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

Continuing on with my review of this DVD from Nikon School, I’m going to take a look at the second part of the DVD, which shows specific examples in the field and the different ways of using the Nikon CLS to produce great results.

Section 2 – In The Field:

This section of the DVD is hosted by Bob Krist and Joe McNally and is divided into the following 5 sections:

• The Boston Ballet School – Lighting Dancers
• Indoors At The Inn – Lighting a Bride
• Outdoor Opportunities – Lighting a Bride
• Historic Gloucester – A Fisherman, a Boat and a Dozen Speedlights
• Review of Images – Bob & Joe

For me, this was where the DVD really started to give out some practical and invaluable information. Being out in the field with real models, presented with the challenges of different locations and non-optimal lighting really shows us how to cope with real-life scenarios. There is a lot of information in this section of the DVD, and you will need to watch it over and over – getting new things from it on each viewing.

The session at the Boston Ballet school is amazing to see how Joe sets up each image, beginning with natural light and then adding supplemental light from the Nikon CLS to really make the photographs pop. There is a great discussion of rear-sync flash with a moving subject and wonderful examples. One of the real highlights of this section for me was seeing Joe’s wonderful creativity in turning a non-descript open space into something dynamic using odd shadows as positive creative elements.

The second & third portions of this section are specific to wedding photographers, but are also great portrait examples. When photographing a wedding, speed is critical and there is rarely time to spend thinking about what to do and how to do it. By studying these examples in detail, over and over, you will be able to extract a lot of very useful tips and information on how to create wonderful bridal portraits and wedding photographs with the Nikon CLS. The outdoor bridal portrait examples were particularly exciting for me, and Joe’s results were outstanding.

The fisherman images on location in Gloucester again delivered a wealth of detail and information. These examples can be applied to both commercial photography and portrait photography, showing how the creative positioning of speedlights, combined with available light, can produce some eye-popping results. For anyone wanting to get the best out of the Nikon CLS outdoors, this is very useful.

The final example, lighting up a fishing boat and fisherman portrait with a dozen speedlights was the culmination of all the techniques discussed in the DVD so far. Whilst I can’t imagine personally owning 12 SB-800s, I could see a lot of useful tips and ideas in this section. Perhaps the biggest thing here was the demonstration that working with the Nikon CLS, even with numerous flash units, can be quick and easy.

The final section, a review of the images by Bob and Joe, was mostly a summary of the previous sections with no really new information.

What’s Not On The DVD:

So much for what was on the DVD, but what was missing for a guide to the creative lighting system? Well, not too much really. However, there were a couple of things I would like to have seen mentioned:

Lighting ratios:

The subject of lighting ratios wasn’t mentioned at all throughout the DVD. Although, lighting ratios might be more at home on a DVD about general lighting techniques, I think it would have been useful to mention this in the initial section, at least, where Bob was talking about general lighting. The Nikon CLS offers the ability to set the power of each group of flash units to an amazing degree and this obviously plays right into the concept of establishing the correct ratio of lighting for any given subject.

Limitations of high-speed sync:

The Nikon CLS allows for certain cameras to sync with the flash at any shutter speed – a very useful tool. They did cover the subject of high-speed sync flash, but conveniently left out any real discussion of its limitations. It’s great to be able to use flash to balance natural daylight at high shutter speeds, but I’ve found through experience that the flash needs to be a lot closer to the subject to have any real effect. High-speed sync is something I am still experimenting with myself, and is not as simple to master as they seem to show on the DVD.

Line of Sight Requirement:

One drawback of the wireless CLS is the need to have all the flash units in line of sight of the commander unit on the camera. It’s important to have the sensor of each remote flash unit aimed toward the camera so that it can receive the pulses of information that tells it how to fire correctly. This wasn’t really mentioned on the DVD, except one time in the Boston Ballet School section, but was never explained.

Overall Impression:

Despite some small annoyances, such as the loud music at the beginning, and the minor omissions mentioned above, I found this to be an interesting, informative DVD that was well worth the investment. I’m sure I will watch this several more times to get even more information from it. Joe and Bob gave an excellent insight into working with the system in the field, combined with the basic information anyone would need to get started with it.

I would recommend this to anyone using the Nikon system who wants to add new dimension to their images.

I do understand that, at the time of writing, the DVD is only available in the USA. However, as far as I know, the DVD should play in a computer DVD player, if not a regular standalone player, so it might still be worth ordering even if you are not in the US.

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General CD/DVD, education, lighting, review