Random Photography Thoughts
Light and Shadow
Light and shadow, it is what adds visional interest to your subject and is critical to making a good image. Second only to focus, it is so important to get right. So here are a few of my ramblings on the subject from a shoot with Lana Koz.
The Light
I took these images with a 4 foot octa positioned above the subject, who was sort of centered from left to right and a little forward, just to try and get some nice shadow on the subject. I am using a big light source close to the subject, so I get nice soft light, a smooth transition from light to shadow. You will also notice that the light falls off dramatically from the face to the knees. This is what light does, it is called the inverse square law, I could explain it but here is an article, Inverse Square Law Definition - What is Inverse Square Law by SLR Lounge. The subjects face is about 1M from the light, her legs are about 2M so her legs get about 75% less light. (Important Bit) You want less fall off, then move the light farther away, the greater the distance from the light source the less it falls off with an increase in distance. But doing this will make the light “harder” so if you still want a soft light you will need a much bigger light source.
Lets look at some images…
A good start, should have extended the right hand a little farter back. I like the dramatic light falloff but not sure about head position, should it be more of a profile photo? And I should lighten the feet in post, they are too dark.
I like this crop, so much happening… I like the lines, the highlights and shadows, the hand tells a story.
Soft shadows for the Win?
I love the soft transitions for light to dark in these images, again big light near to the subject. Lana rocks the pose, but I should have moved the right foot to get it out of the shadow of the left leg, it is a little bit of a distraction with the muddy highlight and shadows.
Lets break it down a little more. 1) Soft “loop light” on the face, definitely should have turned the head away a little to to more profile. 2) Soft shadows for the win! Big light close to the subject is how you get this effect. 3) I love the curvy soft shadows, no there is no rim, the highlight on the side of the body is all bounce from the floor. 4) Should I have fix the side of the of the subjects body, did you even notice before I highlighted it? It is a quick fix since there is no real contrast in the lighting.
The Feet :(
I still think the lighting on the feet is sort of a failure for this pose, so crop them out?
The Feet :)
So there is no real hotspot or ugly shadows on the feet in this pose, so I am happier with the lighting. The subjects head is still more or less centered under the light so there is not much light directly shooting down on the feet, plus they are not flat so there is less surface to reflect the light.
I think this one works
Head, neck is the brightest part on the image and there is contrast with the eyes so the viewers attention is drawn there. Regardless of the photo I like to draw attention to the eyes.
The eye generally follows light intensity in a images, so it starts at the head flows down the ribs with a stop for some great shadows, then across the legs. We sort of get lost at the feet but hopefully the floor highlight leads the viewer back to the hands and then back up again to the head.
I like this one too, but I wish there was a little more upper body twist, it would have helped the chest and tummy a little with better shadows.
With the hips twisted a little we get this great shadow of the rib cage, plus with the right arm out a bit farther we get a nice highlight..
Again, I think more twist would have helped, but I like the head position. I just really like the soft shadows on the chin and neck .
Subject positioning in the light
Subject is centered but the light is not. :)
Positioning in the light is very important if you want it to be symmetrical. Being off a little means a lot. In this image the subject was a little to far to the left by a few inches. Resulting in the subjects right arm being darker and an a significant difference with the shadows on the right breast.
A small shift to the subject’s left and things look better.
Nice shadows on the face, the neck looks great and the chest and ribs look even. I like the soft transition from light to shadow with a strong falloff of light. Part of me wants to darken the hands a bit a lighten the face, just to help bring the attention back to the face.
So, I did
Back to the feet
Is the little bit of light on the feet distracting? If the subject was up on her toes they would have been less visible, less of a flat surface for the light to hit and maybe less of a distraction. Would the shadow have worked better or just the light on the floor…
2 more just because I like them
You made it to the end so here is a bonus recommendation, if you want to learn more about light try shooting nudes. Lighting the whole human body lets you easily identify your highlights and shadows and that is how you learn. Try hard light and soft, see the differences. Try positioning lights close to the subject and far away, try feathering your light. It is so much easier to see the impact of your lighting and the difference between setups when you have a whole body to look at. Just my 2 cents worth.