Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

The sky was gray. In this case, the
photographer put a polarizer on
his camera to bring out what blue
there was in the sky. (Note that
polarizers may not work on gray
days—try it and see what happens.)
As might be expected on a
gray day, the light wasn’t directional.
To add the feeling of more
sunlight, the photographer put
an off-camera flash in a softbox
at camera left and positioned it
fairly high, angled downward. A
full CTO gel was placed over the
flash to warm the light so it would
look like warm afternoon sunlight.
The sand acted as a reflector to fill
the shadows that occurred and no
additional lighting was needed.
For those who are particularly
interested in close-up photography
of flowers, here’s an approach
that works well. We’ll need a lens
that can handle close-up focusing,
or we can add extension rings
(assuming the camera accepts
different lenses). It means carrying
a bit of lightweight equipment,
but with it you can create beautiful
soft light. To handle harsh midday
sun or deep shadows in a forested
area, this photographer uses a
combination of diffusion and flash.
He bends a 6-foot round diffuser
into a “U” shape to form a little
tent (held in place usually with stick
placed into the ground at an angle
to hold the diffuser in place—no
holes in the diffuser, please!).
Sometimes this is the only adjustment
you’ll need. In the photo
of the mushrooms on the next
page, however, the photographer
needed an accent light. He used
an off-camera flash as seen in the
bottom photo, which shows the
setup. An alternate approach is to
lean the diffuser against a tree and
put the flash behind it, in effect
creating a softbox.
Sunlight 101