Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

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The first step is to figure out where the family of angles is. Because direct reflection only occurs within a small family of angles, the choice of where to put the light is limited. This actually makes it easier for the photographer to get it right quickly. The placement of the light and the camera in relation to the metal is automatically limited. If you want a specific camera viewpoint, then as you’ll see, the light placement is fairly predetermined. Start by placing your diffusion material behind the subject. Point a simple test light (it could be a flashlight) at the metal from the camera position. You’d like the light source to be narrow enough to illuminate the metal and not the surrounding elements. Point it to the portion of the metal that you want to light and note where the light is bounced back to your diffusion material. If your light source is small, you may need to point to the top part first; note where it reflects back onto the diffusion material. Then move to the bottom and do the same. Assuming you want bright metal, your main light will have to be placed so it completely fills this family of angles. If it doesn’t, you will either get dark or uneven lighting. If you are aiming for dark metal, your light has to be placed outside of the family of angles. Simple as that. Don’t fear metal! It’s actually pretty straightforward. So, Where Do We Put This Light for Metal? 143
Flat metal The image below was lit with the off-camera flash behind the saw without diffusion. The in-camera flash was used as fill. The handle is okay, but the blade is very dark. The shadows are big and sharply defined. Not very good, is it? In the image at top left on the facing page, we put a white reflector to the left of the saw, which brightens both the blade and the shadows, but the blade still isn’t the shiny metal we expect. 144 <strong>Focus</strong> <strong>On</strong> <strong>Lighting</strong> <strong>Photos</strong> In the photo top right (page 145), we added a framed diffuser between the saw and the offcamera (main light) flash. It was almost vertical but angled slightly toward the saw. The metal is starting to get brighter. Progress! Although there are times when we want the light to fall off, this isn’t one of them. We need to make our main light source bigger if we want the metal to be consistently bright. We’ve already been using diffusion material, so what’s wrong? We need to angle the diffusion sheet on a steeper angle so that the top of the framed diffuser is just barely outside the camera’s view. By doing so, we are now lighting all the metal’s family of angles so the blade will now be bright. There was no change in the light’s position in this case. The image bottom left (page 145) shows the result of this steeper angle. The blade now is bright (but not white) and still has detail. We could stop here. However, in the photo bottom right (page 145),
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Focus On</
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Focus On</
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Dedication To Polly Frye, who tirel
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Contents 127 The wrinkle 128 Eyegla
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oating publications including Chesa
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Robin Reid: Trained as a classical
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learn to work with simple, dumb lig
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Chapter 1: There’s More Than <str
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Built-in flash Shot with built-in f
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Modifier 1: A mirror Having the fla
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Modifier 2: A big white reflector I
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Other modifiers: Fill light, hair l
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Same principle: We can control the
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how many pictures shouLd i shoot? G
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Later, turn on all the automation y
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can also get anything in between: a
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24 Focus O
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We all want the most intelligent ca
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28 the sake of rapid, accurate move
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30 can be to buy one expensive trig
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The size of the light The size of t
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We need to know about this defect t
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36 Focus O
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needs to consider buying one of wha
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Softbox Softboxes are boxes with di
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Diffusion The other way to make a l
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For this book, the translucent whit
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gobo to block some of that light. (
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48 Focus O
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A commercially produced wooden cook
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any glue—all of which we already
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54 We can use the grid for many pur
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56 A grid solves the problem: We ha
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Lens filters Most lens filters chan
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in Our daily lives, we go through v
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The colors of sunrise and sunset ca
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Early evening. The sun is lower in
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space. The sunlit side will be both
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What happens when we go in the oppo
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setting in this open shade lighting
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Using gels for dramatic color In th
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The photo above was done by placing
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Small lights make hard shadows. Fur
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Compare the gourd on page 81 with t
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We could solve the exposure problem
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Why does the same light look so dif
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We had to shoot the cover shot of t
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sunlight is great, and not just bec
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Page 110 and 111: convert the image to black and whit
Page 112 and 113: Amending or mixing light So what do
Page 114 and 115: penetrate.) But what if we don’t
Page 116 and 117: The sky was gray. In this case, the
Page 118 and 119: Distance and haze Haze happens for
Page 120: The photo above was taken in early
Page 123 and 124: Regardless of which lighting style
Page 125 and 126: postproduction work to deepen the s
Page 127 and 128: Broad lighting Broad lighting is pr
Page 129 and 130: like to place it so that it lights
Page 131 and 132: Rim lighting/kicker Rim lighting is
Page 133 and 134: Butterfly/Beauty lighting Butterfly
Page 135 and 136: Low key versus high key lighting Bo
Page 137 and 138: We blocked the popup flash so none
Page 139 and 140: 124 Focus
Page 141 and 142: 126 Light meters Do we need light m
Page 143 and 144: Eyeglasses and lighting: Can they g
Page 145 and 146: In the photo on page 128, we’ve g
Page 149 and 150: When photographing large groups, wh
Page 151 and 152: way they can get an image of the da
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Page 157: Direct reflection means that the li
Page 161 and 162: we went ahead and put back the refl
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Page 168 and 169: Position the camera so the viewfind
Page 170 and 171: we could have hung them with string
Page 172 and 173: A glass half full Interesting thing
Page 174 and 175: Bottle lit with off-camera flash th
Page 176 and 177: it reflected in the bottle. In this
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Page 183 and 184: A homemade flash trigger. We make o
Page 185 and 186: These photos are of a pianist known
Page 187 and 188: This picture uses two external flas
Page 190 and 191: the principles Of light remain the
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Page 199 and 200: Glossary this is an introductory bo
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Page 203 and 204: Dodge: To lighten a portion of an i
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minds, return to the original file,
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Index Page numbers followed by f in
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Lens hood, 99 Light amending or mix
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Sun light, (Continued) sunrise and
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