Lighting Photostroll Talking Points

For those who will be attending or are contemplating attending the Lighting Photowalk this Saturday, here are the talking points I'll be addressing before we head out on the walk.


Looks like we're going to have some nice weather so the sun will present us with a very interesting challenge and a greater opportunity to practice our lighting skills.

PHOTOWALK NOTES

A.     WHY WE LIGHT

a.     To be able to fully control the luminance content of the image.

b.     Create a particular mood, feeling, or emotion

                            i.     Drama, mystery, comedy, romance, horror

c.      Underscore the composition

                            i.     Add emphasis to a particular part of the image

d.     Reveal Form and Texture

B.     CAMERA CONTROL

a.     Without Consideration of Using Flash:

                           i.     Aperture – Controls Depth of Field

                           ii.     Shutter Speed – Controls the Capture of motion (blur or fast moving objects)

                           iii.     ISO – Controls overall Light Sensitivity

b.     With Flash

                           i.     Aperture – Controls Dept of Field and Flash power

                           ii.     Shutter Speed – Controls motion capture and ambient exposure

                           iii.     ISO – Controls overall light sensitivity

C.     QUALITIES OF LIGHT

a.     Hard Light

                           i.     abrupt transfer edge from highlight to shadow areas.

                           ii.     Often higher contrast

                           iii.     Good for revealing texture

b.     Soft Light –

                            i.     Wide transfer edge between highlight and shadow areas.

                            ii.     Generally medium to low contrast

                            iii.     Minimizes flaws and imperfections by providing self-fill

D.    LIGHT CONTROL

a.     Effective Size of the Light

                             i.     Physical dimensions of the light source

        1.     Bare light/attached modifiers affect actual size of the light source

                             ii.     Distance to subject

        1.     The closer the light source is to the subject, the larger it becomes relative to the subject (within reason)

b.     Camera vs. Light angle

                             i.     Shadows are created when the camera position and flash position are not on the same axis.

E.      BALANCING AMBIENT AND FLASH

a.     “Balance” is a bit of misnomer. Balance does not have to imply equal luminance of flash and       ambient.

b.     Unbalancing may be a better term since we may want either ambient or flash to dominate.

F.     CREATING DRAMA

a.     Tension is created by the placement of shadows (camera/flash angle)

b.     High Contrast adds to the sense of tension (hard light)

c.      Mystery is created by what is not revealed (camera/flash angle)