Day 42 - Breaking out my new strobe

I received it today in the mail.  This was a really cheap one (40 USD) that I'd ordered on eBay, because I didn't want something that costs me an arm and a leg to get my lighting basics in place; and it's high time for me to start learning about lighting.

So, the kit came with the flash unit, a mini stand and a pouch.  The flash unit has a softboard and diffuser and has power levels from 1/64.  It can also be used as a slave and that was interesting.  Here's what the front looks like and I forgot to snap the back!  Hmmm.. gives me an idea, I should reshoot this during the day and also try to use fill-flash for something:

Now the fun part begins!  I think I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I had bought some lens extensions on eBay as well, which turned out to be quite useless, but I kept them anyway, since I also got a set of 3 filters with it - a UV (this I didn't need), a C-PL (this is good for my second lens) and an FLD.  Now, since I was again shooting in my kitchen under a florescent, I thought that this might be a good occasion to break that out as well.  And so I did!  I didn't think it would have such a dramatic effect.  I need to do some reading on this, but I'd love to know if any of you have any experience with an  FLD.

(And the image here seems to be revolting since I can't get it to center!)

Anyway, so after this I got rid of the FLD and started to play with the angle of the flash head, using different combos of shooting with or without the softboard or the diffuser, wanting to figure out the differences.  I can't see much difference with or without the diffuser, but I definitely see differences with the softboard.  And I have to admit that this strobe isn't that powerful, but I think good enough for me to learn with for the time being.

The next couple of shots were taken with the new strobe at 1/100, without the FLD, the head parallel with the object (if I remember correctly because I didn't take notes this time).  The first one was with the softboard,  and the the second one was without it.

Then there was more fun! I took the next couple of shots in Monochrome with the WB set to tungsten, the first one with the softboard and the second one without.  The flash head was pointed towards the ceiling at 45 deg.  I think the images turned out way "cool" (literally)!