Light Conversation
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 09:12AM Tracey Clark wrote a fabulous post yesterday about finding light. Today it's my turn, so I've been thinking about what it is that I actually do on a photo shoot. When we started over 10 years ago, we used to have a "rule" about doing outdoor shoots. They scared us to death, so we'd only schedule them in the afternoon when the sun was setting and the light was perfect. We'd set people up so their backs were to the sun and then bounce light back into their faces with the reflector. That's basically what I still do. Only, now I know that I can shoot at any time of the day as long as there is open shade. I think the portrait industry has evolved a lot over the years. It used to be okay to prop a newborn up onto a baby poser and call it a day. Today people have more sophisticated taste. Seniors want to look like the girls in their magazines, and moms want their babies to be captured in an uncontrived way. I know this seems like a digression on the light topic, but I'm coming back. :) The point is that this is a good thing. It has forced everyone to get more creative...to learn to use any light. Not just light that is considered ideal. Because life happens at times other than when the sun is setting, right? When I'm on a shoot indoors, I almost always use window light. If it's overcast and there's not much, that's where a good lens comes in. I won't get into lenses because Tracy already wrote a great post about that. But I will say that I think it's important to have one that opens up to at least 2.8. This will allow you to shoot in lower light conditions...which means great indoors shots without the evil flash. It will also give you that awesome shallow depth of field that is so great for portraits.
But let's talk about flash for a minute. They're not totally evil. In fact it was how I shot all of my studio work for years. And I love my set up. I've had it forever and it's been completely reliable. We did take it in to get serviced once and the guy said "they don't even MAKE these anymore". Well ha, ha he was wrong because they still sell everything at The Almighty B and H Photo. It's the Norman LH500 series of lampheads and battery pack. It's great because the light is on while you're posing, so you can see what it's going to look like later. I honestly have no idea how archaic it all is. I do know that Amber (my bff and CA business partner) and I bought them over ten years ago. There are probably a ton of better options out there now. Like, with my set up, I'm still tripping all over cords. Also, looking back, we completely over-purchased because that's what the book diagram told us to do. You know those books, entitled "How to Operate Your Portrait Business With Flair"...or something like that. It said we needed One MAIN light. One HAIR light, One BACKDROP light, One FILL light, and I can't even remember the other one. Maybe we just bought an extra because how can just 4 lampheads be ENOUGH?! Hey, we came from a glamour background so what do you expect? But over the years I did wise up (or maybe got lazy) and I realized that the portraits I loved most were shot with the main light only. I thought they looked more natural (like a window). So that's all I used. The other lights turned into back-ups unless for some reason I wanted to light the back drop. But even then, I felt like it made everything look too "done". Okay, so I do have one huge secret though. We learned about this in a seminar years ago. I can't remember who was teaching it. His name was Chuck-something and Amber and I lovingly referred to him forever after as The Chuckster, Chucky Cheese, Chuckorama, Chuckadoodles. Because Chuckaluckadingdong basically changed everything for us. He taught us about the all important LOUVERS (release the doves). He said they were so important that if you couldn't afford to buy them immediately, you should just build them yourself. So I'm not kidding, we cut out pieces of carboard, painted them black and GLUE GUNNED them to our light box. I have no idea how people ever gave us a dime back then. Well, maybe it was because after that, their pictures looked amazing! Because light boxes are great for diffusing and dispersing light. But sometimes they disperse it a little TOO much. The louvers direct all that pretty light right onto your subject. So, Chuckadooter was absolutely correct. Louvers ROCK the house. And the Casbah for that matter. Ok, so I'm rambling at this point. I think it's best if I point you into another direction. Here are some of my favorite photographers. As you know Tracey Clark does amazing work. She is also a talented writer and very open about sharing her knowledge. Like this post was one of my all-time favorites. And while we're on the subject of light, I found another article the other day. You will be amazed at two shots that were taken within seconds of each other that look SO different. And if you just want some photographic inspiration, here are some of my favorite places to visit.
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