I photographed this portrait of model, Roxanna Redfoot, at a recent shoot in Hollywood. I thought it would make a great entry to talk about a few lighting tips.

Roxanna wasn’t even the model who I was photographing, but I noticed this awesome light streaming through the windows and Roxanna was conveniently standing nearby. Great lighting can occur anytime. You need to train your mind to look for it, to see it.

Here’s another version:
Notice how I have placed her head in the upper left convergence area to lead the viewer’s eye into the image. Also, the shadow serves as negative space to balance the model being placed on the left of the frame.

Here’s one last image.
Don’t forget when you have a great set-up, try another perspective like vertical vs. horizontal. Remember that digital doesn’t cost anything to make another frame. So, shoot, shoot and shoot.

Finally, this lighting situation was created by afternoon sunlight filtering through a window at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. The light is almost horizontal and is relatively soft, so Roxanna can look towards the light without it blinding her.
Morning and afternoon light are so much more complimentary than the harsh light that is created by the sun during mid-day.

So, today’s lighting tips revolve around:
1) Be watchful and look around for potential great light
2) Be really aware in the late afternoon and the early morning
3) Anyone can be a potential subject, even world-class models watching their friends work!

Enjoy!!!

A little bit ago @Sylvia asked if I could post a photo of the infamous snoot that I have been using lately on some of my freelance jobs.

The first image shows a piece of black foam paper that I bought at Wal-Mart for I believe 69 cents(maybe 99). I added velcro strips, both the loops and the hooks and stretched it to fit my Canon 580 EXII. I made this one to be about 7 inches long. Just smush it down into the shape you want it and modify your light!

With the snoot, I can add light into a scene without overlighting the entire photo. This photo needed just a bit of light on the subject’s face, but not anywhere else. So as not to overexpose the light from the snoot, I dialed it to about 1 1/2 stops over the existing ambient exposure. I believe the ambient exposure was around f5.6 at 1/200 at ISO 200, thus the snooted light was set to f 8.5 to achieve just a bit of additional lighting on our subject’s face. There is some spill onto the paddle, jacket and the piling behind our subject, but it still works for me.

I hope that helps and thanks for your patience. Enjoy!

Cure Magazine Shoot

I recently photographed a medical caregiver who was nominated to be included in a special book for Cure Magazine. An essay was written by Kady Lane about her friend and nurse, Bob Garvin, of Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles.

I was contracted to photograph the two of them any way I wanted by the magazine. A dream assignment, since anytime a client says, ” Do whatever you want we like your style,” just wish I could hear that more often.

I arrived to find the area I was to make the portrait in total afternoon shade. Very blue light due to the shade and I had about 1 1/2 hours of light left in the day.

Moving to another spot was out of the question, since one of my subjects wasn’t to mobile due to her illness. Actually, Kady would probably have moved, but I didn’t want her to.

So my original idea of a shaft of light on the main subject quickly was dashed and I looked around for some inspiration.

I found it at the entrance of the cancer wing. Beautiful red rock tile/slate covered the entrance and would make a great background for my portraits.

I took an ambient exposure and set my camera at f8 @ 200/sec at ISO 400. So, I set my flash at 1/2 power and my camera to manual. I ended up shooting at f20 @ 200 which is 3 stops over the ambient and made for a very dramatic lighting ratio.

Bob is an amazing person who was funny and personable. I can see why Kady nominated him and his story was accepted to be published.

The trick to this type of lighting is to modify the light that is coming out of your flash. You can use a very expensive gizmo or make your own.

I bought a piece of black foam paper for less than a buck and put some velcro on it and wrapped it around my 580 EXII flash and made a snoot. That’s the shape of the light that you see on the wall behind the subjects.

Then it was just a matter of moving the light and the subjects into the most pleasing pose possible.

One of the main digital photography tips that elude most photographers is the direction of light.

Where is the light coming from and how will it affect my subject?

This is a question that most photographers never even consider. Light always has a direction. Sometimes you have to study the image very closely, but there will always be a direction to the light.

Consider the photo above.

I took this a few years back for a story on this young lady who ran a youth program in the inner city. There were great bold colors in her office space and it was near the Day of the Dead celebration.

Look closely and identify where the light is coming from.  Do you see it?

The light is coming from the right side of the photo (actually from a large window just out of view). It is lighting the left side of our subject’s face (we call this camera right).

I have placed her head in the upper right convergence areas of the right vertical line and the upper horizontal line and the head of the skeleton is in the upper left area of convergence. The viewer’s eyes are lead to the two heads.

The quality of the light is soft and diffused. This type of lighting is called open shade or ambient. Light that isn’t directly hitting the subject can be referred to this way. Ambient lighting is very complimentary for photographing people, but remember it has a direction to it.

So, we have ambient light that is lighting our subject from the side. We have a subject that is resting in one of our main areas of convergence and we have a nice moment for our subject.

Practice identifying the direction of light as much as possible.

It will help you as you progress as a photographer, so your photographs will begin to be crafted with a purpose, not just random snapshots.

I will be posting more digital photography tips about seeing light soon. Enjoy!

Digital photography tip on lighting and our angle or point of view.

This entry talks about light and how often we don’t really recognize it and how our angle or point of view makes all the difference.

In the first image we have a typical crib in a nursery. There’s a window that is on the left side with non-direct light coming into the room.

In the second photo we have our baby. Most people are happy with this type of an image. We can see the baby in the photo and that is about all. The angle is from a normal adults view, high above and looking down on the baby.

But in our last image, we have an image that will last.

Why?

Because it combines composition (I’ve placed the baby’s face in the upper area of convergence), great lighting (the window provides  soft even lighting) and a nice moment as the baby smiles.

My angle or point of view helps to draw the viewer into the image by shooting through the slats of the crib to bring some visual complexity into the photo, too.

Instead of a boring image of a baby lying in their crib, we have a memorable photo of a really cute baby seen from their point of view of the world. The slats do give more complexity to the photo, too.

To review:

Window light where the light is not directly shining on the subject is normally very soft and beautiful.

The angle/point of view of our photo is highly important to give a different perspective to your photographs.

Hope you enjoyed another digital photography tip!

Have a great day.