Photographing Your Work - Lighting 2
CONTROLLING LIGHT
Many folks think of light as having only two states: "on" and "off". As photographers we need a bit more control than that, don't we?
Again, photography is the art of "painting with light". This means learning to control light. So what is there to control? Two properties come to mind: intensity and direction.
Intensity sounds easy: just use a specific wattage of light bulb, right?
Well, sort of. Adjusting the wattage of your light source is one method but there are other more important tools available in your arsenal: reflection and diffusion.
Reflection is just what it sounds like: bouncing light off of an object such as a wall, photo umbrella, cardboard panel, the cat, etc. Diffusion is the passing of light through a material such as fabric or paper. Both are simply ways to disperse and distribute light more evenly. And both will assist us with controlling intensity and direction.
Which brings us back to those hot spots and shadows.
Our first question to ask is: Should we eliminate hot spots and shadows altogether?
Not really.
Hot spots and shadows give our subject a sense of depth and dimension. Our goal shouldn't be to eliminate but control and use them to our advantage. Without some shadows our subject would look flat and lifeless. Without some hot spots how would we know that our beautiful finish, which we worked so hard to produce, is glossy and reflective?
So, how do we control our hot spots and shadows?
The first step is to turn off that flash!
Yes, you read that right. You have absolutely no control over the intensity or direction of your on-camera flash so get rid of it. Let's replace it with another type of (off-camera) light source. As discussed on the previous page, we can choose whatever type of light bulbs we like. My personal preference is a 5100K "daylight" compact fluorescent bulb in a simple 8" aluminum worklight reflector from my local hardware store. Aside from being easily white balanced, these bulbs stay cool and last forever (well, it seems like forever). The bulbs I typically use are fairly low wattage (40 or 60 watt). A 40-watt equivalent will do for our demonstration.
So, let's see what our image looks like with our new light source.
We'll place our masterpiece on that same piece of artist's paper and position our light source on the left, slightly above the piece, and at a distance of three feet (or so).
OK, it's not great. But we can already see that the flexibility of an off-camera light source makes controlling our lighting much easier. The hot spot is no longer dead center but rather off to one side (showing off the glossiness of our piece's finish). The directed shadow, although still dark, gives the piece a sense of depth. After all, we want our round objects to look round (or square objects to look square, etc). This helps the viewer get a three-dimensional feel for the object.
So, how can we best use our new light source? Let's start with reflection.