I guess I missed International Available Light Portrait Day, but then I am wondering when I get to color eggs and hide them in our miserably small back yard. My bud in Texas, Kirk Tuck, did a nice little post on Available Light, and got me thinking about how much I love it as well. I thought I would post a little “Natural Light” post myself.

The shot above is totally natural light from a wide open sky in back of me and a setting sun to camera right giving the shot a little tweak of light. I am loving the way it just adds that wonderful highlight to the jeans and her hair. Taken at the Omaha workshop while waiting for another photographer to get their lens changed.

I would love to discuss some natural light shots with you, but first some housekeeping:

Workshop News:
I have scheduled a few advanced classes and we have had some really great classes. The workshop we did in Baltimore last weekend was a blast for the students. They learned how intricate the lighting used to shoot jewelry can be, and how to prepare a pour shot for liquids. We added some models to the afternoons and they loved the switching of gears from things to people.

Atlanta is my next workshop and it is an advanced. If you are looking for a way to expand your understanding of studio work – still life, product, food and jewelry – take a look at what we are offering. It is designed for the serious photographer, and is still a great workshop for the advanced amateur.

Also coming up is the Greenville and Columbus workshops. Greenville will be a great time. I love going to the smaller towns that many other workshops don’t schedule. I will be doing some work in the area as well, so the month of June is totally full. Columbus is being sponsored by MPEX and will simply rock! Watch for some exciting news about that workshop!

Selina, Jack and I are gearing up bigtime for the Going Pro NOW tour this fall. We kept the pricing low and the value high. We believe in photography and we believe that we can make a difference in the challenges of the emerging photographers out there. Things seem to be picking up out there in ad land, so be ready.

I will be doing some one-on-one consultancies in July. Utilizing the studio I have in Phoenix, there will be some openings for photographers wanting to take some serious lighting instruction. We can arrange for all kinds of amenities for those of you who may want to take a more personal workshop. It will be available for 2 attendees per. If interested, drop me an email. I have only a few open days in July.

Heading for Denver in July and we are trying a workshop in the Flagstaff Area. That workshop will feature working along Old Route 66, Downtown Flagstaff, mountain meadows, pines, deserts and more. A special workshop in a special place. This will be my first Denver area workshop, and I am excited about that.

Recent posts you may have missed:
My workshop and week in NY produced New York, May 2010: Fun in the Big City
You Know That Guy… I Hate That Guy. Am I Somehow More Successful Now? was a post on the tendency to think negatively instead of with inspiration.
Sure You Gotta Logo, But What Is Your Personal Brand? discusses going beyond the surface of brand and gets into your personal branding project.
“The Heart of Portraiture” E-Book: 20 Portraits Discussed. My first freely distributed E-book featuring 20 portraits and discussions on what the thought process was to achieve them. Free to download and enjoy.

Now on to a little post on natural light, and thanks Kirk for getting my brain going on this.

I have heard it called available light, natural light, real light and so many other similar terms that it can all be so confusing. I may not have the definitive, nor the best accepted explanation of what it is, but to me ‘natural light’ only means I did not bring any artificial light sources into play. Using what is there, and modifying the bejeezus out of it is fine. (Let’s not go into whether the use of reflectors is indeed a light source or any kind of semantical issues, OK… I mean I didn’t bring a strobe, hot light, flashlight, or studio flash along for the shot. Shiny boards, scrims, and reflectors are fine in my definition. Feel free to define it your way.)

I like the softness of natural light. I like it’s ability to sculpt and define. I like the simple way the light moves across my subjects creating complex behavior that I can exploit. I think it is accessible light – a welcoming light. Natural light seems familiar and emotional to me.

When I started out, I used a Nikon with three lenses and a reflector. I didn’t own any lighting equipment at all. I shot model composites, local fashion and editorial, portraits for business, even still life all with the light in the alley behind my studio and the light that would come through the two story windows. I ended up with a cadre of fill cards… silver, white, gold, bronze. And there was a stash of odd shapes for odd fills, and cookies for shaping the window light.

I love working on location and the challenges it brings. Environments create lighting situations that can be astounding to work with. Even when I am carrying strobes, the natural environment is totally a part of the creative process. Below are a few shots from the early portfolio. All were taken in the 1980′s, most in the early 80′s.

All images in natural light. Copyright Don Giannatti

My first lighting kit was a set of Ascor Strobes with four heads. Wow. They were used like crazy for a week and then set for quite a while as I kept working in the style I was accustomed to working in. Over a couple of years the strobes became another tool in my arsenal of lights, and the work started to include them more and more.

But I never lost my love for the simple natural light. And the intimacy it can create.

Lately I have been doing all kinds of lighting (at the workshops we go from natural light to 4 and 5 strobes… it is a blast to be able to control and manipulate so many sources), and find my natural light work to be even more interesting to me. I like to move fast, capture a moment and leave it all on the set. It can be a much shorter process for me these days, and the accessible, intimate, natural light creates a definitive change from the manipulated and illustrative strobe work.

This is a totally natural light shot. What I mean is not even a reflector was used. I wanted the softness of the sky and the natural play of light on her face. Behind me, the sky was cloudy, but bright. The sun had burst under a cloud behind her for a moment and it gave me some great backlight. I work with the talent to keep the sunlight off the cheeks and nose, and then let them be themselves. This shot was taken with a 80-200MM lens at 125MM and f-2.8. I like the way the hair is lit and the catch lights in the eyes seem to be so natural.

I particularly liked this location near my old studio. It was simply the wall facing east – and to the east was a two story white and light tan building that caught the afternoon light and became a great, soft light source. In the afternoon I could place a model in the shade and still get a wonderful highlight on the hair from the open sky. This is also a totally natural light shot. With the huge light source of the building and the open sky above us, I can work her face any way and still have wide, broad, soft light. A 200MM lens at f-2.8 gave me a very shallow DOF and isolates her face against the wall.

These shots were taken on an iPhone on the south side of my studio in soft, overcast light in the late afternoon. I like the way her face is softly sculpted by the light. The DOF is of course not controlled on the wide angle iPhone lens.

The natural softness and the slightly hard shadow from the slightly diffused sun produced a nice look to my eye. The model kept her face toward the light so I could keep the ratio closer than the side light would have created.

I pushed the ISO up to 200 on this one. The light was quite overcast and I wanted a bit faster shutter speed. The 80-200MM L is at f-2.8 and the focal length is about 150mm or so. I brought a white card in close to the shadow side of her face to provide a nice fill, and had her turn her face toward the light until the shadow on her nose was mitigated to a lighter shade. Side light can be very nice sometimes, and other times, I work to get a softer ‘fall’ of light.

This portrait was taken in Balboa Park at the San Diego workshop. We had wrapped a shoot and were heading to meet the other group when I noticed the way the slightly overcast sky was reflecting on the large leaf. I loved the feeling of it, and the shape of that large leaf just seemed like a perfect background for a portrait. Yes, I really did.

I placed her in the soft light of the shade of the building and turned her face up to catch the same soft, broad light that the leaf was enjoying. I really like the way the light formed on her face. And the softness of the light kept her face free of pesky shadows. I do like shadows, it’s just them pesky shadows that bother me. The lens was a 20-35MM L at f-4 and zoomed to about 30MM. There are no fill cards or additional modifiers at all on this shot.

I hope you took something from this little exercise in pure natural light portraiture.

Here are some resources you may enjoy:
Lifehacker had this little post.
Here is a very detailed post on shooting food with natural light.
7 Tips To Use Natural Light In Your Photography from the folks at Virtual Photography Studio
While I really don’t care much for that “Secrets” thing, this excerpt from “Professional Secrets of Natural Light Photography” has some nice information.

A few photographers who use a lot of natural light in their work:
Nick Onken
Kate Orne (NSFW if you open “women” first and work with neanderthals.)
Jay Maisel
Anthony Georgis
Richard Rinaldi
Denny Zalpalac

Thanks for coming along on this little post. If you are thinking about a workshop this year, take a look at Learn to Light for more information. Follow along on Twitter if you want to keep up with a lot of what I find interesting in photography.

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Recently there was a discussion on whether natural light shooters would be able to compete with the strobe-heavy photographers and those deep into the Photoshop illustrative techniques. And before we begin it must be stressed that I love all kinds of photography. This is not ‘against’ any style that you may enjoy, it is only a look at some simple, and entirely wonderful ways of shooting.

Photography embraces all types of imagery. From the heavily illustrated work of Dave Hill and Tim Tadder, to the Photojournalist with a camera in a war zone, to a wedding shooter with a speedlight – and more. We love it all. I hope that when you look at a photograph you don’t measure it by whether it was ‘hard to do’ but whether it speaks to you and makes its way into your inner vision. The image is what is important.

The discussion was at Heather Morton’s excellent blog. Jaimie said:

“The other post I wanted to mention was the ‘To Gear or Not To Gear’ article where there was a discussion about exactly that. I think this was actually the first compliment I think I’ve received from someone in the industry in regards to my natural light stuff. I guess I’m curious to know why it’s seen as such a bad thing. I completely understand that in the advertising world it’s all about control and customization as well as being a little over the top in many cases. What I don’t understand is why working with natural light seems to be frowned upon and/or viewed as being amateur and simplistic, or something that wasn’t thought out. Seriously, I don’t think either Grant or I or any other shooter that uses a lot of available light (Chris Wahl anybody?) are just taking our cameras outside and hoping for the best when we shoot.”

I think that is something that a lot of people who first get interested in photography through the internets think. Unfortunately. And of course the marketers abound with gear gear gear to a point where some would wonder if were even possible to create images without a ton of lights. And of course it is. And shooters like Frank Hoedle use a lot of gear to achieve a look that seems more natural than not. And this is NOT a gear discussion…

This is a possibilities discussion. I have no dog in the hunt as they say. I could care less what anyone shoots with or without… just show me the pictures. Do they move me? Good.

My post today is on simplistic shooting… just a camera and a subject. The images above were taken 25 years ago. (Natural light, Nikon F3, 180MM f2.8 Nikkor @ 2.8, on Tri-X at ISO200 and pushed 15% in D76.) They were taken in Scottsdale, AZ on a bright, sunny day. There are no fill cards or any other lighting gear used. I think they work.

Why? Because it doesn’t matter to the image. The subject connects with you instantly. The light is subtle and soft and inviting. Was it ‘easy’? I don’t remember most anything being ‘easy’. The location has to work, and then there are considerations to be made. Will the light ‘work’ or will it just be exposure light? Can I sculpt the subject a bit and separate her and emphasize the line and shape and flow? What exposure compensations may I have to make to create on the film or capture, the look I see in my head? The only thing that is easy is that I only had to carry my bag to the shoot.

In the shot on the right we were in a closed in patio with a large window facing south. The light coming in that window was shaded from direct sun by an overhang, so the light was soft and wide. Placing the subject into that light and then making sure the walls were lit enough to provide the soft edge lighting was the goal. We had to move some furniture to get it right, but we did. Same location for the shot in the middle, and as the sun went behind a mountain and left us in shade, we did the shot on the little gravel driveway.

I shoot to the right and process to the left. What that means is I would more likely over expose the image and process to the shadows than I would underexpose. I like brighter skin tones and I like a neg or capture that has some contrast to it. Digital is so flat compared to film. So I shot the film to the regular ISO200 that I usually did (Tri-X was rated at ISO 400… yeah, and I am the king of prussia) and pushed the film (over developed it) to get a bit more contrast. Digital to follow after the jump.

This kind of shooting was my style back then. Natural or slightly modified light. Natural looking subjects in natural settings. I still love that look and shoot it. An older post on shooting with nothing but available light, Minimalist Shooting, is here and features my friend Christina.

BTW… if you would like one of those hand-filed negative borders, here you go. Just put the image in a layer below the border. This is one of my own filed negative holders, so enjoy. Only available here, and may not be available forever.

The shot below was made in Houston at a workshop. I noticed the light coming in from the window and knew it would be a nice light for a portrait. Moving the subject into the light, I made an exposure reading for his cheek and stopped down one stop from the reading. I wanted a darker side to me, and if I had exposed to the meter, the cheek would be one stop brighter, and the highlight of the face blown to nothing. I like the feeling of the light in shots like this… almost feel the warmth.

I could have brought a fill card in to lighten the shadows even more, but I liked the overall look of this shot so I left it out.

The next shot was taken in Seattle, also at a workshop. Behind me is a large white building which is adding some huge, soft light to the subject. I love the natural catch lights in the eyes when shooting natural light. This shot was taken with a Canon, 70-200MML f2.8 @ 2.8, ISO 100. Zoomed almost all the way out, the limited DOF is just delicious. There is no additional lighting modifications added to this shot.

The subject is under an awning, and the light is bouncing all around from a bright, sunny day around the structure. Keeping her in line with the brighter background helped her stay “open”, with a feeling of surrounding light that envelops her. Note that the brighter background objects out of frame are presenting as rim and hair light. Subtle, but then subtle is pretty cool to me.

For exposure: I metered the shot with an incident meter (Minolta IV) and it gave me a reading of 2.8 @ 1/320. And that would have been fine. But I chose to over-expose the image (1/200) to make sure I got the skin tones up and captured all the shadow detail I wanted. At post I can take it down if needed, but in this case the image was fine in post. Only a slight modification was needed to enhance the contrast.

What I would like you all to do, is just experiment a little with some minimal gear. Try making shots with only a subject and a lens. Find locations that have some amazing light falling all around and use it to create images that seem to have more light sources.

Here are some photographers that may inspire you to try some natural light, or minimalist shooting.

Nick Onken
Kate Orne (Women section – may be NSFW)
Jaimie Hogge
Grant Harder
Dave Hill (yes, THAT Dave Hill)
Jeff Petry
Mark Tucker
Nadav Kander (Dig around in the work a bit)
Peggy Sirota
Arthur Elgort (Especially Fashion: Check the ballet shots as well)
Chris Wahl

Of course all of the photographers mentioned above know their way around a strobe kit, and they all do work with lighting. There are images in their portfolio that use lighting… some use LOTS of lighting. The point I am making is that they also create compelling images with minimal equipment.

And that means that compelling photographs are available to the shooters who flex their lighting muscles and create with what they have. MAKE the shot happen. Take a subject out and take your cameras. MAKE the shot happen. Just for a while, focus on what you have on hand… what the light is doing, what you can do with it, where it is advantageous light, and where your image can be what you see in your head.

MAKE the shot happen. No excuses. Treat it as an assignment. You MUST make a compelling image.

I am thinking about doing some posts on the Medium Format film cameras. That way when you rent one, and you should, you will have the info here to get started right away. Your comments?

Thanks for taking this little rant about minimal shooting with me. Follow me and get all kinds of photographic links at Twitter. See you next time.

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This is kind of a personal post for me. There are challenges that I face as an artist and writer. And photographer. And sometimes those challenges can take its toll on me, and us. Creativity, for me, takes nurturing and constant practice.

I have always felt that photography, was more than what I could do. It was a big part of what makes me. In my DNA so to speak. It partly defines me more than any other endeavor that I involve myself in.

I came to photography the usual way. My dad was a photographer / writer and his enthusiasm was contagious. I would go into the field with him and he would photograph fishing ‘flies’ and how to sight in a rifle and such. I would be his note taker, and he would talk to me as he was working and I would write down the distances or the exposures. He wrote and illustrated magazine articles for outdoor magazines. I miss my dad.

When I was a kid I would wait every Wednesday by our little mailbox to get the issues of Life and Saturday Evening Post. Cover to cover by nightfall. I cut out images and stuck them in a little box. Names like Eisentaedt and Margaret Bourke White started to become recognizable.

The images were so beautiful, and sparked such interest… I would go back again and again to look at the photographs. Moments in time caught forever in a frozen tableaux… to be shared and remembered. Film (movies) doesn’t do that for me. I rarely want to sit and watch a movie again and again. But I can pick up my copy of Ansel Adams Monographs, a Minor White collection, or my old dog eared Cheyco Liedmann book and enjoy a few quite moments.

There has also been some stuff online recently that lets me know that other photographers are talking about and thinking about this stuff as well. Chase Jarvis, Zack Arias, Scott Bourne, Jack Hollingsworth, Kirk Tuck, and others have posted on creativity.

I have been feeling the burn of captivity lately. Seems like I am tied to a desk as I am working on two books, redoing the curriculum for the workshops and editing/post processing images for clients.

So I wanted to go out and do something that spoke to how I was feeling. I generally don’t try to make ‘pretty’ pictures, others do that very well. I like environments that show themselves to be involved in life. From decay to renew, old contrasted with new, and the mark of man on the environment.

Since I am feeling a little isolated and in need of a recharge, I decided to take an afternoon and do something photographically that made sense to me. At this moment… where I am and what I am feeling now.

More after the jump below. I just wanted to remind you that our new feature “Rants and Raves” are shorter form articles that are just that… rants and raves. I have the first few months of the schedule up at Learn to Light, so if you are considering a workshop this year, check the schedule out. I think my workshop is one that will change your lighting and photography for the better.

This is the road that I chose. It is fairly close to where I live and goes through some rather flat and mundane farming land.

View Larger Map

It isn’t a long drive, and it offers no typical ‘beautiful’ scenery. I had a nice slightly overcast sky and it seemed right for my project. I wanted to capture in my images what I was feeling and this light, environment and somewhat desolate landscape was exactly what was called for.

Abandoned migrant worker facilities.

I find that just getting off your ass and doing something, anything, can get the juices going and create situations that allow vision to be explored. I had nothing in mind as far as photography and gear, I just wanted to make images that would help me understand what I am feeling.

My gear was simple: Canon, 20-35 L, 80-200 L, 4 speedlights, several stands and modifiers, a small boom, and a kit of Mamiya 6×7 film cameras. Tripod, extra batteries and my “lighting’ kit was also along. At the end of the day, nothing but the Canon and the 20-35 was used.

The lines caught my eye and the clouds added some beautiful texture to the sky.

I guess that was fitting looking back. I am looking for simplicity in the images and the gear seemed to follow. I like the way the wide angle lens adds so much to the field of the image… letting the subject be more isolated within the environment.

Simplicity is the thing for me right now. I want to narrow my acquisition of things and increase my understanding of the ways creativity are manifested in the soul. Too much time spent chasing the material world can create havoc in the creative world. At least it does for me.

The simple, or minimalistic, aesthetic is one that appeals greatly to me. It runs through my photography and design, and it needs to be brought into my self as well. I wanted the images that I do to speak to the minimalist in me.

I didn’t leave the house with the intention of shooting only one lens, or to do ‘that shot’ I have been wanting to do. I tried to clear my mind of all that stuff and just think about the emotion of the world in front of me… and how to get that into a photograph. Without expectations, I am open to serendipity and that allows the world to present itself.

Remove the filters of self-imposed arbitrary limitations.

The trees made me stop and turn around. I knew there was a shot there and I wanted to find it

I drove right by the trees. I was listening to some music I had brought along and thinking about something I had just seen. The trees just wizzed by my passenger door with only a glimpse. I kept on driving for a mile and realized… that was part of what I need to do. Stop going so damn fast and missing the moments that can be created.

I turned around and went back to the three trees. Closing the car door it looked kinda hopeless. Access was denied due to the fencing and there was a fairly soggy ditch between me and the trees.

The more I didn’t see a shot, the more I wanted a shot. I needed to make that image. I didn’t know what image, but there was one here. I refrained from making images that I knew would not cut it. I worked the camera like it held precious film… not taking the shot till I knew I had something.

That was important to me. I wanted to come back with as few images total as possible, with the maximum amount of images I like. I finally found the image I was looking for, and made a few exposures.

I was feeling less melancholy at this point. I knew I had a few images that would make the day worth it, so I got in the car and headed further south with the feeling that I was making some images.

I have always been drawn to the frame within the frame. It says something metaphorical to me.

This is the power of the personal project. Some projects are large in scope and some are small – like this one. It doesn’t matter which you are on at any one time, but having projects to focus intent on makes a big difference when you are shooting.

Some projects are driven by external elements, a desire to do something to help or elevate or bring attention to a cause or an interest. And some are driven by internal elements… like this one.

Projects help open the mind to opportunities, it let’s the images that may not be seen get through. Awareness of parameters and goals helps refine the creative self to find the answers and solutions.

Finding emotional meaning in images is so important. The image as metaphor, the image as a reflection of one’s soul. The image as an iconic touchstone for people to refer to in thought and action. A great image can transcend the reality of the object. A piece of paper with some ink or emulsion on it is NOT what a photograph is. We bring so much TO that little piece of paper from our own perceptions, emotions, community and culture. The fact that images can provide that for people of diverse situations is a testament to the power of the still image.

When I got to the ‘destination’, actually the turnaround spot for me, I found that the “Burnt Buns Cafe” had been taken under new management and was no longer.

No problem. I made my photograph anyway. I didn’t dwell on the loss of an old friend, I instead made an image that showed the distance between. The loss that I felt, instead of the cafe itself. I hope you can see that in my images, but if you can’t, that is fine as well. I cannot guarantee that my images will do what I want them to do. And I don’t make images that scream the message or are so totally flagrant in the metaphor. At least… I try not to.

In the end, the trip was well worth it. I got these 6 images and 7 more that I really like. And I got off my ass. And I took my cameras and gear and set out to do something. Anything.

But I also left with a plan… to make images for ME about the way I am feeling and hopefully to share those images with people who will enjoy them…even IF they don’t know what I am trying to say.

Other projects: I have a 365 iPhone project here, and I am working on a few books and new site for art photographers. In March I will start a photograph/article per day project that will culminate in a book.

I hope that you found the article interesting, and have started a personal project for yourself. It doesn’t have to be a big project, it can be as little as a few hours on a lonely county road.

Post processing was on my mind from the first image. I wanted to mute the colors and increase the contrast from the very flat light. I used overlay layers (soft light), highlight painting, luminance masks and localized sharpening on the images. I then desaturated the image and added a tone of warmth to all the images.

Follow me on Twitter, and visit my website for more of my work.

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Meters. Some people hate ‘em. Some people love ‘em. But a lot of people don’t know what they do or why they should have one. Well the gloves come off on this one. At Lighting Essentials, we LOVE light meters… they give us control that no chimpin’ can… and we can use the knowledge they give us to tame even the most difficult lighting challenge.

We will have a lot to say about meters in this post, so grab a cold one (or for my Toronto, Detroit, Boise and Pittsburgh friends… a warm one) and get ready. We are gonna talk about meters and how to use them for repeatable and perfect exposures. More after the jump… lots more.

Workshop News: Heading to a quiet destination to work on next years schedule. We start in Phoenix in late January, then to Seattle and San Diego. Also on the schedule will be Houston, Dallas and Atlanta again. If you have some ideas for me… now’s the time. I would love to get something going in NY, Raleigh and Cincinatti, so if you are in those areas, lets talk asap…

I have been working on the new curriculum and am really excited by what we will be doing. There is a cool AV component as well as some technological fun that will drive home some of the points we make at the workshop. As I have said, my goal is to make it the best workshop experience you have ever had hands down. I want small groups who are committed to excellence and creating images with impact and style. I am totally driven by the workshop experience and the attendees have had wonderful words of encouragement for me.

I received a note from one of the workshop folks from earlier in the year. He was employed when he took the workshop, but a few weeks later found himself able to ‘pursue other interests…” Beng laid off suddenly can be a real wakeup for most people. “Without taking your workshop, I wouldn’t have known where to start. But having the information you taught me made me confident enough to go out on my own. It isn’t easy… but we are doing better than we thought we would have a year ago. I will match my old salary within a year if things keep going as they are. Thanks for the information and encouragement to just go for what I wanted to do all along.”

OK… that really made my day… hell, it made a lot of my days.

Be sure to catch the “Going Pro” section for more information on making that jump. Check out Briana’s “Model Behavior” for insights into the world of being on the other end of the lens, and be sure you hit the “Archives” as there are tons of articles on this site. Maybe enough for a book… ya know.

BIG NEWS: You know how much I love the Selina Maitreya audio program. I think it is nearly invaluable and a hell of a great deal at $199. But you can get it for only $99 bucks if you use the Friends of Selina Code I am giving you here. Simply go to her page “The View From Here” and order. At checkout enter the code: FOSLE and you will get $100 off! Now that is an amazing offer from Selina and we all thank her for her support of Lighting Essentials. When you order tell her you saw it on Lighting Essentials.

Anyway… let’s hit the road with this meter thing. I love my beat-up old Minolta Meter and wouldn’t leave home without it. Here’s why…

Meters have been the subject of many discussions pro and con recently. I offer my assistance whenever I can, but lately the noise about not needing them seems to be quite loud. OK… I can tell you seriously that if you really don’t need one, then by all means don’t bother. If it is working for you, then fine. (However, I will say that 9 out of 10 people who tell me they don’t need them don’t know what they are missing… they never had the power and control a meter can give. Sorry, but there is a hell of a lot a chimp and a histogram wont tell you.)

I like using a meter. I have had many. My current one is a meter I bought a long time ago. The Minolta Flashmeter IV has been with me for nearly three decades now. New juice and a nice place for naps and it is a trusty friend and I-got-that-light-for-you assistant. It has been dropped, left behind, lost, found and sat upon. Spilled drinks nearly killed it one night in LA, and the sands of the Mojave left it with less luster and shine.

But I push the button and it tells me the exposure. Or at least the exposure as it sees it. I determine the final settings based on what it tells me is the ‘mean’.

Someday I will write about how much the Zone System study that I did helps me today, but for now I will only say that understanding what the meters see is so damn important. They see a middle gray – 18% gray to be precise. They have to have something to ‘base’ their exposure on so they choose the middle tone to do it.

Reflective meters DEPEND on something in the scene being middle gray, and they DEPEND on you to know what that middle gray thing is. Wedding dresses become middle gray when exposed ‘to the meter’ with a reflected meter. The meter sees the dress and calculates the correct exposure for it to be middle gray. Guys in black tuxes? No problem says the reflected light meter… shabam… middle gray. That is the job of the reflected light meter… to tell the photographer what exposure to use to render the subject ‘middle gray’.

If you know what to point your meter at, you can then use it to determine your exposure exactly. Let’s look at a scene with middle gray in it… and exposed for that luminance.

This photo of the “George Patton Museum” in California was taken in direct sun. I metered the exposure with the built in meter (reflective) and chose the medium toned rocks as my center-weighted target. They were what I deemed to be middle gray, so I exposed at the camera’s suggested exposure. If I had chosen the lighter band above them, then the image would have that band placed at middle gray and all of the tones below it would move down one… taking the dark grays into black and lowering the light grays into the mid-gray tone.

If I had conversely chosen the dark gray part of the wall to make my exposure, that area would have been moved to the luminance of the middle gray rock and everything above it would move up… overexposing the highest lights into white and creating a dark gray bottom where black should have been. One stop can do that.

I use a reflective light meter when I am physically in a different light than my subject. For instance… If I am on the Golden Gate bridge and it is currently in the fog, and I look East toward San Francisco – currently bathed in beautiful sun – I use a reflected light meter reading. I look for something in the scene that I want to be middle gray, place my center-weighted meter on that and get my exposure… moving the camera to get my composition. Reflective light meters are subject sensitive… they move all over as you move along the scene so you must choose wisely.

All of a sudden the fog clears and I am standing in the same light as the city. Now, I pull out my trusty Minolta meter and using the ambient setting, I aim the ball at the direction of the camera and take a reading. That’s because the same light that is falling on the city is now falling on me. So I can get a reading of the city by simply getting a reading of the light that is prevailing on both me and the city.

Incident light meters (with the little ball on them – or with the ball in the main position are ambient light meters) measure the light falling on the subject and tell you what the middle gray exposure is even if there is no middle gray in the picture. It is subject neutral. The meter doesn’t vary as you move it around, as long as it is receiving the same light as the subject… it doesn’t care what is in your frame. It is giving you the correct exposure for the scene as it is being rendered by the light. Subject centric photography… I have mentioned that before. How the subject receives the light is the most important aspect of it.

How do you decide where to point the ball of the ambient light meter? It points to the camera for taking the overall exposure. You can use it toward the specific light/shadow when determining the ratio or fall-off of the light. Subjects are three dimensional. The ball is three dimensional. It should receive the light just as the subject receives the light. The angle of incidence will alter the exposure from camera, so keeping the angle of incidence on the ball the same as the subject renders the correct exposure. Or at least the meter’s base line of ‘correctness’.

Notice the placement and angle of the meter for gathering correct information.

Notice the upper right image. The meter was aimed at the shadow side, receiving no light from the window. So it gives us an exposure to make the shadow side middle gray. That renders the soft window light too bright. But if we meter the window light only, without taking into effect the way the light falls and angles to the camera, then the exposure is to render the window light as middle gray and the entire image is underexposed.

We take the reading from the middle of the face – the ‘transition’ spot of light to dark – and we make sure the ball is aiming right at the camera. (Look… I get really focused here… Right at means RIGHT AT… not a little off or a little down or high… be precise. PRECISE.) This exposure then is right on and renders the image in a pleasing, wide tonality that speaks to the lit and shadow side of the image.

Now you can choose what to do with that information… You can choose to shoot the image dark – ‘placing’ the exposure to the darker side if that is your taste. Or, if you want to expose the image a little lighter – or a lot lighter – you can. That is called placing the exposure.

(A word about exposure. In film days we exposed for the shadows, and developed for the highlights. These days I do something we call “Shoot to the right”. It means I like to shoot a bit brighter with the histogram, not going to the darker. I can pull more from the lighter capture than I can from the darker, muddier version. There is a lot more on this here, and here.)

Let’s look at a few case studies here for some ways the meter has been used to give the information to make the decisions on what to set the exposure.

I chose to let the bright highlights blowout for this shot in Bermuda

In the image above, taken in Bermuda, you can see the different snips of exposures. I started at what the meter said, but quickly decided that was too dark. I wanted the FEELING of the light I was experiencing in that little roadway. I chose the bright exposure to make the set of images, and used Photoshop to bring a little more detail out of the dress. At this amount of backlight, it becomes a source in itself and I am simply shooting into a ‘flare’ situation. And flare I got. However, it is that flare and bright light that makes it feel so powerful.

A simple photograph of our MUA with late afternoon sun. A simple ambient meter solution.

I simply love this late afternoon light. The subject is sitting in the warmth of the sun and wanted to get a nice, simple portrait. By holding the ambient meter with the ball facing the camera, I nailed the exposure with a click. The highlights are still with texture and the shadow side is still delicately lit from the bounce of the pure white gorgeous sand of Anna Maria Island.

I could have chimped it you say? Really? On a bright, white sandy beach in the sun? OK… maybe, but I have found that it is damn difficult for my eyes to adjust to that screen in the middle of what seems like a light source. I didn’t have to chimp it with my trusty Minolta…

Adding a flash to the mix is easy with a meter that gives you the exact information you need... when you need it.

The metering of the shot of Christina was easy. I took a reading of the sunlight falling on the side of her face just as it fell… with the meter turned to the side and receiving the light from that angle. I then moved the meter to the front of her face and took a reading with the Ranger in a beauty dish. We simply moved the dish in to where we wanted it and dialed the power down till we got to the point where the Elinchrome’s reading was the same as the sun.

You will notice that the light seems brighter from the backlight sun. That is because the angle of the sun presents the light as a specular (angle of incidence – angle of reflection) and as a specular it seems brighter. The reflected light source is pretty cool when you control how it works.

By placing the exposure at 1/3 over the ambient, we can mute the world around our subject just a bit

I loved this guy! I decided I wanted the ambient world to be a bit muted, so I took a meter reading of the light falling on the beach. I placed it at a point to be 1/3 under-exposed. Then I moved the light into the scene to provide the exposure. It is 1/3 over the ambient, but that is what I used to place the exposure for the image.

Placing the exposure lets me determine where I can put the ambient in regard to the subject. Flash adds the ability to create a source that is not related to the ambient, so it gives the photographer another creative ability to make the image look the they want it to look. Shutter speed is used to control the ambient and the power/distance of the flash is used to determine the exposure for the subject.

Placing the exposure at the middle tones of the shot allowed the face to actually be a little over... and that 'sells' the idea of the light.

This is a really fun shot. The sun is coming in from behind her, and I wanted the feeling of a second light source catching her attention. I metered the shot and got the basic exposure by seeing how much light was coming in from the window and falling on her legs. I checked it with a ‘chimp’ at that exposure and that confirmed that I liked the way it looked.

I added my key light with a speedlight in a bounced 43″ satin white umbrella dialed down to give me f-2.8 at the mid point of her reclining figure. That made the face closer to the light a bit brighter, and that made the shot look real and accessible. If I had placed the exposure to the darker exposure it would have looked more ‘flash-lit’ and not as natural. Placing the exposure to render the tonalities where YOU want them is one of the creative ways you can control your image and make your shots yours.

On the left is a simple natural light exposure and on the right is a more complex three shot reading.

A simple headshot of Briana in Chicago with ambient, back lit sun is very easy with a meter. I moved in close and placed the meter under her chin for the reading. I stood way to the side so that there would be no reflection – positive or negative – from me. I wanted the ambient light on her face to be all that the camera would see and of course, kept the ball aimed at the camera position. The extreme backlight blew out some of the hair, but I don’t care. I love the look.

With the shot on the right, I used two shoot-thru umbrellas on each side of Lynn and a medium umbrella to the front of her. I used the meter and one light at a time to make sure the side lights were 1/2 over the front light and even. Simply turning the other lights off let me make each side light perfect, then add the front light. You may have to adjust a little after all three are on, but that is made easier because of the precision of the light settings possible with the meter. Honestly don’t know how precise you can get without a meter, but I sure do know how you can with one. Fast.

I chose to make the exposure based on the main – key light – and let the side lights be brighter by 1/2 stop. Placing the exposure at the key to ‘bring up’ the side lights gives the shot its expressive look.

I hope that I shed a little light on how to use the meter (heh, sorry) and that it gives you some ideas on how to use your meter a bit more, or why you should have one anyway. See you next time, and as always… please let your friends know about this article and site by using the sharing buttons on the top of the right column.

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The Seattle workshop was amazing. We had a great time and made some amazing images. Using the facilities of SPA, we were able to do several setups. And the models, stylists and hair artists were off the chart. Incredible styling, hair that was spectacular and a dozen models a day for the attendees to work with. Seattle simply rocks.

I rarely get a chance to shoot at the workshops as I like to keep all attention on the attendees. And while Seattle was no exception, on Sunday there were moments when the models were waiting for the photographers to get their gear or find a location. I grabbed these 5 talented people and made natural light portraits for fun. I made only a few exposures and didn’t make a lot of variations. I wanted portraits and I wanted them to be accessible… not too overly ‘stylzed’.

If you are thinking about a workshop for this Fall, please take a look at the Learn to Light site and consider a Lighting Essentials workshop. We have added a Friday evening “Business Essentials” for all attendees who want it. In Seattle we ran about 3 hours and it was a hell of a discussion.

September
Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 12, 13
Phoenix, AZ, September 19, 20
Saint Louis, MO, September 26, 27

October 2009
Mexico (Puerto Penasco)
2, 3, 4, 5 – Special Three Day Workshop
Detroit, Michigan 10, 11
Boston, MA, 17, 18
Boise, ID 24, 25

Thursday, August 20, will find me speaking at the local ASMP chapter. Penny Dolin (ASU) and I are discussing social media, new media and how it can be leveraged into a commercial photographer’s business.

A few from the Archives you may like:

Natural Light for Natural, Subtle Beauty
Using the Sun for A Hairlight: Some Variations
Natural Light Headshots: Keeping it Simple
Serendipitous Light
Deconstructing a Portrait on Location

Now let’s take a look at the 5 portraits from the Seattle workshop… all natural light.

Here is our first portrait.

Kim in the Floppy Hat
Kim was wearing this cool hat for one of the shots and I loved how it formed around her face. Finding an edge of the gazebo we were all sharing, I was able to find some backlight from the sun and some front light from a large, single story building behind me at 18 feet away. The side of that building was white siding and it was totally in the sun. This became my source, with the sun as my background. Kim is at the edge of the gazebo, with the mid afternoon sun coming over her shoulders. I use the bright sunny sky as a backdrop. Because of my shade exposure, the sky blew out and created a flare situation that I kinda liked.

Here is part of the contact sheet from this hat shot of Kim:

You can see how I work with models when you see my contact sheets. The top row shows Kim working with an off camera look. I then begin to pull her back to my camera slowly bringing in smiles and lowering the chin to create a very accessible look. The last image seemed to be the one I love the most. I wanted a shot that looked natural, and drew the viewer into Kim’s youthful beauty.

I then moved the shot into Photoshop and cleaned up the skin. This is the layer pallet I had for the image.

I cloned the image and blended it at softlight, blurred at 7% and then backed it off to 65%. Cloning the bottom layer again, I moved above the blur layer and again blended it to softlight. This layer can be tweaked any way you want. I then used a layer of 50% gray at softlight to slightly burn and dodge for creating more contrast.

I merged those three layers in to a flattened layer called Merge Layer, cloned it and added 10% contrast and backed that layer off to 60%. Another clone and we applied Hue and Saturation, colorized to a slight sepia and then that layer is lowered to 40% opacity. Mama Shan’s Powder action added for some matting of the skin and then Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity Masks were applied to draw out a bit more local contrast.

The final shot.

Sam in the Shade.
Sam was a lot of fun to shoot. He brought a quiet maturity to the shots and I liked his sense of humor. By shooting down on him, I created a situation where he could look intense, and change the angle from the normal straight on to a more dramatic, theatrical look. I had a lot of flare coming back on Sam from the very light concrete that is int he sun behind him. Using the same spot as Kim, the same building behind me was the light source. No other lighting modifications were used.

The contact sheet:

I worked with Sam with his focus down and behind me, and I like a few of those shots. I had him look up at me just as we were completing the shoot and snagged the shot at the end. His penetrating stare was a dramatic look and I like it a lot. Cropping in this tight prevents the viewer’s eyes from escaping the image and drives them right back to the subjects gaze.

Photoshop:

You can see how simple this was. Similar to the first image of Kim, I used two layers above the original. One at softlight blend, and one at multiply blend, backed off to 40% opacity. A color balance layer and Hue/Saturation layer were used to correct and subdue the color. A final layer of 60% Gray at Softlight blend mode was used to dodge and burn a little to create a more local contrast on the image.

The Shot:

Icee is up next:
Beautiful Icee was wearing this amazing gold and bold necklace. Placing her a little closer to the edge allowed a bit more spill of daylight to add some directional light. It is subtle, but you can see how it wraps the face with a soft light. In the top row you can see that I was getting way too much sidelight on her face. I moved her forward just a bit, then took another shot to see whether the light was working out right. It was.

Contact sheet:

This shot required no Photoshop other than simple skin editing.

Kayla is in the sun in this simple, but evocative portrait. Full sun to her back, I had a pretty nice look going, but the green grass she is standing on was creating too much darkness under her chin. Spencer held a medium 5-in-one feflector down and to the side of her for a nice fill. Kayla is standing on the edge of shadow, but the hair and shoulders are in the sun. I kept the reflector in the shade otherwise the fill would have nearly blinded her.

She is kneeling and that let me keep my camera a little high and down on her, and that let me showcase her elegant chin line and eyes. That also let me keep the grass behind her and match the green cloth draped by one of the stylists.

Photoshop.

You can see how I kept to one pose and gentle, subtle changes in posing. I want my models to be fluid and smooth, not all wild throwing themselves around like crazy. Kayla worked this pose to great effect, providing me with some subtle and fun changes. You can see how subtle changes can make big differences. Working those little differences can help deliver the shot. Models who are too scattered can come close, but maybe not close enough before the pose gets changed. I love to let the models come up with things, then when I see something I love, I begin to develop it slowly. Till I get what I want.

Photoshop.

Another simple layer blend mode group. After I got the image to where I wanted it with the two blend layers, I made a composite layer and then retouched the skin a little and added some highlights with a 50% gray layer set to softlight and very soft brushes at 8%.

Kayla.

Bri was leaning up against a column with a little sun sliding around her to provide some nice flare and edge light. A breeze was kicking up and blowing her hair around every once in a while. I love that. It keeps the shot natural and when it frames the face, it is a huge plus. I kept her in a tight area and worked the face through a lot of different angles to explore the pose. You can see how Bri and I worked that angle to finally get to the shot I liked.

The light was playing beautifully off of her face. And the subtle movement still kept her in the soft light of the reflected building in the shade. I liked how the catchlights really spark the shot.

Bri.

I do love natural light, and how it looked on these folks. It also was very fast. Most of these shots took less than a few minutes to shoot as they were waiting for photographers. If you would like to share some natural light shots with us, let us see them on the Lighting Essentials Flickr Forum.

If you liked this post, please let other know. We have made it simple for you, just go up to the top right of the page and add it to any social networking sites you belong to or just Twitter it by clicking the twitter icon below.

Thanks and see you next time.

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This post is about portrait lighting and some of the things I think about when shooting a portrait… whether in the studio or on location.

The shot above was done in Mexico at the Workshop in April. Christine had been walking with me and when she turned to talk to me I saw this shot. I pre-visualized the image as being somewhat illustrative… some heavy Photoshop was planned and I wanted the colors to be muted. The feeling was one of mystery, and the color palette and post would show a portrait that was modern, but also seemingly candid.

I liked the symmetry of the background, but also knew that putting her there would rob the image of the candid aspects. I wanted her to be moving into the middle of the poles… not be there already.

The sun was over my right shoulder and when she looked away toward the beach, her face was in shadow. I wanted to light her independently from the background and knew that a split lighting would work to show off the shot.

A handheld 430EX on a tethered cable was aimed right at her face… on the axis of her nose. I wanted no nose shadow or face sculpting at all. (Secretly I wished I had a beauty dish at the time, but – well, I didn’t.) I had Christine look over toward the water – and the light – and carefully framed the shot. She did a great job of posing and looking like she was distracted and NOT being the subject of a photo. I loved the hair coming into the face and we did a dozen or so exposures. The light on her coming from camera left while the backgorund is presented in light that is camera right adds a bit of whimsy or mystery to the shot. Christine’s excellent acting for the camera cinched the look I wanted.

Later in Photoshop I made the shot into what I had seen by adding some texture, muting the colors and presenting it within a very slight vignette.

Before we go ahead, I want to remind everyone that there is a ton of information on this site. Hit the archives button and grab a cold one. You can spend a lot of time here. And please tell your friends about us, we want a ton of people to learn to light and have fun with photography, but most of all we want to help photographers reach their goals. We offer this site as well as workshops all over the country.

See these recent posts for some more cool reading.

Claire Curran Corbett Interview
Eduardo Francis Interview
Our WordPress Themes for Photographers

Now lets look at a few more portraits and discuss the making of them, shall we.

Please remember to visit our sponsors. Links are on the sidebar, and they have some great offers for you.

Soft Window Light (Somer in the Shower)

This photograph came about as a test. We were looking around for a place to do some soft headshots and I remembered the great light that was in the shower in the master of the casita. Somer went in and I went on the other side of the room to use a long lens. I remember thinking that the light was so warm in there due to the brown tiles, that it made her skin tone lovely.

The soft directional light gives the face shape and shows off her beautiful eyes. Using a long lens with this kind of light also brings a flatness to the features from the shortening effect of the telephoto. That shortening effect, added to the very shallow DOF of the aperture (2.8) helps to sculpt the subject from the background.

I used no fill cards or strobes for this shot, preferring to let the light do its thing. I turned her head slightly toward the light to get a full half face lit. I don’t like the light to be ‘patchy’ on the shadow side of the face. The pose, soft and natural light, and DOF combine to make a lovely, understated portrait.

Jesika on the Yellow Sofa in Dallas

This shot is from the workshop in Dallas. We were taking a bit of a break when I noticed Jesika sitting in the light in the corner. The window light is coming from over her left shoulder (camera right) and was creating a wonderfully soft shadow on the couch. It was a very large window and had a wonderful soft feel to the light coming in. I needed to add a little light from the front to open the shadows and gain some texture in her wardrobe.

Bringing the medium octabox in, I set the light by making it slightly less than the sunlight. Taking the light reading with a meter and then metering the strobed Octabox to about 2/3 less exposure. I then exposed for the face, and let the back light go 2/3 over. The point was to make the light seem as though it was coming from the window, but also that she was the subject and she was lit a bit oddly to bring her out of the background. The eye knows when something is added, even subconsciously. Looking into the shadow area at her feet you will see the shadow created by the strobe and octabox. This is because this area was in total shadow, not getting any sunlight from the window. There is no shadow on the lit area behind her because the octa is less light than the window, but there is at her feet because it is more light than what was there.

I wanted a feeling of isolation and vulnerability, so I chose the wide angle lens and placed Jesika at the bottom of the image. The formidable brick wall rising above her, added with the symmetry of the couch and angles, gave her frame a ‘place’ against the ground. Her pose and the angle of her back and legs break the symmetry, and her face adds to the feeling of vulnerability.

The light, while seemingly natural, adds to the drama by keeping the figure so well ‘placed’ within the background and the set.

Blonde model in studio.

I used a large (60″) soft-white umbella in very close for this shot. I needed the light to be soft and even to show off her delicate features and Lorri’s great makeup work. Adding a large white fill below her at chest height filled in any shadows and opened her eyes beautifully.

The first shots were fine, but there was something missing… a sense of mystery or ‘interestingness’… So I added a speedlight in close for a hair light, letting the hair get quite lit from an off stage source. Bringing a fill card in at an angle to catch some of the direct hairlight gave me a bright poppy hairlight to camera right as well. This little bit of lighting made the image more interesting and drives the viewer to her eyes.

The pose was the last little bit of work I did. I wanted to make a statement other than “look at me I’m pretty”… I wanted drama. Having her avert her eyes was a simple way to pull the image from the “seen before” to the “interesting.” As she worked this pose she would slightly tilt her face… I wanted her to actually do the tilting and look away from me so there would be some reality to the image. Catching it was my job. We did it until I thought we had it right.

Adding the backlight to the soft front light gave the glancing away a little context… a little drama.

Edyta with a very “direct” pose.

Sometimes a very direct look can be dramatic as well. Edyta was piercing me with those eyes and I needed something to offset the hardness of the portrait. Although I liked the hard, symmetrical look to it, I wanted to beak the image up with some angles and whimsy.

She was wearing a tube-top and with the bare shoulders and well toned muscles she looked too strong to me. I wanted the light to add to the strength, but not to make her look over the top, so I worked it a bit more. The main light was brought in quite close and again it is my 60″ umbrella. A shiny fill board was added for bottom fill and it is just out of sight of the camera. This light gave her a well lit face as well as some beautiful liquidy highlights on the shoulders and muscles in the chest.

A few shots told me that it was still too “flat” so I needed to add some dimension. I did that with a small reflector against the back wall (10 feet behind her) and positioning it to give me a small circle of light behind her shoulders and neck. The closer the light gets to the back, the tighter the ring of light becomes. Working that light to the correct amount of power can be a bit daunting, but a few sheets of spun glass from the local video house can dampen the strong light and give a little softness to the edges.

Doing this gave me some depth, and the addition of a speedlight in close on the top of her head gave me just a bit of hairlight and another reason to drive the eyes back to the face. Big strobes with speedlights are a great combination… I love it.

The angularity and the directness achieved with the lighting, I now turned my attention to the pose. I wanted something else other than the bare shoulders. We added the flowers and it immediately worked for me. The hard, direct look of Edyta is offset by the seemingly random shapes of the flowers. They add whimsy where symmetry prevailed.

Laura in the shade in Mexico.

The last shot is of Laura and it is taken in the shade with a small fill card in close. I wanted something to catch the youthfulness and grace of a lovely young lady. Choosing natural light was instant… the long lens gave me a tight crop and I added a small card to the shadow side of her face to even out the exposure across her face.

I had taken her hair (after she messily put it ‘up’ on top of her head) and pulled some strands out to let them frame her face. I love that look and it adds to the natural effect of the shot. Pull out fewer than you need, you can always get more…pulling out too many and you gotta start over. They were kind of blowing and moving around her face in the very faint breeze.

I moved her forward to catch the edge of the sun on her head, but not far enough forward to cause a ‘backlight’ look to it. I wanted the sun to catch little strands of hair and add contrast to the shot.

The very flat light across her face, and the tiny bits of sunlight catching her hair, give the shot a natural, almost candid look. Choosing the long lens and bringing it in tight also added to the vulnerability of the image and her beauty put right in front of our faces to view. I have a 20×30 of this shot in the studio and it really is striking. The combination of a natural look with a tight crop makes it irresistible.

I hope you enjoyed this post on portraits with some of my favorite portraits of the recent few months. Lighting Essentials is growing and I hope to take it to some new places in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

See you next time.

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This is a post from the old site, and I thought I would redo it for the new one. There are many things you can do when you find a great location. When Bri and I stumbled upon this one, I thought it would be fun to work out several different ideas.

We used flash, natural light, natural bounce, strobe and direct sunlight. It was a very cool place… just an empty lot with a graffiti wall and the sun setting in the West. Tucson has a lot of colorful places to shoot, and we just parked the car on the street and set up.

NEWS:
We have opened the Cleveland and Detroit Workshops and are taking enrollments. I have had some interest from Memphis, Little Rock and Modesto (Central Valley, CA). I would love to set those up. Let me know if there is interest there.

Our contest is up and running (info here) and we are seeing some very nice images in the pool. Be sure to enter and get your image up on the site. And please take a moment to visit the sponsors, maybe let them know if you appreciate their stepping up to give you all the awards for winning.

Posts you may enjoy along with this one:
Sometimes The Location is Not As Good As Promised.
Make Your Own Reality to Add Drama
Shooting With Megan and Raymond on Location
On Location: Anatomy of a Shoot
On Location with Gerry, Jim and Christina

And if you haven’t checked out our Tech Sheets, you should grab them and get started on your collection. We have them coming two per month. That will be a really nice collection when you get them printed out and in a notebook.

It was late in the day and we saw this very colorful, hand painted wall. I grabbed the camera while Briana changed into an outfit that we thought would look good against this very unique backdrop. Setting the bag where I wanted to start, Briana took her place against the wall for some side light with little fill. The sun is coming from a very, very low angle to camera left and the wall faces south, so the light is just scraping along giving texture and heavy side light.

Here are the contacts from the fast moving shots. (Individual images follow.)

Starting out with the side lighting, I worked Briana through a variety of poses that showed the location very well and gave her a sense of place. I centered the figure in the frame and gave it a formal look. Getting a good feel for the shot, I then had Briana turn a bit and I started to shoot some 3/4 shots.

At this point, I noticed how the light was playing on her face. I moved to a position where I am shooting directly from the sun position. Importantl to note, Briana was able to look straight into a dark area behind me, and that minimized the squinting that could ensue if she were looking directly into the sun. The direct light is very, flattering – even with an already beautiful face

As it got later and later, I grabbed the strobe and started doing some fill. I shot with the sun as a split light, back light and side light. I shot fast and furious and at one point I moved her to a position in the field where there was nothing behind her but the sun. I didn’t really like the shot, so I quickly looked for another viewpoint. That is when I saw the two chimneys and realized that we could “Beat the Sun” with the strobe and have a very interesting background. I told Briana to do something different… well, you’ll see what she did. Within seconds of those shots, the sun was gone and the whole look of the set was completely different.

Side Light
Let’s take a look at how we did the shots. I will show larger images from the contact sheets above. Side Light from the setting sun draws well defined shadows and gives a very dramatic light to the model. I like the way it sculpts the body, adds form to the image and creates a cool shadow on the wall. The shadow acts as a part of the composition and adds a design element.

Working with the model, be sure not to turn her head away from the light. Putting her face in the shadow may not be flattering. Not to say you cannot, just make sure you see what is happening on the face. Watching the face as it turns toward and away from the light will help determine the best angles to make the image. Heavy shadows from the nose and cheeks can be very unflattering.

At this point, I moved Briana away from the background so the light could sculpt the face and body. Now there is no shadow on the background and there is a feeling of separation. Since she is no longer next to the wall, the light just fills in and her shadow is no longer a part of the image. The stark contrast is now played out against the even light on the background.

Direct Light
I moved around to start shooting some 3/4 shots and noticed how incredible the light was coming straight over my right shoulder. Since I love direct sunlight, it was striking to me. I will walk around the set looking at how the light works – especially how it sculpts things, creates shadows, adds highlights and let the drama be revealed.

Direct light can also be a challenge if it is too bright. Some models have trained themselves to look into the sun, but a certain amount of squinting is natural. As the sun gets lower on the horizon, the model can look into the dark areas in front of her, not necessarily the sun itself. In these shots, low mountains are behind me and they create a very dark (backlit) area for her to look into. I kept the sun over my right shoulder and worked from the axis of the light.

The shot above was taken with a medium telephoto. Even at a wide aperture, the background is too much in focus for me. Quickly I moved the zoom all the way to 200mm at 2.8 and started shooting a head/shoulders kind of look. I had Briana keep moving and shot rapidly: Result.. lots of different looks. Moving from side-to-side with little movements, you can control the sculpting of the light/shadow and how the light plays on her face.

Strobe
I reached for the strobe, turned it on and fired up the wireless remotes in about 30 seconds. Keeping that gear in easy reach and ready to go helps when the sun is moving this fast. I did several shots of back and split lighting against the wall. There were lots of good shots, and I included this one as an example of split with strobe and sun nearly equal.

It helps to know what the power of your strobe is when doing this kind of work. I know that my speedlights put out about f-8 at 1/8 power at ISO 100 at about 6 feet. As long as I am working within the acceptable sync ranges, I can place my strobe at 6 feet and be fairly sure of the exposure. I can either dial the power down or up, or move the light in and out by small amounts. See this post for one way to learn your light and quickly make your exposures.

We moved on to a set where we are using ambient light with a little strobe for pop. I turned and noticed the old wall – then the cool double chimney and decided to use that as my background. It was being softly, but directionally lit with the sun, so I beat the sun by a stop and lit Briana with my strobe. The resulting image is quite striking as the light seems to be coming from different locations… cause it is.

I have a speedlight to camera left and on a stand high. It is set to 2/3 stop over the ambient light exposure. When I make the shot at the correct exposure for the flash, the ambient light will be 2/3 underexposed. Still enough light to show the feeling, texture, and warmth of the ambient on the building and chimneys, and deepening the sky color. There is an additional speedlight to far camera right. It is matching the ambient for exposure so all it does is keep the dark side of Briana from going dark. It sets her in front of the background and keeps the feeling of separation very strong.

Here is a second shot from the strobe and ambient mix.

I simply took the ambient light reading and set the strobe to give me about 3/4 stop more light than the ambient alone. That lit Bri up, threw a little shadow on the back, and still left the ambient light to expose the sky and the little building.

The sun is just at the horizon and before the strobe could recycle, the sun was gone. The whole scene changed and we decided to head for another location to capture the bright western sky and light Briana with strobe. Downtown was next.

See you next time for more Lighting Essentials fun. Be sure to visit Borrowlenses.com if you need a special lens, and Mighty Images if you need some great large prints.

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Our Natural Light Assignment this week is a lot of fun and so easy to do. You only need a model or subject, a camera and lens, and a setting sun. And maybe a building or two… your call.

These shots were taken in downtown Phoenix at a fun group shoot we were doing at a place called “Boo’s Warehouse.” We had some motorcycles and old cars and such. It was a lot of fun and I wanted to do some very simple shots with the direct light and the soft shadow line light we were getting.

As the sun gets lower and lower on the horizon, it starts to throw a softer edge to the light. I like to use that edge as a great place to shoot.

One of the things you notice when using that edge light is how fast it moves. I mean, it can literally move up the person’s body as you watch it. And if you are on assignment, it can move even faster. Yeah… I’ve seen it.

Before we take a look at that cool light, I want to remind everyone that we will be starting our monthly assignments in February. We have some great award premiums that I will be announcing as well as some great judges. The assignments will be professional in nature and should be within most shooters ability to produce. (Getting shots of a model hanging from a hangglider over the sea won’t be assigned… heh)

Here is the first shot we did as the sun was late in the day above the horizon, approximately 1 hour before sunset. There are no clouds in the sky.

You can see the edge area and where I have placed her face just above it so there would be no shadow line over it

Below you can see how I segmented the light with the portrait. It is very important to watch the face as you do this kind of light. It can be shadowed or even end up with a gradient on it if you aren’t very precise in placing the face.

The edge placed just below her face.

There are a lot of different effects you can use when shooting in this direct light. I took this image through some rather extreme Photoshop contusions (coming up in a future post) to end up with this illustrative look. Adding a very slight noise at the end helps add a little patina to the image.

This image was cross processed with increased contrast.

After a quick wardrobe change – and I mean quick, Briana knows how the light is – we tried a few more shots. The sun was much farther down the horizon now and closing in on dark fast. The first shot is one

Briana on the edge of the light waiting for Carlos to take a snap.

You can see the edge of the light as it modulates up the side of the wall. This edge not only gives a nice light, it gives a very nice background/foreground look as well. Once again I repeat that this edge moves very fast. Within 5 minutes we had chased the light for nearly half a block as the buildings behind us kept throwing shadows from the ever setting sun.

Here is a look at the placement of the shadow line.

You can see the light and the way it works around her body and face in this shot.

I had Bri go on down the wall a bit to get some good light on her face. I wanted the skirt in the shade and her face in the light. I put her face right in the edge again and slightly toward the sun side. This gave me a very soft, yet directional light.

Notice the light as a background element in this shot. Working Bri in the edge, I got very soft directional light.

However, this image resulted in some cooler light in the shade, and warmer in the sun. I processed the image direct from RAW and worked with the image in Photoshop. I made the normal correction and edits to the image and then worked on the color.

Drawing a selection of the shaded part of the image, I feathered the selection at 30 pixels and raised the selection to a new layer. The easiest way to warm the selection was to use the photo filters.

Image / Adjust / Photo Filters / 85 Warm 40%

That warmed up the shade part to a more acceptable color.

Warming up the cooler shade in Photoshop with a layer and simple adjustment

Right at that point I saw how dramatic her face was lit in that soft, directional light. I had her throw all of her hair to the side away from the camera and look right at the sun. I was able to get about a dozen shots off before we really did lose the light. I am so glad that I saw this happening as it ended up being one of my favorite shots of the day.

Briana looks straight into the very late setting sun.

I used a Canon and 100MM 2.8 lens for most of these images. I also use the lenses wide open whenever I can, preferring a limited DOF.

Try working a subject in that very soft edge of the setting sun. You can get some very striking photographs with a minimum of equipment.

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There are occasions when you need to work very, very fast and still deliver a shot that makes both client and subject happy. These types of shoots can be frustrating and challenging, but it keeps the adrenaline going and when it results in an image that everyone likes, it can be very satisfying.

I was called at the last minute to shoot an interior designer in his studio / workshop. Because of schedules I would have about an hour to get what they wanted. Assignment was three shots and a lead… that means I had to do 4 shots total with one of the shots being a full page vertical. You want to make sure you know what they need before going out on the assignment, especially one where the timing is short and there are no realistic time slots for a reshoot.

Coni Bourin was the art director for the magazine, and although she rarely involves herself in the shooting, she does like to be there when it is happening. We met at the studio at 8:30am to get some ideas for the shoot that would take place about 9am. We were told that the subject had to be out of there at 10 for an appointment.

One of the things I always do is get to a place early enough to start to plan the shoot. I also get some equipment out and at the ready. A couple of stands, fill cards, lights and modifiers are at the ready. I don’t want to take precious time running to the car to get a stand. This gives me time to look at the place we are shooting and begin to plan out the shots.

Before we make the jump to the next page, a reminder that next weeks Tech Sheet goes up tomorrow afternoon… it’s a good one and something quite different for Lighting Essentials. You will have to let me know what you think of it. We have desktops for this month here, an article about shooting with clamshell lighting and an article on shooting with two speedlights on the beach that you may have missed. And as always, visit the LEMagazine site – link on left – for some interviews of photographers and other articles.

Now on to the shoot…

The studio / showroom was in a very cool building on North Central and Coni and I met there early with Starbucks in hand. A quick walk through of the space revealed a very large two story window facing West, and lots of skylights. Knowing that the magazine likes a more natural style of images, I immediately formulated a simple lighting scheme in my head. We would go with natural light augmented with some stobes to keep the light open and the subject lit even if he were in a darker area under the skylights.

Natural light augmented with a little speedlight calls for finesse, not heavy handed lighting. I worked at about 1/16 – 1/8 power into umbrellas.

Our first shot is one of the first ones we did. He came into the shoot with some plans in hand and was talking with his assistant. I quickly placed a medium umbrella to camera left, high and asked him to stand in the spot where his head was against the flat backround wall. This ‘frame’ seems to make him even more the ‘subject’. His choice of a white shirt was great, and I knew he would pop out of the dark background pretty well.

I got up on a little ladder to shoot down on him and show more of his showroom behind him. Placing him where there was a nice amount of skylight gave a nice separation and was fast.

I had already tested my lights and knew that at the distance of the umbrella from him, the light would merely wink in the shadows, filling the shot slightly and adding some soft speculars. I was able to get about 6 shots before his cell rang and we had to move on to another shoot.

The next shot is one Coni and I had a moment to set up. It was going to be our lead shot so we wanted a nice vertical and Coni wanted some space at the top for the headline / intro. I set up a shoot thru (rare, yeah… but in this case perfect) to light the top of the wall and placed it on the foyer above and to camera right. Camera left was a medium umbrella with a speedlight up high to open the shadows and keep him evenly lit. Light from behind me was a two story window and there is a skylight directly above. He walked into position and I was able to get about 20 shots before another emergency brought his assistant running.

I did some post on the picture for my portfolio and am using it instead of the more natural look the magazine went with. That is the luxury of digital and it is, after all, my shot. Heh.

We did a few grab shots of him on the phone and such and were wrapped about 10 minutes early. We headed outside and he was talking to us about his building and the plans he had for it. He leaned against the column and I knew I had another shot. Coni held a reflector in close from camera right and I shot natural light… previsualizing the post as more illustrative. The magazine loved the shot but decided not to use it because the post was too stylistically different. I included the ‘normal’ shot that they loved as well, but in the end went with the stairs shot for the magazine. The client ordered a large print so that was cool.

Being ready for what happens and having your gear at the ready makes the challenge of a short time frame at least better. I keep the gear I need close and at the ready so we can do what we need to do as fast as possible. I can see the light better when looking at it instead of looking in my bag for batteries. Working fast means working smart.

Tomorrow is the next Tech Sheet. See you then.

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A direct contrast to the previous image with two strobes and lots of drama, this shot of Christina is simple and direct and with a more natural feel to it. Shot in Miami, Arizona, I wanted this shot to be very naturally lit and with a great natural feel to it.

Before we start, I want to mention that we have a new interview at Lighting Essentials Magazine. Joshua Targownik tells us how he is getting his studio up and running in LA. Briana has started answering questions about models and working with and for photographers and you can find her Q&A here. We are also heading to Houston, Philadelphia and Cleveland soon, so check out the workshop pages.

We have just completed our Detroit workshop and it was amazing. Fantastic people and the weather really was quite nice, especially for Bri and I after the heat of this summer here in Phoenix. Being a little chilly at night and in the morning was simply cool… heh. You can always see what the students are doing by using the tag – lightingessentialsworkshop – in Flickr.

So on to the image we are going to deconstruct.

Miami is in the mountains east of Phoenix and on these fall days it runs about 10-12 degrees cooler. I had been wanting to do a roadtrip to get back to shooting more natural light work. Megan accompanied me and she shot with a lot of strobes while I did similar images with either natural light or strobe accent. It was a ton of fun.

Christina is across the street from me and I am shooting on a long lens (80-200MM 2.8L) and I am shooting wide open to limit the depth of field. The light is bouncing all over the street at this point and the sun is slightly behind her in position. She is in a little glade of trees and I wanted that color and the ‘dappled’ look to the field behind her.

The strobe is placed well behind her and dialed way down to 1/32 I believe (it was Megan’s SB back there) and I remember we were shooting with very little strobe power. You can see from this image that it added just a little wink of highlight and rim lighting to make her stand out. I really like using a little light to separate the subject and this is a good example. We can make the light look like it is a little bit of sunlight at the back if we make sure the angle of the light is the same, or nearly the same, as the angle of the sun that is in the background. Changing that angle can still produce a cool shot, but it may not look like the sun because of the cross shadows.

Here is a diagram.

You can see how simple it is to do clean shots like this, so take a subject, a single strobe and a camera and look for some nice areas that have some natural bounce light coming into a darker area. Add the strobe light gently so as to make the image a subtle and natural portrait.

I turned the wireless off and took a second shot to see how nice the natural light was. I like them both.

Thanks for visiting Lighting Essentials. We hope to see you soon at a workshop or drop me an email if there is something you would like us to cover.

–don

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