Digital Flash Class -- Lighting Day 1

Today, I think I'll post about the digital flash class I'm taking at the ICP in NYC.  I don't know my way around lighting at all.  I understand the properties of natural light, and love it, but I have been in situations where it would have been great to take a picture, but even with the ISO cranked way up and the aperature wide open, it was too dark or things were grainy and blurry.  A friend recommended this class, so here I go.

Our first assignment was to study the fall-off of light as get further back.  And so, with the exposure set manually to f.56, 1/200th ISO 200, I played with the exposure compensation and distance from the white wall.  You can see how quickly the white wall goes grey, when it is not lit.   Please not, these pics are not for their compositional glory -- we had to compose it as shown.  The only variables were distance from the wall and exposure compensation.  Pretty dramatic differences, even though they all look terrible!