First day and last day of First Grade.

This has been a long year for everyone with some weeks doing Zoom classes and then in person learning with Wednesdays home on zoom. 

I had much more time on the first day image simply because he was not doing in class at the beginning. While the sun was coming up in the East back in August, we had a cloudy morning for his last day photo. I used a big 50-inch softbox to capture both images. Both are shot at f/2.8 at 1/200 sec at 200mm focal length, but the left photo is shot at ISO 100. The one on the right was shot at ISO 200. I adjusted the power down a bit for the image on the right given a high ISO that brought some detail of the background.
 

When shooting with light whether it is a strobe light or flash, you always have two exposures. Your main focus is the light on the subject coming from your light. The aperture controls the amount of this light that reaches your sensor since it is a split-second of light. The shutter controls the amount of ambient light that reaches your sensor given that aperture and ISO remain the same. Had I wanted to add more light to the photo on the right, I could have decreased the shutter speed. However, at 200mm, dropping below 1/200 sec. has the potential to add motion to the image. I like the dramatic shot, but if I wanted it to appear more like the left image, I would boost my ISO to make it more sensitive to the lower ambient light level. I would also reduce the amount of power of the strobe to equal the ambient light. And perhaps I might have done so if I had more time as my son had to catch his bus for in-person learning. I am just hoping in the fall, he will not be required to wear a mask.