Last weekend I was very pleased to be one of the instructors at a McBain Camera workshop, on location at the Alberta Railway Museum. The group of students was split into groups and each of the five instructors had just over an hour with them. My topic was Available Light, using the natural, ambient light that’s readily “available”.
How to find good lighting for photography
An hour is not a lot of time so I covered as much as I could about using Available Light to create stunning portraits. We started off discussing how to look for good lighting and what that actually even means. The difference between “quantity” and “quality” of light. I showed a demonstration of putting the model into bright sunlight and how that is a “hard light” source which creates harsh shadows, makes her squint, and is generally not flattering for most people because it accentuates every flaw, bump, and wrinkle on their face.
Then by adding a translucent reflector between the sun and the model we softened the light on her face which makes the transition from the bright areas (highlights) to the dark areas (shadows) more of a gradual one as it fades slowly from dark to light. In the image below the model is standing in exactly the same spot as the one above, and the sun has not moved, nor have any clouds appeared. This is created solely with the translucent reflector.
Using the sun as a back light, creating depth
Still out in the bright sun of early morning, I showed how to use the sun as a backlight instead and use a reflector to light the models face. In photography it is our job to capture a 3 dimensional scene and put it on a two dimensional one (paper or screen). Our challenge is to maintain the look of DEPTH in the image so it doesn’t appear flat to the viewer.
- One way to do that is with lighting that comes across the subject, adding texture and depth
- The other is to make use of foreground and background and separating the two.
Creating depth using foreground and background
By putting the model far away from the background, using a telephoto lens and a large aperture (in this case an 85mm f1.2) and letting the background go out of focus creates that depth we desire.
Inside the one of the trains, using window light and reflector, no flash
As our model was freezing in the 8c fall morning weather, we headed inside one of the trains to practice some window light techniques. For me, using available light is about looking at where the light is coming from, the quality of light (is it hard or soft) and how to position my model to best use the light that is there for the most pleasing images. Available light is simpler to start using than flash or studio strobes because it’s “what you see is what you get”. By just looking you can start to learn to see the direction, color, and quality of light and how you can also manipulate it using reflectors or blocks (also called gobos).
Confused by some of these photography terms?
Read: Photography Terms for Beginners
Creating short or broad lighting by moving your subject
By watching the models face as she moves closer to and away from the window you can see how the ratio (range from highlights to shadows) increases or decreases. You can also see as she turns her face away or towards the window how the shadows fall differently on her face creating either “Broad” or “Short” lighting. Learning to know when to use each is part experience and practice and partly learning how to analyze your subject’s face.
General rules of lighting:
- For a wide face you want to use short lighting which has more shadows than light
- Short lighting on wide faces makes your subject appear slimmer
- For a narrow face use broad lighting which illuminates the largest part of the face showing towards the camera
- Broad lighting makes your subject appear wider
Using a reflector for window light portraits
You can also use a reflector for window light portraits to fill in or lessen the shadow side, in doing so making a lower ratio (less contrast from dark to light) like this example.
If you have two reflectors (and a way to hold the both, either a special reflector arm and stand or an assistant) you can use one to fill in the shadows and one to light up the subjects hair (called a hair light or rim light) as you can see in the image below. The scene was high contrast so we used one to reflect light into the darker side of her face, lessening the shadows and a second one to bounce light onto her hair which otherwise would blend into the dark background. Notice how her hair is highlighted on the left side, or back or her head.
Full day photography class on understanding available light
This short class was part of a longer full day class on Available Light that I teach through McBain Camera about once a month. For more information on that class please go to Available Light Workshop. If you enjoyed these photography tips please come to my full program. If you can’t make it to a class or you learn better in a one on one environment then Private Photography Tutoring might be a good choice for you.
The other instructors covered different topics including macro photography, landscape, using speedlights, and studio strobes. I think a good time was had by all that participated and hopefully they each learned something from every instructor to go and practice. We look forward to see you at our next event!
