Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

Texture
Subjects don’t just cast shadows
on backgrounds. There are also
shadows within the subject itself
that reveal shape and texture.
Putting the right light in the right
place makes this happen. The
“right place” for that light is almost
never on top of the camera.
This photo to the right shows the
problem. The light on the camera
certainly casts shadow, but
the shadow is mostly under the
subject. The camera cannot see
much of the shadow, so there is
not much texture.
Understanding this problem
makes the solution easy: get the
light off the camera. Sunlight
works well if the sun happens
to be where we want it when we
want it. Household lamps also
can work. Unlike the sun, we
can move them to wherever we
want. Household lights would
work just fine with this piece of
Belgian lace. Still, if the subject
were moving—think of swarming
ants or pouring flour— household
lights might not be bright enough
to stop the motion. Ideally, we
would like to do this with a
flash that is not attached to the
camera, because that’s the most
controllable solution. We can
put the light exactly where we
want it, and it’s bright enough
and fast enough to handle most
movement.
The photo on the following page
was made with a small flash at
a low angle to the side of the
same lace. The improvement is
dramatic.
If we simply tell you to move your
light to the side we’re still not
telling you enough.
The light needs to be small. Small
lights make hard shadows, and
that emphasizes texture. This
one is easy. It simply saves us the
extra step of putting up diffusion
material or getting out an
umbrella.
The light needs to be much
farther from the subject. At first,
this is a little less obvious, but it’s
still easy to explain. As we move
the light to the side, the part of
the subject closer to the light
will be much brighter than the
more distant part of the subject.
If the light is too close, it will be
impossible to get good exposure
through the whole picture.
Light and Shadow
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