For our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons Lourdes had some new photography gear to debut. To pair with her Nikon D5100 this time she had a new Nikon SB-700 Speedlight. So to practice low light photography during the day, I took us to a parking garage in downtown St. Petersburg that offered wide open and close quarter areas. Building on what we learned in our first lesson, this time I instructed her on how aperture and flash power mostly control the exposure on the subject, while the shutter speed controls the ambient/background light in a portrait using flash.
As seen in the photo above, I was standing in very low light in the parking garage in front of an open window with a very bright background. Without using a speedlight, either I would have been a silhouette, or the outside would have had to of been pure white. Using a speedlight essentially allows for two exposures to be made in one photograph. This is a powerful tool and skill to have for photography.