Lighting Boot Camp part 1

At the suggestion of one of the group's mentors, we've been going through a lighting "boot camp." The idea was to analyze the images- where are the shadows, are the pleasing shadows or not, does the image has a 3 dimensional quality or is it more flat, etc. Our first assignment was direct lighting from a single source in the 3 basic positions- front, side and back. Next was to repeat the exercise, but diffuse the light in some way (I used a plain white sheet of paper) to see the difference between direct and diffused lighting). We also added in a second light source on the 2nd assignment to see how that affected the shadows. For the third assignment, we went back a single source, but used a reflector opposite the light to see how it differed from using 2 lights.

All of the exercises were very interesting and I definitely learned a few things. Direct front lighting is not flattering at all- it's why the first advice given to anyone trying to take better pictures is to turn the flash off. Side lighting definitely lends dimensionality, but a 90 degree sidelight would be flattering only in a limited number of scenarios, children's portraiture would likely not be one of those situations. A 45 degree angle was much better. Diffused lighting is nice and I really loved the effect of pointing lights at a piece of white foamcore board-


Very soft, dimensional light. I also really like the reflector lighting, the greatest differences seen with one 90 degree sidelight with reflector opposite (from left to right it was light, subject, reflector- or could be switched to reflector, subject, light) and a backlit subject with the reflector in front. I struggled a bit with getting the reflector in a position to reflect light well, but also to be able to get the angle of shot I wanted.

Images for the boot camp are all here.

Next, we're moving onto natural light.