Lighting Tutorial

This post was originally on Less Cake More Frosting.  If you missed it there here it is...

To create the perfect shadows one needs to pay special attention to the direction and strength of the light.

The least flattering light is light coming from directly above our heads.  Light coming from directly above our heads creates very unflattering shadow.  A very fitting example is from Seinfeld.

Check out my 2 faced experiment...

The least flattering direction of light on our faces is from directly above our heads.  Light coming from above our heads casts freakish shadows on our faces.  It makes our eyes dark, it make our noses look big and our teeth and smiles dark.  No good.

The easiest way to solve this problem is don't choose a spot with top down light to take a photo.  Or you can also add a reflector.  A reflector reflectors the light back up into the face filling in the shadows with light.  When you have a bad light direction your goal will be to fill in all the unflattering shadows.

This is just one trick of many I learned while attending Emilie's workshop.  Her workshop includes how to shoot in Manual Mode, more lighting rules, her go to poses and her easy Photoshop process for editing. Emilie also teaching ONLINE classes.

Emilie's Salt Lake Workshops

Emilie's Online Workshops

Contact Emilie 

No More Blurry Images

The most common reason for blurry images is a slow shutter speed.  If you shoot in automatic mode or aperture priority then your camera will often select a shutter speed that is too slow, hence a blurry image.

Shutter speed is the speed that the shutter opens, lets in the image and then closes.  Shutter speed manages two elements of your photo: the amount of light in your image and the amount of motion captured in your image. 

When the shutter speed is on a lower/slower setting the shutter is open a longer amount of time letting in more light.  The slower the shutter speed the longer the shutter is open and the more light that is let in to create your image.  When the shutter speed is on a higher/faster setting the shutter is open less time letting in less light.  The faster the shutter speed the less time the shutter is open and the darker your image.  

When the shutter speed is on a lower/slower setting the shutter is open a longer amount of time capturing all the motion found in your scene.  The slower the shutter speed the longer the shutter is open and the more motion that is captured in your image.  The lower/slower the shutter the blurrier the image.  When the shutter speed is on a higher/faster setting the shutter is open less time capturing a smaller amount of "time" in our scene, stopping any motion that is happening.  The faster the shutter speed the less time the shutter is open and the less motion is captures.  The higher/faster the shutter the sharper your image. 

   I never shoot a portrait of a person less than a 250 shutter speed.  However, as you can see from the example above 250 is fast and doesn't allow a ton of light.  An image shot inside at 250 shutter speed tends to be a bit dark.  So what do you do???

After pulling up my blinds, turning on all my lights and moving my baby towards the open door,  I set my camera to 800 ISO, 250 Shutter Speed and 2.8 F-Stop and this is my final image....

Learn more in my photography workshops:

-Shooting in Manual Mode

-Perfect Lighting Every Time

-My Favorite Poses

-The Magic of Photoshop

  

Photo By Emilie Workshops:

ONLINE WORKSHOPS

SALT LAKE WORKSHOPS

My next Salt Lake Workshop will be Saturday, March 3rd

My online workshop prices will increase by $50 on February 15th.  

Contact Me if you'd like to lock in the lower price.

Santa Pix with no Santa

All you need is a...

-Santa Hat (I found mine in the $1 bin at Target)

-Scissors

-White Glove

-Fabric for a backdrop (I used black fabric but you can use anything you have around)

-Reflector (I'll talk more about this later in the post)

Cut a hole big enough for your hand to fit through

The perfect spot to shoot is next to an open door.  You'll notice a couple of things...

1.  Notice I just draped the backdrop over the open door.

2.  Notice that my Santa hand person was not blocking the light coming in the door. 

3.  Notice there is no direct sun coming through the door just indirect light.

Here's the image I captured...

The next images I played with a reflector as fill light.  (Fill light is the light that diminishes the shadows cast by the main light.)  The open door will light my subject bright on one side and leave a shadow on the other side of her face.  Sometime this look is desired.  A strong light and dark side makes for a more dramatic image.  When you diminish the shadows by using fill light it creates a more soft image.

Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!!

If you enjoyed this tip and love learning about photography and lighting then you must check out the Photo By Emilie Workshops.  I offers workshops in Salt Lake and ONLINE!!  I am giving you a discount of $25 off until Christmas.

Discount Code "perfectgift"

Photography Tip - My Fav Lighting Set Up

Lighting is the key element to any image.  When starting out in photography I would come home from a session with a few inspirational images.  In these few images it seemed that I stumbled onto the formula and I couldn't consistently achieve the same formula. How do you get consistently great lighting in your images?  I believe it's knowing the rules of lights.  After learning the rules of lighting, I realized how easy it is to create consistently awesome images.  The more you know about the elements of light, the more you can point and create rather than point and hope.  The 3 main elements of light are Key Light, Fill Light and Back Light.

Key Light - The main light that eliminates your subject. 
Fill Light - The light that diminishes the shadows cast by the Key Light.
Back Light - The light coming from behind hitting the subject on the head and shoulders, separating the subject from the background.  The effect is a more 3 dimensional appearance.

Here is a diagram of my favorite outdoor lighting set up.

 

Here are some sample images...

Here I used the Red Rocks in place of trees.  I achieved a real fun light flare because the rocks didn't filter the light as well as trees would.  The sun was about 1/2 way behind the rocks.

In this example I used the house to filter the sunlight.  I dig the way it's coming through the roof.

Here I filtered the light through holes in this old barn roof.  I love how light and bright it makes this image feel.

This is my Brother's sweet little family.  

I love them to pieces!

Hope you enjoyed my tip!!  This is just one of the concepts you'll learn in my Photo By You workshops.  I teach a workshop in Salt Lake or online.

Click here for more info

Using a Reflector as Fill Light

One of my favorite topics during my workshop is lighting. I teach you how I look at light, how I determine where I will place my subject according to my available light. Then how I enhance my available light to get warm gorgeous soft light on my subject.

One trick to creating a great photo with warm light is knowing how to use Fill Light to eliminate shadow and illuminate eyes. In this photo I used the white side of the reflector. I placed the reflector at his waist and pointed it up into his face, this eliminated the shadow cased by his cap.


In this next photo I used the reflector to add drama and glow. I had my assistant stand about 10 feet back from the model. Using the gold side to catching a patch of sun and reflect it back onto the model. This achieved a more high fashion look and feel.


 

One of my favorite photography tools is my reflector.
I use the 32" Soft Gold/White.



Learning to master light is one of the most challenging aspects of photography. Additional tools like this reflector, external flashes and speed lights add an level of drama to your images that you just can't achieve without them.  As you continue to master light with these tools you will begin to see your images pop and sparkle!!


Come learn more about lighting and lots of other photography topics at my Photography Workshops.