While browsing the internet today, I came across some videos regarding lighting. These videos, created by Phlearn.com, featured concepts and information I found interesting and noteworthy.
| The first video compares and contrasts the two methods of lighting in photography: artificial and natural. Artificial lighting: - Can be completely controlled. You can change the light's shape, position, direction, and intensity however you want. Natural: - Prevalent whenever there's sunlight, which means you don't have to carry/pay for equipment. - Can be modified (using reflectors), but to a much smaller level of control. - Coldest light is midday (5600K), warmest during "golden hour"-- near sunrise and sunset |
The second video was a practical tutorial for portraiture. The setup Aaron, the presenter/photographer, talked about is called clamshell lighting." It requires two lights in front of the subject--a key light above and a fill light below. The key light is obviously brighter than the fill (he recommends about a 3:1 ratio), since having both of them at the same power would flatten the subject. One reason why this setup is great is because the lights reflect in the subject's eyes, making them stand out. While I only have one flash, the clamshell method would be interesting to try with a reflector and natural light. | |
| I remember that my mentor suggested that a good way to build my understanding of flash photography is to look at photos try to dissect how they were lit. This is why I watched this final video. I found this photo interesting because it's really dim, leading me to initially believe that very few lights were used. However, this photo used four lights: the dim ambient lighting of the studio, a desklamp, and two strobes. Aaron first set the exposure for the ambient and lamp light. This is neat, because it's follows David Hobby's simple steps for adding flash. The desklamp acted as a key light, and a strobe placed at a distance supplemented it to light the rest of the subject's face and body. Another strobe up and behind the subject added to the ambient lighting and also acted as a rim light. I can now see how useful gels can be. The front strobe had a CTO gel to better match the light from the lamp. Without it, there would've been a weird mismatch of color temperature on the subject, making the photo look less clean and planned. |
Total time: 1 1/4 hour. While the video lengths only add up to about one half-hour, I ended up pausing every few seconds to take notes or reference the articles that accompanied the videos.