I love shooting pictures of kids, especially mine. One of the best ways to light any portrait is to use a thermonuclear light source approximately 93,000,000 miles from the subject using a vaporized water diffusion system (the sun and an overcast day). Direct sunlight is really, really crappy for lighting as it causes harsh shadows, makes people squint, and plays havoc with your light meter – the difference between the brightest spot and the darkest is too much for a camera to handle. Therefore you’re going to either have blown out highlights or very underexposed shadows.
Anyway, some of the best portraits I’ve seen use nothing but light from a window and possible a reflector. For example, take a look at this gorgeous shot. Notice the perfect lighting, the catchlights in the eyes, well exposed shadows, etc. All with a single window and a reflector.
Just damn.
I’ve come to realize in my house, I do not have a single window that is positioned well enough to give me a good light source. The sun only comes in at extreme angles. While this is helpful in keeping the sun out and the temperature down, it sucks for photography, so I end up using my SB800 flash bounced off the ceiling. While the lighting is ok, it tends to have an odd, flat look about it. Since the lighting is invariably overhead, I tend to get ‘raccoon’ eyes if I’m not careful or if I don’t extend the little white bounce card. However, extending the bounce card sometimes is too much and it washes out the subject’s face before the background gets enough light. The SB800 rocks when shooting candids, but doesn’t allow me the flexibility I like for ‘studio like’ shots (at least not when it’s attached to the camera).
Now, if I had a decent window with sunlight in my house, then we’d be talking. Any idea how to pick up a house and rotate it a few degrees? ;)
rolled out on
Saturday, November 19, 2005 9:44 AM