If you’re a photographer who is just starting to learn the properties of light—quantity, quality, color temperature, and direction—digesting all of that information can feel extremely overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to feel that way. In fact, there’s a really practical way to understand light and how to apply those principles when photographing women, and I’ll show you how in this chapter.
Each of these properties can be used interchangeably to create different lighting setups for photographing portraits, commercial photographs, and fashion photographs. While there’s not one right way to light an image, learning how to manipulate light will directly influence how the viewer perceives the final image.
Simply put, portraits primarily focus on the subject; commercial photography focuses on a lifestyle, product, or service; and fashion photography ( Figure 10.1 ) focuses on the attire in an image. Your job as a photographer is to navigate the viewer’s attention to whatever subject matter you’re trying to showcase.
For example, if you were photographing a commercial campaign for running shoes, you’d probably want to highlight the shoes in an image. While that sounds pretty rudimentary, I often see photographers who forget about that simple concept. You’ll see photographers who want to break into the fashion industry focusing more on the subject and not accentuating the clothing, and that’s absolutely counterproductive. Obviously, this rule can be broken, but I’d recommend sticking to it until you can master navigating the viewer’s attention successfully.
Throughout the following chapters, I’ll dissect different lighting styles for portraits, commercial photographs, and fashion photographs. The idea behind these lighting setups is that you, the reader, use them to create your own lighting style. I’d recommend drawing inspiration from each lighting setup and re-creating something that you can call uniquely your own.
You’ll also be introduced to a variety of different lighting modifiers that you can use in order to accentuate different parts of your subject. Certain lighting modifiers will have drawbacks, and I’ll be sure to discuss those drawbacks where relevant. With that, let’s begin by summarizing the properties of light.
While I could literally write pages discussing and dissecting light scientifically, for the sake of your sanity, I’m not going to do so. I’d rather that you have a working knowledge of how light works and learn to master it through practice than a theoretical understanding without practice. So, to keep it simple, there are four main characteristics of light: quantity, quality, color, and direction. Depending on who you’re speaking with, some of these characteristics may overlap, but for the purposes of keeping things simple, they’re divided accordingly here.
Quantity refers to the intensity of the light you’re introduced to, whether that’s natural or artificial light. It’s simply a term used to determine how much light you have in a scene.
By introducing more lights on a set, you’re affecting the overall contrast of an image. For example, if you have well-defined shadows in an image with the use of one light, adding a second light to the shadow areas of that image will reduce the overall shadows and directly influence the contrast in your image. Remember that contrast is the difference between the highlights and shadows in your image. The less of a difference between your highlights and shadows, the “flatter” your image will be.
Also note that another way to make a light appear brighter is to move it closer to your subject. For example, if you hold a flashlight within a couple of inches from a wall, it will appear brighter than if you move it farther away. This change will simultaneously impact the quality of light.
Because there isn’t a quantitative way to score light quality, we simply define the quality of light by discussing how “hard” or “soft” it is. You’ll know that you’re working with hard light when your images have well-defined shadows and lots of overall contrast. The shadows in “soft” images will transition to areas of light without definitive lines of shadow.
When photographing women, hard light is typically considered “bad” light, because it draws more attention to blemishes and wrinkles in the skin due to the overall contrast. This can lead to subjects looking inherently older than they truly are. In addition to this, you’ll also spend more time retouching images, if you plan on working on your images in postproduction.
So where does hard light come from? The answer to that question is the secret to learning how to effectively control light: the quality of light is directly influenced by the size of the light compared to your subject matter. The bigger the light is compared to your subject, the softer it will be. The smaller the light is compared to your subject, the harsher it will be.
Consider this: let’s use the sun as an example. Compared to the Earth, the sun is a huge source of light. However, because the sun is 93 million miles away (thank you, Wikipedia), it’s comparatively smaller in relation to the Earth. This is why, in the harsh midday sun, you have well-defined shadows; it’s a very hard form of light. If we could decrease the distance between the sun and the Earth (and survive), the sun would be larger in relation to the Earth. It would then fill in the shadows under your eyes, nose, and chin. The easiest way to understand this is to remember that shadows are created by the absence of light.
Studio strobes, speedlights, and constant lights are generally smaller in size relative to our subjects. This is why we use lighting modifiers. They broaden the source of light and fill in any unwanted shadows in our images ( Figure 10.2 ). On a cloudy day, the clouds act as a huge diffuser of light. They spread out the light so it is not as directional and soften it. That is why cloudy days make for amazing portrait sessions!
Later we’ll discuss how to take that same concept and apply it to taking photographs on location and in the studio. Understanding the difference between hard and soft light will save you both time and energy when you’re trying to find a location for a photo shoot.
FIGURE 10.2
What?! Light has a temperature? Yes. Yes, it does. This is probably the one thing I struggled with when I first started learning photography, and now I can’t help but notice the difference in color temperature EVERYWHERE I go. If you’re willing to lose your sanity, keep reading.
FIGURE 10.3
All light is not equal; for example, a candle produces warm light, whereas a fluorescent light emanates cool light. Similarly, the color of light outdoors will shift depending on the time of day, weather conditions, and a variety of other factors. Light is measured on the Kelvin scale, which is a standardized measurement of color ( Figure 10.3 ).
In short, the greater the number on the Kelvin scale, the bluer cast a given light source will have. Conversely, a light source with a lower number will have more of an amber cast or a warmer tone.
Adjusting your white balance simply means that you’re adjusting your camera to record colors as they appear to the naked eye. You’re ensuring that the color in your images matches the colors exactly as they appeared in your scene. Now, our naked eye will automatically adjust to compensate for color shifts. Our brain quickly adjusts our eyes so that we perceive different color temperatures as neutral, regardless of whether they are cool or warm.
Our cameras, however, aren’t as intelligent. While Auto White Balance will generally do a sufficient job correcting white balance, there are times when you’ll need to control your white balance manually. This is especially true if you’re photographing a scene with different color temperatures or using artificial light, such as strobes or off-camera flash.
In the sections for photography equipment and lighting setups, I will refer to color temperature and white balance. Use the information in this section as a reference to find the correct white balance presets on most DSLRs:
NOTE The best solution is to set the correct white balance using the RAW file format. This will allow you to convert to any white balance in postproduction, because the original image is unprocessed by the camera.
The direction of light refers to where light is coming from and directly influences the shape of the light in your scene. In the lighting portion of this book, I will be sure to annotate your key light (main light), your fill light (light used to fill in shadows), your rim light (light outline), and your background lights so that you’re aware of where each light should be placed in the scene.
Whether you’re opting to use continuous lights or studio strobes, there are a variety of lighting modifiers you can use to help you better control the quality and direction of your light. Throughout this section, I’m going to introduce you to a variety of different lighting modifiers and how they will impact the characteristics of light in your scene. I’ll be using a combination of these lighting modifiers in order to create the final images.
Barn doors ( Figure 10.4 ) allow you to shape and direct light in a variety of different ways. By attaching barn doors to the front of your studio strobe, you have four hinged doors that can be opened or closed to focus the beam of light. This allows greater flexibility when you’re trying to control the direction of light or in instances where you want to flag off unwanted light from certain parts of your image.
FIGURE 10.4
Remember that while barns doors allow you to control the direction of light, they do not truly affect the overall quality or quantity of your light. In order to diffuse the light emanating from your studio strobe, you’ll want to use a diffused glass accessory if you still want to retain the barn doors. Other barn doors allow you to use gels, grids, and diffusion material in order to further manipulate the properties of light.
A beauty dish ( Figure 10.5 ) is a shallow parabolic reflector that mounts to the front of your strobe light. The light is designed so that light traveling from the strobe reflects off a small plate on the front of the beauty dish. The light then reflects off the curved interior wall of the beauty dish, creating a light source that is considered “semi-hard” light. It’s basically a combination of a softbox and direct flash.
FIGURE 10.5
The curved shape of the beauty dish aims most of the light toward the subject and thus is extremely directional. Beauty dishes come in two different coatings: white and silver. The silver coating creates more specular contrast than the white one. Note that this draws more attention to unwanted skin blemishes, which is why I prefer the white coating.
You can also invest in diffusion material and honeycomb grids for your beauty dish in order to control the quality and direction of light. Diffusion material will allow you to soften the intensity of the beauty dish, and honeycomb grids will allow you to better control the direction of light. Some photographers will even combine those two modifiers in an effort to create strong directional light.
Diffusion material ( Figure 10.6 ) is material used to soften the intensity of the light from your lighting modifier. It is used to reduce the overal contrast between highlights and shadows in your image and soften the intensity of light.
Flags ( Figure 10.7 ) are used to block unwanted light in an image and can either be placed on a stand or handheld. In addition to this, black flags and black reflectors can be used to create negative fill and absorb light in specific areas of an image.
Gels ( Figure 10.8 ) or color filters are colored transparent filters that are used either for color correction or for creative lighting. They quite literally change the color of the lights they are applied to. While gels come in a variety of different colors, the most common gels you’ll find are color temperature blue (CTB) and color temperature orange (CTO). CTB gels are used to convert tungsten light into daylight-colored light, and CTO gels are used to convert daylight-colored light into tungsten. If you’re unsure about what colored gel you should be using, refer to the “Color Temperature” section in this chapter.
If you’re trying to add gels to a lighting setup that already has an un-gelled light, position the second gelled light to illuminate the area of shadows for maximum vibrancy. I’ll be referencing gels in Chapter 13 , “Fashion Photography.”
NOTE It’s important to remember that gels are most vibrant in the shadow areas of your image.
FIGURE 10.6
FIGURE 10.7
FIGURE 10.8
Honeycomb grids ( Figure 10.9 ) are used to control the direction of light. The shape of the honeycomb grid focuses the light into a directional beam of light and stops it from spreading out to unwanted areas of the image in the same manner that flags and barn doors are used to control light. Honeycomb grids are available in a variety of different degrees, and as a rule of thumb, the larger the degree of the grid, the broader the light source. The smaller the degree of the grid, the smaller the beam of light.
FIGURE 10.9
You can purchase grids for beauty dishes, softboxes, octaboxes, and even speedlights.
Octaboxes ( Figure 10.10 ) are essentially eight-sided softboxes. As with with all lighting modifiers, the size of the octabox will directly influence the quality of light produced. As a rule of thumb, larger octaboxes will produce softer forms of light compared to smaller octaboxes. Larger octaboxes will allow light to travel farther around your subject, wrapping light around and filling in the shadow areas of your image. If you’re looking to replicate the catchlight that you’d see from the sun, this is a great alternative to a square softbox.
FIGURE 10.10
Reflectors ( Figure 10.11 ) are used to reflect light. There are many different sizes and shapes of reflectors in a variety of different colors. You’ll find reflectors in white, gold, silver, and a combination of those colors. The color of the reflector will directly impact the color temperature of the light reflecting from the reflector. For instance, a gold reflector reflects in a warm tone, while silver reflectors usually reflect cooler tones.
FIGURE 10.11
Alternatively, you can opt to use white poster board from your local craft store if you’re in a pinch, and those usually run under $5. Lou Freeman is infamous for using silver cake pans in place of silver reflectors because of how specular the light is. On that note, remember that the more reflective the surface of the reflector, the greater the intensity of the light that will reflect off its surface.
The Eyelighter ( Figure 10.12 ) is a uniquely shaped silver reflector. The arc-shaped design mimics the natural curvature of the human eye. It’s specifically designed for beauty and portrait photography.
FIGURE 10.12
Reflector dishes ( Figure 10.13 ) are included with most studio lighting kits that you can purchase on the market. The standard reflector dish that comes with most lighting kits restricts light from spilling in all directions. It provides enough light control so that if you’re using it on the background, no light will illuminate your subject.
FIGURE 10.13
There are various sizes of reflector dishes, and their properties of light will change depending on the size of the reflector dish you own. Most reflector dishes create high-contrast light and are easily employed to create a very dramatic portrait or just to isolate light on your background. As a rule of thumb, the larger the reflector dish, the larger the circular gradation on the background. Remember that as you move light away from the background, you’ll create a larger spread of light and thus also have a larger-diameter gradation on the background.
Softboxes ( Figure 10.14 ) are the most common type of light modifier. When mounted to a strobe light, they effectively broaden and soften your light. They will also eliminate unwanted hot spots and specular highlights by evenly distributing your light source. If you’re looking to restrict the direction of light even further, you can affix a grid onto the front of your softbox, which will constrain the spread of light.
FIGURE 10.14
Stripboxes ( Figure 10.15 ) are thin softboxes, which produce narrower beams of light compared to that of a softbox. They make great lighting modifiers for accentuating hair (hair lights) or simply for rim lights, especially if your subject is close to the background.
FIGURE 10.15
Umbrellas are among the most commonly used lighting modifiers on the market, because they’re affordable, portable, and easy to use. There are a wide variety of different umbrellas from different manufacturers produced in a variety of different materials. Remember that the size, color, and relative position of your umbrella will directly influence the characteristics of your light, as I mentioned earlier in this chapter.
In addition, there are three common kinds of umbrellas that produce different types of light.
Shoot-through umbrellas ( Figure 10.16 ) are placed between your studio strobe and the subject and thus act as a diffuser of light. They create soft, broad light without the harsh shadows that a bare flash would produce—effectively reducing contrast.
FIGURE 10.16
Reflective umbrellas ( Figure 10.17 ) are designed so that the strobe fires into the umbrella, reflects light, and then bounces light back at your subject. The size of the light reflected on your subject is directly influenced by the relative size of the umbrella. As a general rule, larger umbrellas expand the size of the light and thus create broader, softer light compared to smaller ones. You could simultaneously use diffusion material over your umbrella in order to create additional diffusion.
Parabolic reflectors ( Figures 10.18a and 10.18b ) are light modifiers with a parabolic shape. Generally speaking, the strobe is placed on an arm that extends out from the middle of the reflector, firing directly into the parabolic reflector. Moving the strobe light along the arm extension, either closer to the reflector or farther away, will directly influence the contrast and softness of light, which makes this lighting modifier extremely versatile.
FIGURE 10.17
FIGURE 10.18A
FIGURE 10.18B
