Lesson Title: Essential Lighting
Lesson Requirement:
What you need for this lesson:
A
camera (well, duhh).
A light source of
either a softbox with a strobe if you have one or a North Facing window
that you can place your subject next to. A good starting size for your
softbox is 3’x4’
A round
white disc reflector or a large white cardboard and a black piece of
cardboard. I’ll use a 30”x 40” piece of cardboard with
white on one side and black on the other. We call this a
"showcard” in the biz. Any large white or black object
that reflects will work. I’ve been know to use bed sheets and table
cloths when need be.
Lesson Description:
Light is essential to photographs. Without light you sort of end up with
a black piece of paper instead of a photograph. So if light is important,
then so is lighting. For this lesson, I want you to not only to take a
great photo, but I want you to try some different lighting techniques,
including some bad ones, so you can see what light does. Bad images? Yes.
You can’t take great images unless you’re will to try new
things and that sometimes means stepping over the line and taking a bad
image. My preferred lighting for this
lesson is a medium sized softbox (about 3’x4’). But bigger or
smaller will also work if that’s what you have. Unless your softbox
is less than 18” on one side. In that case, use the window
example. A softbox is a cloth box with a translucent front panel and in the
rear holds a strobe head. Like a Chimera softbox bank and in my case a
Dyna-Lite strobe inside.
If you
don’t have a softbox and a strobe, you can also do these lessons with
a window. Yes, just a regular window. Preferably one that faces north, so
you are using “North light”. Artists through the centuries have
favored North light for portraits because of its consistency and softness.
North light is not direct light but reflected light. In my studio, I have
and use South light for my available light photos. I like it for the
variable light and direct light it provides me. But for those starting, I
suggest North light.
But all the
directions for this lesson will be with a softbox. When I say to move the
softbox, those with windows will have a hard time moving the window, so I
suggest substituting moving your subject for the distances mentioned.
One of the issues I have with some lighting diagrams is it gives you no
feel for how close or far to have your lights. The importance of this is to
see the relationship of the light source to the subject. And seeing is the
important part here. Even lighting diagrams that give you a distance may
not be the best distance for the subject and light source you’re
using. With a digital camera you have the ability to check the light as you
go. In the pre-digital days, pros like me went through a lot of Polaroid
film. I constantly checked not my exposure, but the quality of my
light.
I like my light source to be very large, so that the source of light is a large light source compared to the size of my subject. This gives me a very soft light. I use a 4.5’x6’ large softbox, but for the lesson a medium softbox, 3’x4’ will be ideal.
When
choosing which size bank to use, I keep in mind what look I want. The large
6” bank is a much softer light, since it’s a larger light
source. The smaller 4” bank will also give me a great light, but as a
smaller source it will be more directional, which is what you want
sometimes. I always try and envision in my mind how I want the light on the
subject, what light should it look like. With a bride or a young woman, I
like a soft, all encompassing light. A large light source like the 6”
bank. If it’s a man and I want it more directional with harder
shadows, I’ll go with the 4’ bank.
You might also want to see the effect by starting with either size bank,
6’ or 4’, and the block off part of the front panel of
the bank. I used to use just black cardboard, called
“showcards”. They come about 30”x40” at art supply
stores and I usually got them with black on one side and white on the other
side. I would then cut them down to the size I need. Position one of your
banks and then “hide” half of the front of the bank, take
another meter reading so that you have the correct exposure, as cutting
down the front surface area will of course cut down your exposure. If you
compensate so that both the fully expose bank and the partially blocked
bank have the same, correct exposure, you can now evaluate the quality of
the light from a larger and a smaller light source, using the same bank. It
should be eye-opening.
Rather than
cardboard showcards, I recently started using a new product called
“Lightshapers ™” (www.liteshaper.com). These are stiff black or black and
silver forms that have Velcro ™ along the edges, so I can use them any
different ways with my Chimera ™ banks, which also have Velcro
™ along the front flaps of their Pro series banks. It’s
really made altering the light output of my banks more controllable and
faster that taping cardboard.
I like to
position my softbox so close to the subject that if I move my camera even
slightly away from the subject, you will see the softbox. So that’s
the first part of the lesson. Take your softbox and get it as close to your
subject as possible, which we’ll call that position #1. Now
don’t mix up intensity of the light to the quality of the light. The
closer the light to the subject, the softer the light, but the intensity of
the light, the amount of light increases. So decrease your exposure to get
the correct exposure, basing it on the highlight or lighter part of your
image.
Great. Now move the light source
away from your subject. Let’s try both 2 feet away from where you
start, we’ll call this position #2 and then 4 feet away, which
we’ll call position #3. Readjust your exposure as you move it so that
the tone on your subject matches your original position, position #1. You
should be taking your meter readings so the highlight part of your subject
is the same value visually throughout. If it’s a person that cheek
closest to the light should always look the same, not lighter or darker
when you move the light. So when you move the light away and your exposure
gets darker, you will need to open your lens aperture to keep that skin
tone consistent. When your subject gets closer to the light, you will need
to close down your aperture. If you don’t re-adjust your exposure,
the main point of this lesson will be obscured. We are looking at the
quality of light, not the quantity or intensity of the light.
Large light source compared to the subject, the softer the light. The
smaller the light sources in comparison to the subject, then the harsher
the light. Think that a large window is a large light source. Soft. Now
think of lighting with a flashlight. Very harsh.
Light when the sun goes down below the horizon, the sky becomes a large
light box, a very large light source. It’s the softest natural light
available. Now the Mid-day sun when the light source, the sun, is a point
of light, you have a point source. Very harsh light. Only mad dogs and
Englishmen shoot in the mid-day sun. The rest of us are shooting in open
shade to duplicate a large light source.
Now that your head is ready to explode. Let’s move on to the next
part of the lesson. Reflectors. Once you are happy with position #1 as far
as your light source (Soft box or window very close to your subject) I want
you to position the reflector. Move the reflector, either a round disc or a
white card board, as close as possible to your subject while still being
out of camera sight, This will be reflector position #1.Now without
changing your exposure, unlike the light source lesson, I want you to move
the reflector away about a foot and a half or two feet. This is position
reflector position #2. And now move the reflector 3 feet or more away.
Reflector position #3.
I usually like
reflector positions #2 and #3. A lot of people I know absolutely love the
look of reflector position #1. To each their own.
Now, let’s use the black reflector. Ouuwww. Nice look! For
this the distance isn’t as important. What you are doing is creating
no reflection. So being 2 feet or 5 feet from the subject shouldn’t
make a big difference. The look should be dramatically different than the
reflector positions # 1 and #2, but may not look a lot different than
reflector position #3. There will be a difference, but it may be
subtle.
So in short, the lesson is to
send in photos using a large light source and a white or black reflector.
Happy shooting.
Copyright & Rights: Please adhere to all the rules and
regulations of copyright with your images and the copyright of
others.
Also, listen to the audio
interview on copyright with attorney Robert Cavallo in the Conference
Room at Photoworkshop.com.
Click here to view Storyteller
Bios.
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