Part 5 The Course

Well what a fantastic response we are receiving to this course. Especially now we have moved on to actually taking pictures. I know a great many of you have improved your techniques and the quality of your pictures have improved no end. It's surprising how just getting back to the basics and refreshing your memory can bring a new breath of freshness to your work.

In part 5 we are concentrating on natural light, but unlike part 4 the more diffused and softer variety. Perhaps you are shooting indoors using the light from a window, or perhaps out of doors, but in shade away from direct sunlight, or even just on a cloudy day. All are quite capable of producing great results providing you understand and know what effect each will give and most importantly how your camera/film will interpret what it sees.

As you can see this was a very bright sunny day causing harsh shadows making a shoot difficult and hard work. The pair moved into the shade to get out of the heat and the photographer could see how a shoot would be worthwhile. See how even in the shade the light still adds shape and form and is interesting on the model.

Let's first look at shooting out of doors on a cloudy day. There are two types of cloudy day as far as you the photographer is concerned. The blue sky with white fluffy jobs scudding across, and a typical British day when there is cloud from horizon to horizon. The blue sky variety is nice because as the clouds cover the sun and cast the area you are in into shadow the light is wonderfully soft and diffused. Harsh shadows on your model are killed stone dead and there still remains a warm hue. Light metering in this instance is a breeze, spot meter on the models face (cheek) and shoot. The picture will still have modelling and will produce very satisfying results. Depending on how much blue sky is around will depend on how much of a blue hue is picked up by your camera. The really ideal shot and one worth trying for if you are in this situation is to have a small cloud over the sun, yet the full scene behind your model is still in bright sunlight. Providing you use an f stop greater than f11 the background will be in full focus and of interest. Again using the largest aperture you can say f3.5 will put the background out of focus and with the bright light give a pleasing effect. This is fun because you can experiment for hours on days like this and really produce some interesting and great shots.

Either put the back ground out of focus, or close in and ignore it particularly. Notice how in the centre picture there is a little dappled sunlight playing on the models skin. Nice touch.

I feel I ought to say here that this experimenting is very important. A lot of people pick up a camera, read the how to books, and start taking pictures. Yes of course that's the way to go. It is very important to learn the basics and then to practice them. As an aside when we were all teenagers we all bought guitars. We all learnt the basic chord structures. I carried on like that then never really changing things. Yet a couple of friends started to play around walking their fingers across the frets as they changed chords. Leaving out certain strings as they strummed. They were the ones that went on and became great guitarists.

I was like that with my photography. We worked hard to learn our trade, but I was always trying different things with light. I took a lot of crap pictures as well, but always having my camera with me I learnt what works and what doesn't. More importantly if a very difficult lighting situation arose I would at least have a good idea how I could overcome it. It's fine for books and magazines to talk about EV, but the bottom line is it has to be partly instinctive. If you only pick up your camera once in awhile and expect to take something extraordinary you have to be lucky for it to work. Film isn't that expensive, but dev and printing costs can add up. Yet I say to you, think how much you spent on your kit! Practice, experiment, and play around.

Sometimes I get an idea for a picture, or a client has some brainwave, yet technically it will be impossible to achieve. By that I mean the full range of elements in the picture will not be possible to achieve. The range would be greater than the 5 stops we can handle. Do we lose detail in the highlights and let it burn out, or let the shadows block out and lose detail there? It can be done, but it's really best done working with instincts you have built up over practice. OK enough back to the course.

If the lighting is diffused and soft, but makes for a boring background then keep the background plain and really use the lighting on the model to advantage.

Now on our cloudy day, we will have wonderfully diffused lighting, but the sky will appear uninteresting and flat. The great outdoors will also appear uninteresting and flat due to the lack of shadow detail. You see our model will not be blasted with harsh shadows which is great, yet the great outdoors will also be shadowless which is not so great. So on these occasions it is better to keep the model close to a background. Say a tree, or bush. They will benefit from the soft light. We have all taken a picture of a scene on an overcast day and been disappointed when we get the print back. Vistas really need sunlight to give them some POW! Some shape and form.

Personally I would have had the background a little out of focus, but the photographer wanted the viewer to enjoy the fact anyone could have been watching his model strip. This shows how an overcast sky makes for a less interesting vista though.

Of course using a large aperture say f3.5 will make the background really unimportant and concentrate on the model. In this case of course she needs to be away from any background. (Remember depth of field) It really depends on what you are trying to achieve with your picture. If it's just the model then overcast, large aperture is the way to go. Soft skin tones, soft modelling light, blurred out multi colour shaded background is all very appealing.

Another way to approach cheating bright sun light is to use what you want of it yet keep the main part of the model in shadow. These three pictures show you how by having the model in the doorway and the photographer back in the room he used the lighting on the hair and shoulders to advantage, but kept the models face lighting soft and interesting.

Finally we have covered shooting indoors by window light a lot in previous issues, but I have included these pictures below because they are taken with no tricky tricks. Just available light, metering on the models skin. There is a little fill in some, but that comes naturally from the prevailing walls and ceiling.

		No trickery, or even tricks of the trade. Just simple light metering, and an understanding of where the light is coming from.

That completes part 5 of the course. Your project is simply to muck around, experiment and see what you can achieve.

©Glamour Photo OnLine 2002