Low ISO speed

I've just arrived back in my home port of Kirkcudbright aboard my boat Moonshadow. Almost the first thing I did was reach for my little Canon G9 and take a picture. It was late afternoon and the light had that special brilliance. It was shining full belt onto the scallop fishing boats standing high and dry in the mud alongside the harbour wall at low water. The resulting picture would have been better if the water had been totally smooth in order to give perfect reflections. Unfortunately there was just a hint of a breeze and this has ruffled the surface of the water a little, breaking the reflections.

But never mind, I like the deep colours that have been accentuated by the front light and the contrast of the greens, blue and rusty reds.

Like I've said before - boating and photography are the perfect combination.

I set the G9 on aperture priority at f7.1. This gave me a shutter speed of 1/200sec at ISO 80 - remember, it's always best to use the slowest ISO possible for best quality. There was plenty of light, so ISO 80 was ideal. I used centre-weighted metering mode. The exposure compensation was set to minus 1/3 and the white balance on AWB. I was zoomed in to give me an equivalent focal length of around 85mm.

Front or backlight?

I'm always reminding my students about the different properties of the direction of light and how important it is to understand what's going on. Frontlight (light behind the camera and front-on to the subject), I tell them, takes always the shadows and can make the subject look flat and two-dimensional. However, I am quick to point out, frontlight does have a trick up its sleeve: there may be colour hiding in the shadows, and by removing them by using front light you will of course see more colour. So a colourful subject often looks even more colourful when lit by frontlight.

 

Well, as always, there are exceptions to the rule, and photographing flowers and leaves is one of them. Depending on the thickness and translucence of the flower or leaf the thinner and more translucent the better - you can often increase the intensity of its colour by placing the light behind the subject and letting it shine through the leaf.

 

The photograph above is a good example. This is a very simple picture which relies on its colour for its visual appeal. The sunlight is almost directly behind the leaf and is shining through it; and so illuminating the green like a projector lamp.

 

In this case, the backlight has shown up the veins of inside the leaf and brought more detail and interest. Frontlight would have shown the colour of the surface of the leaf, but none of the depth of colour and shapes inside it.

 

Give this technique a try next time you are photographing flowers. Sometimes you can get the best of both worlds by having the light source behind the subject and using a reflector under or beside the lens to bounce some light back onto the surface of the flower.

How to use the direction of Light - part 3

The considered application of light can transform a photograph from the mundane into something with much more visual power. This photograph of an old man is desperately simple – a straightforward head and shoulders – but the power of the photograph comes not only from the man’s interesting face and his direct look into the lens, but from the way his face is lit. In this case from one side - sidelight.

A profound understanding of light is one of the photographer’s greatest assets.

MOVE AROUND – CHANGE THE ANGLE OF THE LIGHT
These three photographs are of the same subject and were taken about the same time on the same day, but look how different the it appears just by walking around it and photographing it with the light from different directions.

Front light has been used in A to show all that wonderful red colour – care was needed to avoid the flare coming straight back at me from that glass in the cabin.

The sidelight B has shown the hull of the boat to have form and shape. It’s also given texture to the tussocky grass in the foreground.

The backlight in this picture C has reduced the boat and the objects on it to a series of silhouettes. There’s no colour shown in the subject at all – just outline shapes.

TIP
HIDE YOUR SHADOW
When moving in quite close with the light directly behind you – using frontlight to accentuate the colours of your subject – you are likely to get your own shadow – just like in photo D. Try moving back a couple of paces and zooming in to cut out this unsightly shadow – unless of course it is part of your idea to leave it in. See photo E. You will alter the perspective of you picture a little, but it may be worthwhile.

How to use the direction of Light - part 2

You must be able to recognise the particular attributes, advantages and disadvantages of any light source instantly. This will let you to get exactly what you want from every subject.

We’ve already looked at sidelight, but just to re-enforce how useful it is take a look at the superb sidelight used in the photograph of the young student. The picture was taken in an open doorway – a very useful location for finding sidelight – especially when the sun is high in the sky - see today’s TIP.

Roughly, the direction of light can be divided into side, front, back and toplight.

Bear in mind that in the real world the direction of light might be a combination of some of these headings…. ‘toppy-back’ light, for instance - there’s a new word for you. Sometimes the light may be totally non-directional. You won’t always be able to change the direction of the light – but often you will be able to adjust your shooting angle or the position of your subject in order to make the most of what you have. For instance, you may be able to time your visit to a certain location to coincide with the direction of light that will show it off best. Sadly, this is not always possible especially for professional photographers under pressure of time and deadlines. They will have to resort to all sorts of tricks – but I’ll tell you more about those in future articles.

TOPLIGHT
This is the one to avoid whenever possible. Professional travel and landscape photographers work both ends of the day – morning and evening. That’s because the light source, the sun, is low in the sky and can be used as front, side or backlight. With the light directly above, portraits look horrible. Landscapes and buildings look boring and no matter in which direction you look at it, the light remains the same.

Photo 1 Ugh! Toplight. This is the one to avoid whenever you can. It’s midday and the sun is high overhead – definitely not a time to take portraits like this – especially if your subject is wearing a big hat. Avoid it. Come back later or ask your subject to step into a doorway where you can use sidelight – anything to avoid toplight

BACKLIGHT
Shoot into the light and put the light source behind your subject and, in the most extreme case, you will create a silhouette - emphasizing outline shape. Backlight does not have to be quite so obvious, though, and with a little diffusion from such things as clouds or reflectors, it can create a soft, subtle ‘atmosphere’. I’ve already touched on this when I wrote about the ‘quality’ of light. Backlight often creates a rim, or halo effect around the subject – this is much-used in studio portraiture to separate the outline of the model from the background. If you intend to emphasize the outline shape of your subject, use backlight.

Photo 2
Using backlight to photograph this street, most of the colour has gone, and the picture looks monochrome. The powerful backlight has shown the outline shape of the street lamps – and notice the effect of using backlight on the shiny, uneven surface of that dark wall. It really has created a dramatic effect. Remember, backlight over a dimpled, shiny surface – like wet mud, ripples on water, wet cobbles or even wet grass, can create spectacular result


FRONT LIGHT
Put the light source directly behind the camera - front-on to your subject - and you take away the shadows. This tends to ‘flatten’ the image; it loses any 3D effect. However, front light has a great trick up its sleeve… shadows often obscure colours. So if you want to see more colour – use front light. The downside is that you lose texture and form in your subject.

Photo 3
With the light almost directly behind the camera and front-on to the subject, I have tried to accentuate the bright colours of these houses by taking most of the shadows away. But at a cost – look how flat and two-dimensional the chimney pots look. The shadows you can see in the bottom of the picture are cast by a row of houses behind me

TIP
Positioning your subject just inside a doorway, out of the direct sun, is almost guaranteed to offer you good sidelight. This is one of the simplest ways to avoid toplight and create beautifully lit natural portraits when the sun is high in the sky at midday. That’s the time to start looking indoors in search of better, more useable light.

Next, in part 3 - more tips on using the direction of light

How to use the direction of Light

Good light is the photographer’s most vital yet least understood ingredient - more important than a whole bagful of expensive gear. Let’s face it, you can’t take photographs without light, so the more you get to grips with it, and understand what it can and can’t do, the better. A sound understanding of light will transform the way you see and enable you to express yourself visually. It will help you highlight the vibrancy of colours, create visual mood, pick out the textures of everything from stone walls to wrinkly faces; hide blemishes in younger faces, and capture the outline shapes of almost any subject you choose.

Oddly, you don’t need a camera in your hands to practise ‘seeing the light’. Start by observing the way it falls on everything around you; people’s faces, buildings, trees, water. You can do this any time, anywhere, no matter what you are doing; walking to work, sitting by a window, out shopping. This is part of a process that will enable you to be objective about your photography and to start seeing the way the camera sees.

Only by understanding and seeing the way the camera sees will you be able to express your visual ideas with certainty.

Observing light soon becomes a habit – a way of seeing - and you won’t be able to stop seeing it once you start – I tell my students it’s like the Chinese curse of having a monkey on your back – you can never get rid of the habit once you’ve got it. However, our Light Monkey is a helpful soul and he is always there to help… although he may give you a sharp poke in the ear if you stop listening to him.

Good, and appropriate, light can enhance you photographs in so may ways. Just one of those ways is to accentuate the illusion of depth within your two-dimensional image. Think of yourself as an illusionist – one of the most powerful illusions you can create is that illusion of depth – the third dimension. Composition is one way to achieve this, the other is intelligent use of light direction and quality.

I’m going to be looking at the different directions of light and how they can transform and enhance your photographs. First, let’s talk about side light – it’s perhaps the star of the show.

SIDELIGHT
With the light to one side of your subject (almost any subject), you will create the illusion of depth, texture, shape, form, substance, on your two-dimensional photograph. This can be powerful stuff. Side light can transform everything from portraits or landscape into strongly textured images with the illusion of that third dimension. Beware, though, with portraiture it shows every imperfection of a model’s complexion, some subjects hate it as it shows the texture of their skin (wrinkles), so it’s not the way to disguise those ‘laughter lines’. In townscapes it can make buildings appear as 3D cubes. In landscapes, sidelight makes tree trunks look round, and brings out the contours and textures of hillsides and fields – and all because the light is on one side and shadows are on the other.

Top photograph

Side light gives the illusion of the third dimension, by emphasizing texture and form – just look at that red table cloth and the roughness of the white wall. But it has another trick up its sleeve; it can create strong shadows, like that of the man projected on the wall. These shadows can be used as compositional devices. They become an integral part of the image and can, as in this case, help convey more information to the viewer. At first glance it is not entirely clear what the man is doing, he might be playing a tin whistle, although the cigarette packet on the table is a clue - but the shadow on the wall tells the story instantly and gives the information that he is lighting a cigarette.

Next, I'll be looking at frontlight, backlight and toplight

How to take flash photographs - part 2

Let’s go though just a few of the techniques you can use to capture simple indoor flash portraits when your flash unit is attached to your camera’s hot shoe.

The essential thing to remember is that a portable flash is a very small-sized light source and when pointed directly at your subject will cause hard-edged, dark shadows.

Flash is an instant burst of light lasting sometimes as little as 1/20,000sec, so its effects are difficult to predict. Lots of practice helps, but remember, you have the luxury of instant digital playback – so use it; and don’t be afraid to experiment if you don’t get it right first time.

What about ‘bounced’ flash? Bouncing (reflecting) light off a white wall or reflector is a bit like playing snooker – its all about judging angles and distances. It really does need practice. Do not get fixated by bouncing (reflecting) the flash off the ceiling. That will give you toplight. Ugh! We spend a lot of time avoiding top light when we are shooting outside by trying to time our photography for early morning and late afternoon when the sun is low in the sky. So why do we want to use top light indoors? It’s horrible.

Just take a look at the set-up in picture 1. The flash has been directed up at a white ceiling. Its effect is seen in picture 2 – eyes light black holes in the snow, deep shadow under the chin. Don’t do it. You can improve things by placing a reflector under the model’s face (picture 4) so that some of the light coming down from the ceiling is reflected back up again under the eyes and chin. This has produced picture 3 – much improved.

Another possibility is to direct the flash back over your head to a large reflector positioned behind you. See picture 5. A wall, white door, or large white card will do. This should produce an effect similar to picture 6. Now, in effect, you are using frontlight from a large light source (that big reflector behind you). It will have the effect of flattening the image by taking away the shadows. This can be very flattering for an attractive young model, but a bit boring when you are wanting to convey the character of an older or male subject. For that you need the ‘star of the show’ -sidelight - and I’ll show you more about that in the next post, but first, read about that picture I showed you yesterday...

So what was the set-up for the picture of the man with the mask?
A sheet of newspaper has been taped to the wall off the picture to the right and the flash head has been pointed at it so that the flash light bounces back to the model’s face. The wall was about 5 feet away from us. The fastest shutter speed compatible with the camera’s flash synchronisation (1/160sec) has been used to eliminate any other light in the room and the model has been positioned as far as possible from the wall behind him. The light of the flash has not carried as far as this background so it has not been lit – it appears as a black. I wanted the deep shadows to add drama, so no reflector was used on the left hand side of the picture



NEXT - in part 3

What was the set-up for the picture of the chap kippering his lungs with the roll-up fag, above?



And more on sidelight

The quality of light - Part 3

Top Photograph: Shooting straight into a light source like this window can create very hard, empty shadows. But here a large white reflector has been place below the camera to the right of the picture. You can see its effect on the brickwork underneath the dusty shelf – there is lovely soft light there bringing out the detail in the wall and brick

You can often create good quality light, even in hard sunlight, by using reflectors to re-direct light into deep shadows. Reflectors are all around you in many everyday situations: white walls, snow, sand, water – your own white shirt. Even the wretched white van, the ruination of so many good photographs, can be used as a reflector if it is behind, or at the side, of the photographer and not in the picture. Expensive, purpose-made reflectors are wonderful, but not essential. I always have at least an A4 sheet of paper in my back pocket for those impromptu portrait shots. Just an ordinary sheet of paper, it weighs nothing, costs nothing and can reflect light back into the shadows under eyes and chin – creating beautiful, high quality light. This piece of paper was used fo the photograph of the sea shells below.

In the demonstration portrait session, Picture 1 shows the set-up using the hard frontlight with the wall behind the subject and the sun behind the camera. The result (2) is unpleasant with hard, empty black shadows in the lady’s eyes and under her nose.

By turning my subject right around, putting the wall behind me and shooting into the light (3) the effects on the model’s portrait is fantastic. Now her face is lit by soft, high quality, reflected light from the wall. Just look how it has lit up her eyes and softened her features (4)

Yes, there are downsides – be wary of flare in the lens when photographing into the light, and don’t use light green or brightly-coloured walls as reflectors – they will give a nasty colour cast. This wall was slightly off-white and has added a natural ‘warm’ effect.