Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 7200, ƒ/5.6, 1/500

Last night I took in the beautiful Luau put on by Island Breeze at the Courtyard Marriott King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. If you come to the Big Island, this is a must-see!!!

I am also working on putting together a photography workshop here and will do my best to make this part of the package. I know many of the Island Breeze folks. They have been my Hawaiian fire dancers.

Nikon D750 Performance

I just wanted to enjoy the Lua and not work, but I still wanted a photo or two from the night. So I just took the Nikon D750 and the AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR with an extra battery–that I never needed.

This camera and lens are an excellent combination—extremely sharp images due to the D750 sensor and the lens’s Vibration Reduction.

After taking this photo of the dancers, I changed the Auto ISO shutter speed to 1/500. But I was surprised at the sharpness at 1/100.

Here are some more images from the night that you might enjoy:

Nikon D4, Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/1.8, 1/8000—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900. The Pocketwizard radio remote triggers the flash.

Today I taught the students the difference between studio strobes using them outside for lighting and using a TTL Hotshoe flash.

I love the photo at the top with the ƒ/1.8 look.

Now, all these test shots show the difference between the lights. Not so much about finding a great location–now, seeing these, I should have spent more time scouting before the class to find a great background.

Click on the diagram to see a larger one.

Before we added flash, we took one photo as the light was on the subject.

So this is where we started with no light, just the available light.

Here for this photo, we took the first photo and transferred the settings using a sync speed of 1/250. Instead of the same exposure, we underexposed by -2EV. I wouldn’t say I like the background as sharp as it is here. However, I like the shallow depth of field in the first photo.

Now you can see the advantages of TTL Hotshoe flashes, and the benefit of the studio strobe is shooting faster [less recycle time].