BetterPhoto Instructor Insights

Seeing The Light!

By John Siskin

Charlie C © John H.  Siskin All rights reserved

The most important thing in lighting a portrait is the subject and then the background. Your goal should be to decide how you want the image to appear, you do this in your mind and then to make the image that you see in your head. This is previsualizing your image. Clearly this is more difficult than fitting your subject into a preconceived set-up, but it is also much more creative. This is not better when you are shooting weddings and speed is more important than customization. A way to go about using lights is to ask yourself where most of the light comes from in the shot you see in your mind. The next step is to ask how big the light source is. Bigger light sources are softer and often more flattering, smaller lights are harder and contrastier. Set up this light first, as close to the subject as possible. Shoot this light and evaluate the image, preferably on a computer screen rather than the LCD on the camera, bigger size viewing helps. Be sure to check the histogram. Now you can ask yourself the same questions about a second and third light.

Michael J. Pratt Set-Up #2 © John H.  Siskin All rights reserved

Having said all of this most of the time my lights are above my subject, this seems more natural to me. I would consider about 30º above the subject’s eyes to be a good start. The biggest things that the power of the light source changes are the size of the light source and the distance from the subject. In general a larger light source requires more power and can be moved further from the subject.

Sam V. #1 © John H.  Siskin All rights reserved

Previsualization is probably more difficult to write about than to do. Let’s start by talking about post visualization; that is the process of understanding how an existing shot was done. Look at a photograph and consider the 2 and 1/2 important things about light. The first is color: is the shot done with normally balanced white light or is the light gold or blue. So the color of the light would be one of the decisions we would previsualize in our shot. The next important thing about light is the size of the light source or light sources. The bigger your light source the smoother the transition from light to shadow and the softer the light. A small light source shows surface details and creates contrast; a large light source reduces wrinkles and of course shadows. Generally I use a large light source unless a shot really needs a more extreme light. Consider the difference between shooting on an overcast day and a sunny day; overcast is a large light source and a sunny day is lit by a small light source. If you can see this in an existing shot you can visualize it in a shot you want to do. The 1/2 important thing is direction; it’s only half important because the bigger your light source the less critical direction is. So light seems to come from everywhere on an overcast day, because it does. The position of a small light source, also called a hard light, is absolutely critical.

Steve © John H.  Siskin All rights reserved

Now comes the tricky part. You can mix light sources with different sizes and color in your shot. Of course when you are looking at a photograph it can be hard to read complex lighting, but our goal isn’t to read lighting it is to write it. So what previsualization is about is thinking the image through in the head and then executing it in front of a camera. The skill isn’t terribly difficult if your willing to practice, but you do have to practice.

Have a great day!

How to use Diffusion Discs for Great Results

Beginning photographers often shoot in full sunlight, or midday, and then later wonder why the picture doesn't look like they remembered the scene; or they get told in a class review that the picture has too much contrast. What happened? Why does it look so good to the eye, but not in the end result?

Our eyes have the ability to see 11-stop range of light. So they constantly adjust as we look from highlight to shadow and our brain says everything looks good. We can see detail in the shadows when we look there, and detail in the highlights when we look there as our pupils open and close rapidly. But as a moving picture, our pupils are constantly adjusting. Cameras can't do that. They use one aperture at a time. Film and digital sensors have never been able to record more than about 5 effective stops in terms of the range of light, so a compromise is made, which often leaves pictures lacking detail in both areas. If we expose for one area, we lose the other. Enter the diffusion disc: it lowers the range of light so we can record all the details in the highlights and shadows. This one accessory will give you so much more control over the lighting in any situation, whether it's outdoor portraits, details or macro subjects.

Here's a tip of how to get the most from your diffusion disc, also called commonly a diffuser:

First, quite simply, you must place it between the strong light source and your subject. This will immediately show you a flatter, more even lighting. However, just doing that is not always going to give you the best results. You don't want a 'flat' picture. The farther out you hold the diffuser, the more even, or flat the light becomes, and while details would all be visible, that light is often less desirable as things are too flat. But if you move the diffusion disc closer, the more the contrast increases, so even while the light is still diffused, you'll see highlights and shadows but with detail in them.

A diffuser held in close to the subject is a great way to do portraits of people, as it allows for some 3-d dimension to their faces with the gradual shift of bright to darker areas; it's also a great way to photograph close-ups of flowers and details. A diffuser in close gives some direction to the light, and a contrast that suggests the form of the object, while still allowing you to control the extreme range of light you'd have without it and to see details in all areas.

I don't have any comparison pictures that I could put my fingers on, but trust me - this really works! You'll see the wonderful glow that your subject takes on when you get the diffuser close like that. BUt the following two pictures could not have been made without a diffusion disc - or the BIG diffuser - a bright overcast day! The aspens leaves were photographed on the side of the road in New Mexico, and I hand held a diffusion disc close to the pile of leaves for a stronger glow. For the beach rocks in Acadia, I photographed before the sun crested the ridge line, and so while it was open sky, there was a direction to the light that gave dimension or form to the rocks, without the extreme contrast.

© Brenda Tharp. All rights reserved.

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© Brenda Tharp. All rights reserved.

It's all about LIGHT - and I personally never leave home without my diffusion disc!

Have a great week of photography fun,

Brenda

CAN YOU REALLY LEARN TO IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY?

by Jim Zuckerman

This past week one of the students in my Perfect Digital Exposure course, Jay Nordstrom, asked me a great question. I thought other students in the various Betterphoto courses as well as visitors to the site would be interested in Jay’s insightful question and my answer which comes from decades of teaching photography.

Question: “I want to know if the way you see things (symmetrical, should be brighter, should be darker) is a talent I can acquire or is it a talent you are born with? I would like very much to get really good at photography, but I’m wondering if it’s like music where you have to have talent that you are born with. Please be brutally honest. I can take it.”

My answer: “I appreciate your question and your invitation to be honest. You are asking a great question, and I've thought about this a lot.

I think photography is like music, but not 100%. I have a niece who, when she was 3 years old (she's now 22), could carry a tune so perfectly that everyone who heard her was utterly captivated. Today she's truly an incredible performer. My mother could sing and so can my sisters. When I try, I can hit the correct note about one in twenty tries. I've known that no matter how much money I might spend on lessons, it wasn't going to happen for me. Not even close. I have no clue how someone can open their mouth and out comes middle C.

With photography, the skills involved in seeing things can be developed. People can improve their picture taking. I've seen it, and I've helped many people do this. Noticing shadows and highlights and distracting backgrounds is really just a matter of being shown these flaws and then focusing your attention on them. That's not the same as forming your lips, tongue, palette, vocal cords, and diaphragm and hitting A sharp. As far as I'm concerned, you can't teach that. It can be developed, honed, and it can mature. But it's ultimately an inherent gift. Seeing a tree trunk sticking up from behind someone's head, on the other hand, is a no-brainer once it's pointed out.

The hard part with photography is composition. It has to do with making sense out of all the elements and coming up with an attractive photograph. For example, let's take landscape photography. You've got trees, bushes, clouds, rocks, dirt, bodies of water, stuff sticking up out of the water, etc. etc. How do you make sense out of that? That's the challenge.

My Eight Steps course and the Developing Your Own Personal Vision course are both designed to address this problem. I try to do so from different perspectives, but ultimately that's what I'm trying to help people do -- make sense of the visual chaos -- and to recognize what is good and not-so-good in compositional design. From the very positive feedback I get from students, I think I succeed at least in many cases.

That's about as close as I can come to answering your insightful question.

MAKING SENSE OUT OF THE VISUAL CHAOS:

Lighting and Background

by Ibarionex R. Perello

Mae Respicio © Ibarionex Perello All rights reserved

For many of the author photographs that I am called to shoot, I often photograph them in their homes. I do this because the familiarity of the setting helps to place the subject at ease. The challenge for me is that since I have never been to their homes, I don’t know what to expect in respect to light and setting.

For a photographer who works out of a studio or who uses strobes this isn’t a big deal, but for me it’s a challenge. Since I normally shoot with only available light with a few reflectors and scrims for light modifiers, I am forced to “find” the best light for the portrait. To complicate matters, I have to make sure that I also have a background that serves the subject and that isn’t distracting.

Though it can be a great source of anxiety as I am walking up to the door, I find that I enjoy the challenge of finding the light and the background that will make the image sing.

While recently photographing author Mae Respicio in her home in Venice, there was no shortage of wonderful light. We began by shooting in her bathroom where the light from the south facing window bounced off the room’s white walls. She even graciously stood in her bathtub while I used the window as a backdrop for my initial shots. By exposing for her face which was illuminated by a reflector, I purposely overexposed for the window making it into a luminous white backdrop.

Though I liked the image, I wasn’t completely happy. As we continued shooting in her backyard and office, I was getting “good” shots, but nothing that thrilled me. I was looking for something that would make me yelp with excitement.

We were near the end our time together when I noticed the light from the kitchen illuminating her couch. I asked her to sit on the couch facing the window. I suddenly noticed that the color of the couch in the background perfectly matched her blouse. Even the coffee table complimented her skin tone. After increasing the ISO to 800 to compensate for the low light level in the room, I took a shot.

The image on my LCD confirmed that I found what I was hoping for. It’s an image that takes advantage of great light and background. Every element in the frame serves her as the subject.

Of the 150 shots I exposed that day, this was the one that counted…and you only need one to make the time and effort worthwhile.