Images A Few Lighting Methods

id="mod_12223663">Light Bounce Is not Always a foul Factor

In my first article on photographic lighting, I explained how mild can bounce and break a photo. There is a approach, however, to use that very same light bounce to reinforce your photo. This is a trick most helpful outdoors, nevertheless it will also be put to use indoors as properly for a portrait sitting.

You have to some easy supplies, and probably an assistant.

tripod for the camera

white foam-core board

artist's easel (or that assistant)

Tripods are amongst the most basic of instruments for anybody serious about taking more than informal snapshots. Besides holding the camera completely steady, use of a tripod additionally frees up one in all your arms to carry or manipulate one thing else if want be (as with the tape measure within the photo above). If you are using your camera on "macro" setting, or zoomed in on telephoto setting, a tripod just isn't an option, it is a should! That magnification also magnifies any shake or vibration and can lead to a fuzzy out-of-focus picture.

If you do not have the foam-core board accessible to you, a large piece of white cardboard will do in a pinch..but it surely can cause issues as a result of it is probably not inflexible enough to stand with out collapsing. Once more, an assistant may help with this. (Alternately, clamps can be utilized, if there is a close to enough surface to which anything can be clamped.)

I listing an artist's easel instead to an assistant if nobody is on the market to help, but anything you may rig up that can hold your foam board nonetheless and within the position you need will work, for example you might use white-headed thumb tacks or push-pins to fasten it to the aspect of a saw horse.

Why Not Simply Use the Flash?

For one factor, the digital camera's flash is harsh lighting, and never pleasing for a portrait impact. The pros use costly cameras with a detachable flash unit they'll use to bounce the flash off a close by wall or the ceiling, giving a softer gentle. Most of us can't afford the cameras with that functionality.

Secondly, you might need an "awwwwww...sooooo cuuuute" second with a sleeping child and/or pet, and you do not want to wake them up with a sudden flash of shiny light.

Eliminating Shadows Without Using Flash

This is one of the tricks utilized by the "massive boys" for getting that tender portrait lighting using natural light. One caveat: this is just usable on both sleeping subjects, or those previous sufficient (or in the case of pets, nicely-skilled sufficient) to understand remaining nonetheless while you arrange.

This can be done both indoors or outdoors, however outdoors, you will have breezes to take care of, and you will need that helper.

Let's set up a possible situation:

You are at a picnic, and your child has fallen asleep beneath a tree with a half-eaten apple in her hand. Too cute. Nonetheless, it's a large tree, and casts a deep shadow. Right here is the setup:

Observe the place of the solar

Mount your camera on the tripod on the angle you want for the picture

Have your helper hold the foam board reverse the sun, so the sunshine bounces off toward the shadow cast by the tree

This will cast a very smooth added little bit of light onto your topic, lessening the darkness of the shadow.

You can too use a silver-coated board, or one thing shiny similar to one of those insulated solar shades made for automobile windshields; this does give a harsher light, but not as harsh as utilizing the flash on the digital camera.

Now, do not inform me you did not convey all your supplies with you! Anybody serious about photography and improving their photos never travels with out all the "may need" gadgets! Don't forget that kitchen sink! ;-)

Portraits

A very good informal portrait could be taken with the subject posed subsequent to a window. The pure mild coming in the window makes a nice smooth glow...if the sun just isn't shining instantly into that window. Because of this artists favor north-going through windows. If you have no north-facing windows, simply use a window opposite the current place of the solar...i.e., west within the morning; east within the afternoon.

For even softer light, leave the curtains closed, assuming they're sheers. If they don't seem to be sheer, open them. You'll notice the facet of your subject away from the window (close to side) can be in fairly deep shadow, and the options will be virtually a silhouette in the final picture.

To eliminate this shadow, using your artist's easel or assistant, place your foam board reflector fairly near the subject, however simply out of view of the digital camera, facing the window. The light will bounce off the board, and lessen the shadows. The overall effect is a very soft light, almost a glow.

This method, on a much bigger scale, can also be utilized in Hollywood film manufacturing. You additionally see it in professional photography studios, with their reflector flash items, where the flash is going through away from the subject into a reflective umbrella gizmo.

Close to-Window PortraitClick on thumbnail to view full-dimension

Videography

You can also use this when capturing video, but you must be very, very cautious, or the end consequence will look very amateurish and be a distraction as a substitute of an asset.

It is best put to use with a stationary topic, reminiscent of an interview. Your reflector board should be large enough to gentle your complete shadow facet of the subject, and it's imperative that or not it's held completely nonetheless, and the camera ought to be on a tripod as nicely.

On this case, that easel, sawhorse or clamp association is important. The very worst impact you'll be able to have is for that reflected gentle to be transferring and bouncing about like a child playing with reflecting the sun off a pocket mirror.

If you're conducting an interview about anything the least bit critical, a flaw of that nature together with your lighting setup is not going to only be distracting, but it can detract from the credibility of your overal work. Yes, individuals do make those kinds of leaps in judgement.

Follow Makes Excellent

Or so they are saying. As I am fond of claiming, "Anybody looking for absolute perfection is on the fallacious danged planet!"

Apply will certainly make you a extra achieved photographer whose photographs are worthy of admiration as a substitute of avoidance.

Go play, and have fun! For nearly all of us, photography is a pastime, not a job, so enjoy the method!

photostudiosupply

eight years in the past from Rochester, New York

I must say very helpful article. Good job Lizzy!!!!!

8 years ago from Oakley, CA

Hey, jaswinder64--

Thanks very a lot on your comment--it is way appreciated, and I am happy you found the article useful.

jaswinder64

8 years ago from Toronto, Canada.

Your article could be very helpful, its informative and useful. Thanks for writing to help folks.

Thanks, Fossillady! I am glad you discovered it helpful. These handbook can be a bore to learn, and complicated, as properly. Manuals are written by the "techie" people, and never by "phrase individuals," and positively not by English majors. LOL

Kathi

9 years in the past from Saugatuck Michigan

Very helpful information and so a lot better than reading a guide!

Hi, Erin--

Glad I may provide some assistance. I have a new hub in the works on capturing youngsters and pets. ;-)

All the perfect to you!

Erin LeFey

9 years in the past from Maryland

Very useful in formation - thanks a lot for sharing it! I wanted assist with simply this topic not too way back! Namaste.

Thanks, Steph!

Glad you discovered something useful to take with you.

;-) All the very best!

Stephanie Marshall

9 years in the past from Bend, Oregon

Really superior suggestions and knowledge! I like the pictures I get with the flash off and near windows streaming in natural light. I will have to experiment with the sunshine bounce ideas. I often turn off the flash as a result of - as you be aware - its too harsh. However these pesky shadows... Finest, Steph

s.wilson--

Thanks for stopping by; I'm glad you preferred the article. Thanks, too on your enter. Chairs are certainly a superb substitute for an easel, and waxed paper or a single-thickness of facial tissue may also be good flash diffusers.

However, if the flash is constructed into the digital camera physique, they are often difficult to use without also obscuring a part of the lens, not less than if you are trying to carry the diffuser in place by hand as you snap. Removable scotch-tape is perhaps the reply there.

s.wilson

Great, informative article! I exploit a chair typically occasions as an alternative of an easel, as I have lots of chairs. Wax paper may be an important way to diffuse on digital camera flash if that is what you might be caught with.

Hello, Wayne!

Thanks! I'm positive you may use a white sheet for an indoor reflector...outdoors, wind could possibly be an issue, because it would be harder to maintain it still. As far as a "backdrop" for a portrait--it depends on the impact you need. Here, in one in all my Etsy listings, you possibly can see how a white backdrop appears to be like when i used my daughter as a model.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/17283354/stone-necklac...

It's very harsh, and not in any respect portrait-like. Massive difference! Nevertheless, I was not after a portrait, I used to be simply showing the product on a plain background with out distracting components. To that end, I "Photo-Shopped" it to even get rid of the panels on the door in front of which she was standing. ;-)

Cheers!

Wayne Brown

Well aren't you simply the thought particular person with this one...good things and properly-written too! I assume that if you're doing a portrait that it could be doable to use a white sheet as a backdrop for reflecting mild...is that the case? WB

Hello, Jamie--

Look on your digital camera's setting controls--you could have a macro setting without needing to put in a separate lens. The "macro" setting is most frequently indicated by a bit of flower icon--usually looking something like a tulip. If so, that is your excessive-close-up (ECU) setting. Macro is helpful for topics within about 30" of the lens.

For an in depth-up impact of something you can't actually get close to, use the zoom control (marked on one side with a "W" (for "extensive,") and a "T" (for "telephoto") on the opposite.

On most cameras, this is a rocker-kind change. For either macro or telephoto zoom, a tripod isn't an option however a necessity.

Greatest wishes!

Thank you for these great tips, MsLizzy. I can't wait to read your different picture hub. I requested about close ups as a result of a pal of mine acquired a macro lens some time back and her shut up footage are beautiful.. My digital camera pales compared to hers but I often wonder if there is a option to get some good and first rate close ups with my camera..maybe there is some approach on the market I'm lacking out on.. I've regarded in the manual and really can't discover something on it.

Thanks again for this awesome hub!

Hi, Jamie,

I am glad you found the knowledge helpful. You may need to read my other picture hub, and i do plan on doing an article about issues like close-ups and colour stability.

I can let you know briefly, however, that if you are taking images underneath regular room lighting with regular (not flourescent) bulbs, things WILL look yellow, because that's the color of these kind of lights. We cannot see it with our eyes as a yellow tint, but the digital camera can see it.

Try utilizing makeup tutorial step by step out doors, as a substitute or the subsequent-to-a-window technique described on this hub.

If you have a program like PhotoShop, it's pretty simple to repair with either the "modify auto ranges" or "coloration steadiness" instruments. Otherwise, it is a matter of struggling by means of the digital camera manual with explicit attention to the part on white-balancing.

Finest wishes.

Jamie Brock

9 years ago from Texas

Thank you for the superior data on pictures and lighting... I have this downside with my digital digital camera that every part seems danky and yellow.. I do not actually like using the flash a lot because like you stated above.. it's so harsh. I've tried to read the handbook that got here with the digital camera however it is hard to understand.. do you might have any tips about taking pics shut up, possibly?

Thanks for the great hub!

WriterLiz Elias

9 years ago from Oakley, CA

Hello, Nell!

LOL--thanks--ensure and direct him to my different picture hub, as nicely--solely 2 so far to worry about. Hee hee

9 years ago from England

Hello, this is great! I was simply speaking on the cellphone to my brother and he was saying that he needed a brand new camera but was ineffective at taking photos! ha ha bookmarked so my stupid brother gets the right concept! cheers nell