Light—Science & Magic- P5

LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 188 face. (The extreme example of such “flat” lighting comes from mounting a strobe directly on top of the camera.) Evaluating whether the lighting is too flat can be difficult for photographers who are just beginning to learn portrait lighting, especially if the picture will be printed in only black ink. Anticipating how color translates to shades of gray takes prac- tice. But the decision becomes simple when we see that such lighting also makes the key triangle so large that it is no longer a triangle. 8.6 The key triangle extending from the eye, through the cheek, to the lip line is the starting point for good portrait lighting. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 188 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. AN ARSENAL OF LIGHTS 189 We can usually improve such lighting by moving the light far- ther to the side and higher to reduce the size of the key triangle. To maximize contour, we move the light far enough to get the key triangle as small as possible but stop just short of moving it far enough to create either of the following two problems. Key Triangle Too Low: Main Light Too High Regardless of whether the eyes are the window to the soul, they are certainly essential to almost any portrait. Keeping the eyes of the subject in shadow can be unsettling to anyone looking at the portrait. Figure 8.8 illustrates this problem. Notice how the strong eye shadow eliminates the top of the key triangle and produces an unnatural and ghoulish picture. 8.7 Flat lighting, far too uniform to show contour, is the result of placing the main light too near to the camera. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 189 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 190 This shadow is there because we positioned our light too high above the head of the subject. Fixing the problem simply means lowering the light a bit. Key Triangle Too Narrow: Main Light Too Far to Side Figure 8.9 illustrates still another potential problem. We positioned the light so that the nose casts a dark shadow across her cheek. This shadow blocks the key triangle. Once more the cure is simple. To avoid a shadow such as this one, all we have to do is move the light a bit more to the front. When we do this, the key triangle will reappear. 8.8 The unsettling “raccoon eyes” that we see here come from lifting the main light too high above the model’s face. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 190 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. AN ARSENAL OF LIGHTS 191 Left Side? Right Side? Photographers generally prefer to put the main light on the same side as the subject’s dominant eye, or the eye that appears to be more open than the other. The greater the visible domi- nance of the eye, the more important it is that we light that side. Of course, some people have very symmetrical features; then it makes no difference on which side we put the main light. The other influence on our decision is where the person’s hair is parted. Lighting on the same side as the part prevents extraneous shadows, especially if the hair is long. 8.9 The result of positioning the main light too far to one side. The nose of the model casts a shadow across her cheek, blocking the key highlight. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 191 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 192 Some people absolutely insist that we photograph them from one side or the other. Very often we should listen to such opinions because they are based on that individual’s dominant eye or hair style, whether the person knows it or not. Just be sure that the subject has not confused his “good” side with his “bad” side when looking in a mirror! Broad Lighting or Short Lighting So far we have made all pictures with the model approximately facing the camera. Whether the light was on the right or the left would have made only a minor difference. However, the differ- ence is major if the subject turns his or her head to either 8.10 Putting the main light on the side opposite the visible (were it not covered by her hair) ear produces short lighting. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 192 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. AN ARSENAL OF LIGHTS 193 side. Where do we main light then? Figures 8.10 and 8.11 show the options. We either put the light on the same side as the subject’s visible ear or on the other side. A main light on the same side as the visible ear is called broad lighting. Positioning the main light on the side opposite from your subject’s visible ear produces short lighting. (Whether the hair covers the “visible” ear has nothing to do with which side of the face we are talking about.) If you look at Figures 8.10 and 8.11 again, the reason behind these two somewhat confusing names becomes apparent. First, look at the picture that we made with broad lighting. Notice that a broad, or wide, highlight runs from the back of the 8.11 Broad lighting means putting the main light on the same side as the visible ear. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 193 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 194 model’s hair, across her cheek, all the way to the bridge of her nose. Now, look at the portrait that we made with short light- ing. This time the highlight is quite short, or narrow. The brightest part of it only extends from the side of the model’s cheek to her nose. There are no firm rules to dictate when to use broad and when to use short lighting. Our personal preference, however, leans decidedly to short lighting. It puts the light where it will do the most good, on the front of the face. This, we feel, produces by far the most interesting portraits. Other photographers have a completely different bias. They feel strongly that the short or broad light decision should be based on the subject’s body build. They prefer to use short lighting if their subject has a broad face. Such lighting, they argue, helps make the subject look thinner by putting much of the face in shadow. If, however, the subject is very thin, they like the way that broad lighting increases the amount of the image that is highlighted and makes the subject appear more substantial. Eyeglasses Eyeglasses sometimes dictate the position of the main light, regardless of the other preferences of the photographer. Figure 8.12 was shot with short lighting. Look at the resulting direct reflection from the glasses. It impossible to eliminate the glare with the light positioned as it was for this portrait. We could, of course, raise it, but depending on the size and shape of the glasses, by the time we get it high enough it might fill the eye with shadow. Figure 8.13 shows the only solution that always works. It is the same subject shot with broad lighting. Changing from short to broad lighting positions the main light outside the family of angles that produces direct reflection. Problems with eyeglasses increase with the diameter of the eyeglass lenses. From any particular camera position, the fam- ily of angles that produces direct reflection is greater if the glasses have big lenses. If the subject has small eyeglass lenses, we can sometimes keep a short lighting arrangement by using a smaller main light. It is easier to position the smaller light so that no part of the light is within that family of angles. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 194 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. AN ARSENAL OF LIGHTS 195 Still life photographers exploring portraiture are sometimes tempted to use polarizing filters on the main light and on the camera lens to eliminate reflection from glasses. However, this can cause other problems. Human skin also produces a small amount of direct reflection. Consequently, eliminating all direct reflection in the highlights of a portrait may give the skin a lifeless appearance. ADDITIONAL LIGHTS Up to this point, we have shown some of the different ways to position and manipulate highlights and shadows using a single 8.12 Short lighting produces an objectionable glare on the eyeglasses. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 195 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 196 light source. These techniques are powerful because they pro- duce fine work even if we have only one light at our disposal. Depending on taste, we may be satisfied with the results of a single light and proceed no further with the lighting, even if we have a whole studio full of strobes available. This should be reassuring to anyone not earning a professional income from photography and only able to afford to light a portrait with sunlight. Still, very few photographers shooting professional portraits use a single light, so this book will discuss what those other lights are and how to use them. 8.13 Broad lighting eliminates the glare problem. Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 196 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. AN ARSENAL OF LIGHTS 197 Fill Lights Shadows are essential to most portraits. Much of the time, how- ever, we prefer to lighten a shadow or even eliminate it altogether. We can do this with a single light source only if we place it near the camera lens. If we want to keep the main light farther from the camera, however, we need some kind of fill light. Photographers commonly use a fill light that gives the subject about half as much illumination as the main light, but this guideline is by no means absolute. Some photographers like to use a lot of fill in portraits, whereas other equally talented ones prefer to use none. The important thing is not to try to memorize any set of rules; instead, adjust your lighting until it is satisfactory to you. Some photographers use additional lights for fill, whereas others prefer flat reflecting surfaces. Both methods have their advantages. The most basic multiple light arrangement consists of a main light plus a fill light. An additional light allows good flexi- bility in fill light placement. We can put the fill light far enough from the subject to be out of the way and still expect it to be bright enough. Figure 8.14 was made with a single fill light. We turned off the main light so that you could see exactly what effect a fill light has by itself. Now look at Figure 8.15, in which we turned the main light back on. This is a typical example of the combination of fill light and a main light. Notice that the shadow under the chin is darker than the other shadows in the face. This area receives little illumination from either the main light or the fill. The shadow is not offen- sive, but it would be if it were a bit darker or harder. We will talk about how to keep that from happening. Size is important when you are using fill lights. Generally speaking, the rule is, “the bigger, the better.” As you might remember, the larger a light source is, the softer the shadows it produces. The soft-edged shadows produced by a large fill light are less visible and less likely to compete with shadows produced by the main light. The use of a large fill light allows greater freedom in deciding where to place the light. Because the shadow of a large fill light is not clearly defined, the position of the light is, within a wide range, of no importance. That means we can put it nearly Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 197 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. [...]...Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 198 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 8.14 The fill light was all that was used to make this exposure Notice that it is much dimmer than the main light anywhere that we will not knock it over and the lighting differences will... light coming from the main light onto the face of the subject Figure 8.17 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 199 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 200 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC Main 8.16 Two fill light alternatives Bouncing one light into an umbrella produces softer lighting The small light, near the camera, produces hard shadows, but they fall mostly behind the... on the subject, we could have used a silver reflector Remember, however, Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 201 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:39 PM Page 202 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC ● that the choice of reflector surface also depends on the size of the main light A large silver reflector fill can be a soft source only if the main light is also soft Colored reflectors When... Besides the main and fill lights that we used before, we added a background Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 203 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:40 PM Page 204 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 8.20 Adding the background light to the fill and main lights surrounds the subject with a pleasing glow light Compare it with Figure 8.17, which was made with just a main light and a fill... position for the hair light, on the side opposite the main light and behind Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 205 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:40 PM Page 206 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 8.21 We made this exposure using nothing but a hair light Notice the highlights that it puts on the subject’s hair the subject Alternatively, a boom can suspend the hair light above and... a kicker as a part of their setup Figure 8.23 was lit by a kicker alone Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 207 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:40 PM Page 208 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 8.23 A kicker by itself Kickers are lights that are sometimes used to brighten (or “kick up”) a small extra highlight As you can see, a kicker adds extra illumination to, or “kicks up,”... the light directly behind the subject in a position similar to that of a Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 209 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:40 PM Page 210 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC background light but aims the light at the subject rather than the background Figure 8.25 shows such a rim light used alone Figure 8.26 is a combination of the rim light plus other lights,... kind of lighting tend to be somber—serious, formal, and dignified in mood Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 211 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:40 PM Page 212 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC Main 8.27 Rim Light Notice how we placed the rim light in about the same position as we might have placed a background light, only in this case we pointed the light at the back of the head... usually easier to light high-key pictures than it is to light low-key ones Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 213 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:40 PM Page 214 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC Figure 8.29 shows how we arranged the lights for the highkey example you have just seen Notice that all we needed was one large main light, a reflector, and a pair of background lights We... the lens considerably to compensate for the light lost by skin absorption Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark 215 Hunter-Ch08.qxd 10/1/07 8:40 PM Page 216 LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC However, if the subject is a bride with very dark skin in a white wedding dress, the preceding strategy could lead to disaster The face would still be properly exposed and have good shadow . LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 188 face. (The extreme example of such “flat” lighting comes. purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC 190 This shadow is there because we positioned our light