Light Conversation

[drd1135]

Some of the recent threads got me thinking about having a more "focused" discussion about light. I thought of starting a thread because I saw this short article over on DPR with Jordan Drake's approach to dramatic lighting and started looking for a place to post it.

One Thing: Want more cinematic lighting? Try taking light away

Lighting may seem resource-intensive on the surface, but as DPReview's Jordan Drake discovered after watching a pro, great effects can be achieved without a lot of expensive equipment. Using a simple tool to remove and modify the light can make for a compelling image.

www.dpreview.com

What are your preferences? How do you look for or arrange the light for your photos? What are articles or books you find helpful? I'm a purely natural light shooter but I tend to like strong directional lighting in the early mornings or late in the day. I'm willing to experiment and we do have a very wide collection of different styles and brands of cameras and lenses on this forum. How do you bend the photons to your will?

 

[mike3996]

Light and where it (doesn't) fall on a scene is mainly just another visual element to me.

One can make do with very little indeed.

 

[wee-pics]

Photography has always meant for me working with light. Natural light, I mean, I don't like using flashlights. And I've always loved working with high contrast natural light, which meant - in days of film rolls and slides - that I focused my metering on the lights. With the OM-4 I could add several spot measurements, two on the brightest lights I wanted to have correctly and one on the deepest shadow. Like this I always had good exposures. For prints, however, I needed more details in the shadows.

With the O-M5 I can switch from high key to low key mode, or if I use manual mode, select the face e. g. in portraits for metering, press down half to hold the value, shift the camera to get the best image composition and then release the shutter. Since I read Ansel Adam's books I only use shutter or aperture priority only in diffuse lighting or when there is little contrast. I prefer manual mode and checking whether I go for the lights, the shadows or the middle range. Digital photography has made many things a lot easier for me. Still the brain cells must be working if I want to get the result I'm after.

I love what you can achieve with the differences in daylight from dawn to dusk, and what you can do with artificial lighting in the town centers or in concerts (spotlights on the stage). It is still painting with light what we do when we take photos. And light is - after DOF, perspective, and composition - still the most important aspect to keep an eye on while taking your shots.

 

[rayvonn]

Not being a professional, I don’t try to create light for the purposes of an image, the light/ conditions dictate to me, they are what they are and I look to work around that and without flash too, principally through the iso/shutter speed/ aperture triangle. This sounds a bit obvious and simple doesn’t it. Well that’s deliberately so as having a practical understanding of it has been a great help to me, being the answer to most if not all my lighting scenarios. Haven’t really progressed beyond that which suits me fine.

Having said that, it’s probably worth going through threads/ postings by @L0n3Gr3yW0lf as he currently seems to be in the middle of manipulating light to a far more specific extent.

 

[wee-pics]

Some books I found helpful (especially the first one on Zone System for Digital Cameras):

Amazon.com: Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for Digital Photographers: 9781598639872: Varis, Lee: Books

Amazon.com: Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for Digital Photographers: 9781598639872: Varis, Lee: Books

www.amazon.com

Amazon.com: Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for Digital Photographers: 9781598639872: Varis, Lee: Books

Amazon.com: Mastering Exposure and the Zone System for Digital Photographers: 9781598639872: Varis, Lee: Books

www.amazon.com

Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light: Perello, Ibarionex: 9780321752505: Amazon.com: Books

Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light [Perello, Ibarionex] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light

www.amazon.com

Digital Camera Magazine - Complete Photography Guide - Mastering Light | PDF | Exposure (Photography) | Shutter Speed

Scribd ist die weltweit größte soziale Plattform zum Lesen und Veröffentlichen.

de.scribd.com

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

Not being a professional, I don’t try to create light for the purposes of an image, the light/ conditions dictate to me, they are what they are and I look to work around that and without flash too, principally through the iso/shutter speed/ aperture triangle. This sounds a bit obvious and simple doesn’t it. Well that’s deliberately so as having a practical understanding of it has been a great help to me, being the answer to most if not all my lighting scenarios. Haven’t really progressed beyond that which suits me fine.

Having said that, it’s probably worth going through threads/ postings by @L0n3Gr3yW0lf as he currently seems to be in the middle of manipulating light to a far more specific extent.

I appreciate the mention. I still prefer natural light for most of my pictures. My light manipulation experiment is aimed at macro, as I plan to work on 2:1 and 1:1 I need more light then my room and living room lights can provide, working under 10 cm distance from the "subject".
Personally I don't like or want to use flash on large subjects like humans or animals (pets) because it detracts from "normal" behaviour with more emphasis on how they want to be seen then who they are. That also come from my lack of experience and comfort with interacting and posing.

Outdoors, my extent of experimentation is wanting to get the "glowing mushrooms" effect. I haven't tried it yet but I can't stop thinking about making mushroom glow

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

Another, very quick, test. Little Legs had a bath today after her doggie walky and I wanted a picture of how fluffy she gets:

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I wanted hair light behind her, purple was her mom's favourite colour so why not give the Ulanzi VL49 RGB a test. Getting her to sit still and pose is a whole bag of hope and craziness, she graced me with only a few shots. Had to move around quite a bit to get the light to be hidden behind her. I could have gone with the 35mm but that would be to much of the background (though I will try that too at some point). The light on my left gave a nice highlight in her right eye, which was my intention and why I decided to put a light there. Unfortunately my right side didn't work to well because some of her fluffiness is covering her left eye. It didn't help that I set up the 3rs light on the floor below her but I didn't have time to work more on the composition and light set up.

I am pretty happy with a 10 minutes setup and a handful of pictures from 2 poses. With more time and work I can get better ... Though I doubt her patience will get better.

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Her favourite sitting places is the sofa, my desk "chair" and my pillows on the bed. So I went with the sofa(sorry about the "extra" stuff in the background.
The RGB light is small enough that I can hide it behind her and the grey blanket does reflect a bit of it as well (which illuminated underneath her fur a little bit).
The big light on the left of the image is strong enough to work from 1 meter away but not enough to burn her silver hair. At ISO 640 the IQ is more then enough to not have to complain about noise. No. It's not ISO 100, I would need a light, probably, 8 times as strong to put the metering at base.
The light on the right of the picture struggles a bit to reach at 1.5 meters away, but it still gives enough light to decrease contrasting shadows from the other 2 lights. I need to be more careful with the usage of that light, probably consider adding another big one to replace it as side light.

PS. All of this is with no stuffy or research on how to work with artificial light (yet). I find it more fun to build ideas, try, see what works and what not and improve. That's how I learned photography for the last 13 years, painfully slow and inefficient but highly rewarding for myself.

 

[John King]

Not sure where to put this ...

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[Giiba]

Tagging this thread. I want to learn more about how to make fluffy creatures look so good!

 

[John King]

Tagging this thread. I want to learn more about how to make fluffy creatures look so good!

You should also look at the Dog and Cat threads then.

 

[John King]

Also, the book "Light Science and Magic" by Biver, Fuqua et. al. is superb. Taught me more about lighting, both artificial and natural, in 4-6 weeks than over 50 years of practical experience.

 

[DeeJayK]

Also, the book "Light Science and Magic" by Biver, Fuqua et. al. is superb. Taught me more about lighting, both artificial and natural, in 4-6 weeks than over 50 years of practical experience.

This book's been sitting on my bedside table for the past year waiting for me to find/make the time to dig into it. I'm hoping that an impending change in my employment status may give me the time to actually spend those 4–6 weeks sometime before the end of 2023.

- K

 

[John King]

This book's been sitting on my bedside table for the past year waiting for me to find/make the time to dig into it. I'm hoping that an impending change in my employment status may give me the time to actually spend those 4–6 weeks sometime before the end of 2023.

- K

It's easy reading, Keith. Everything is explained simply and precisely. Unlike say, Harald Mante's book on composition, which is pretty solid going; or Blatner and Fraser's "Real World Adobe Photoshop", which is nearly 1,000 pages of heavy going ...