Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

Later, turn on all the automation
you please. It’s good stuff
for efficient working, even if it’s
not good for efficient learning.
Some of the best photographers
in the world use the most highly
automated systems, but most first
learned with dumb equipment.
But enough philosophy already.
In the Sikh’s picture, we needed
to put the white reflector in a
specific spot to get the result we
wanted. After all, if we put it in
the wrong spot, it wouldn’t have
reflected the light from the builtin
flash in the camera. By getting
the main light off the camera, we
can put it absolutely anywhere we
want. In the photo on page 16,
our main light is at camera right,
and that’s a big advantage.
What do we need to use as the
main light? We certainly get the
biggest bang for the buck if we
use the sun. It’s free, it’s powerful,
and it’s available for at
least a few hours a day almost
anywhere in the world. We even
have a certain amount of control
over it. Want it to come from a
different direction? Choose
a different time of day or use
a silver reflector to change its
direction. Want it to be softer?
Choose a day with some cloud
cover. Photographers like all of
these advantages, and that’s why
many pictures use sunlight as the
main light.
Still, we don’t have good control
over the sun. What if we need to
shoot exactly now and the sun is
not in the right place? What if we
want a softer light, but there is no
cloud cover? What if we live in
a climate where there is almost
never any cloud cover?
<strong>On</strong>e way or another, experienced
photographers often overcome
these problems, but if we’re
not already experienced, these
difficulties will hinder our learning.
It will take us a lot longer
to become the experienced
photographers who can deal with
the problems. In fact, the complications
may prevent us from ever
gaining that experience at all.
So that’s the problem. What’s
the solution? Life is short, and
we want to learn as quickly as
possible. After buying whatever
camera we can afford, with
whatever lens we can afford, the
next step is buying whatever flash
we can afford.
Which flash do we want? This is
the hardest decision we have to
make! In the long run, buying a
dedicated flash built to work with
our camera is probably the best
decision. But right now, while we
are still learning, that could be
the worst decision. Why? First
of all, it’s likely to be an expensive
decision. When we buy the
dedicated flash, we’re paying for
the work of a lot of very smart
engineers who made that flash
to work with our camera. That’s
okay; they earned it. But those
same shamefully prideful engineers
sometimes build equipment
that makes it impossible to operate
in a fully manual mode, and
we want full control!
So look carefully at the options
available for the camera’s
dedicated flash. If it, along with
“Whatever we can afford.” Having
the right equipment matters more
than having the best equipment.
There’s More Than <strong>On</strong>e Way to Get Things Done
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