In Texas School, I studied for a week under Mike Fulton and Cody Clinton of TriCoast Photography. They have become the gurus in off- camera flash. The reason I took this class is so that I could make any bright background dark, even during full sun, and lighten the eyes and faces of my subjects. Otherwise, if you dont use flash, your camera can only meter for either the back ground or the subject in full sun. If you meter for the background and get the skies blue, your subject will be dark. If you meter for the subject, they will be properly exposed, however your background will be blown out. Having the flash off the camera also allows me to shape the light the way I want it. If it was on my camera, it would be a flat light, and look like a snap shot.
I posed a model and placed my lights to get a moody look. This room was in a conference building with a lot of ambient light filtering in. I was able to make it look moody and shape the light so that it had shadows that were flattering to her face. This type of portrait lighting is called short lighting.