I spent a few hours yesterday giving a friend of mine, who is a photo student at UNT, a quick overview of some basics on lighting. He just purchased an Alien Bee and a couple of 430 EX speedlights.

We did a quick table top setup so that I could demonstrate the different light modifiers he purchased and how those affect quallity and quantity of light. I wanted to post one example that we shot because I think it clearly demonstrates how an addition/subtraction of light can make a world of difference.

In this example we are using a 2 light setup with grid spots on both light sources. The second light we used is not lighting the cups but is only a background light. You can see how adding this additional light has dramaticly affected how we interpret the cups.