What's the trick?

[interpunct]

On the lighting topic....

These are just a couple of shots from goofing around with a couple of friends, but I think it still reinforces the point that proper lighting can do a light for you. There is NO photoshop on these images (which you can tell, cuz they are kinda lame!).

This is an ambient light only shot:

This is taken two minutes later, with one off camera flash placed camera right. The subject is cross lit with sunlight from camera left, and this flash from camera right:

Like I said, not the greatest photos... but a nice example of what adding some light can do for you.

this is an AWESOME example! what sort of light are you using here? i've been looking into getting a sort of multi-function light to start learning better lighting techniques. i'm one of the guilty who rely mainly on natural light, so i'd love to delve into another realm of lighting.

 

[svndmvn]

this is an AWESOME example! what sort of light are you using here? i've been looking into getting a sort of multi-function light to start learning better lighting techniques. i'm one of the guilty who rely mainly on natural light, so i'd love to delve into another realm of lighting.

Check out Post 24

 

[James L]

this is an AWESOME example! what sort of light are you using here? i've been looking into getting a sort of multi-function light to start learning better lighting techniques. i'm one of the guilty who rely mainly on natural light, so i'd love to delve into another realm of lighting.

Shot's like this are pretty simple. When you have a bright sky, and a darker foreground, digital cameras can't handle the dynamic range of light. I think our eye sees 16 stops of light, and our cameras can work with 5 or 6. This is why if you expose for the sky, you get a silhouette of your subject sometimes. If you expose for your subject, you blow out the sky (which is what I did in my first example).

So, set your camera on manual, and your shutter speed to its highest sync speed (around 1/250th for most cameras). Now, adjust your aperture to expose properly for your sky. Better yet, underexpose it a stop or two to make it a bit more dramatic. Pop a couple of frames. You will probably have a great background, and a really dark subject.

Now, we need to deal with our dark subject. Throw a flash on a stand aimed at your subject. Set it to manual power, and start at around 1/4 power or so. Take a shot. How does it look? Subject to dark, turn the flash up to 1/2 power, move it closer to the subject, etc. Subject to light? Turn it down or move it back. Eventually you will have lit your subject to where you like it. You can use a meter to do this quickly, but honestly once you do it a few times you realize how easy it really is.

What you are doing is compressing the range of light. Make your bright sky a little darker. Make your dark subject a little lighter. All of a sudden you've got your whole picture in a range where the camera can expose for it properly.

The cool thing is that you are lighting now on two planes. You can control the exposure of the background and your subject independently. Very powerful, and that's only with one light. It gets even more fun when you modify that light, soften it, harden it, colour it, etc. Add another couple of flashes and you are going nuts!



Go to strobist.com. Read it all. Read it again. Then, read it again.

Hope that helps!

 

[ajpl]

Not everything these days is HDR. There was a great photo post up on Digg a while back and every 12 year old there kept saying "No way you can get that kind of dynamic range without HDR and Photoshop, blahblahblah...".

People keep asking me about my HDR work, yet I've never used Photomatrix or done any tone mapping and I don't know what Dragan does to his shots either.

 

[James L]

People keep asking me about my HDR work, yet I've never used Photomatrix or done any tone mapping and I don't know what Dragan does to his shots either.

Do you have a link to any of your HDRs? Always looking to see great work!

 

[compuwar]

Subject to dark, turn the flash up to 1/2 power, move it closer to the subject, etc. Subject to light? Turn it down or move it back. Eventually you will have lit your subject to where you like it. You can use a meter to do this quickly, but honestly once you do it a few times you realize how easy it really is.

The only thing I'll add to this because it's counter-intuitive to new photographers is that moving the light back makes the light *harsher* and moving it closer makes it *softer* (a point source produces harsher light, and the further back you move the light, the more it becomes a point source.) So, if you have the chance to change the power, that's almost always better than changing the distance for human subjects (unless you want harsher light.)

 

[ajpl]

Do you have a link to any of your HDRs? Always looking to see great work!

Ah my point was that I've never done HDR, yet still get asked about my 'HDR' work.
Possibly it may be the work in here.
http://www.imajes.com/pixus/pixus_futt_futt_futt_photography_01.html
My post was in reference to people assuming HDR when that's not the case.

 

[James L]

The only thing I'll add to this because it's counter-intuitive to new photographers is that moving the light back makes the light *harsher* and moving it closer makes it *softer* (a point source produces harsher light, and the further back you move the light, the more it becomes a point source.) So, if you have the chance to change the power, that's almost always better than changing the distance for human subjects (unless you want harsher light.)

Well said, and I totally agree.

 

[James L]

Ah my point was that I've never done HDR, yet still get asked about my 'HDR' work.
Possibly it may be the work in here.
http://www.imajes.com/pixus/pixus_futt_futt_futt_photography_01.html
My post was in reference to people assuming HDR when that's not the case.

Gotcha!