education, lighting, review