Light Art Performance Photography, (often abbreviated as LAPP) is a unique type of art that was developed and invented by JanLeonardo Wöllert and Jörg Miedza. Unlike different forms of light painting, LAPP is one of the first types of art that uses light as the medium to get widespread attention.

Not only does it require the illumination of existing objects, it requires the photographer to capture and create new subjects based entirely on light. The main reason as to why it differs from other photographic forms such as light writing and light painting is due to the inclusion of a background in the photo.

LAPP is an easy form of art; all you need is a DSLR or a Lomo camera that has a shutter frequency under 5 seconds. Despite the appearance, LAPP does not require the artist to have any Photoshop skills. The additional tools one can use in creating this art form include a source of light e.g (glow sticks, laser beams, poi balls, LED lights), a tripod, flashlight, flash and strobes, lenses and tape.

As simple as it sounds, LAPP requires certain techniques to be followed in order to achieve the best results. However, you are not entirely restricted to solely using them.

Here are some of the techniques you can use for creating perfect Light Art Performance photographs.

Using Different Angles

Using different angles in creating the images is the key towards making your light photography come to life. It helps bring out interesting three dimensional effects to the objects you are photographing. A great example would be when taking the pictures from the ground, hold the beam down low, then pan the light above the ground.

When you are working with different angles don’t let the object stand in between the light and the camera or else the resulting picture will be a silhouette. Other than just presenting light from behind the camera around the object, try painting it from the sides. This could involve illuminating the sides of flat surfaces, which will allow you to bring out the various textures of the surface.

Appropriate Use of Light

Avoid shining the source of light at the camera directly, as this will create a bright spot on the image. Flashlights with red filters are great to use, as they will prevent you from ruining your night vision. They also come in handy when you need light and want to make camera adjustments.

Keep the light moving; the beam should be moved in slow strokes in the areas where less lighting is required. Just like you would paint with a brush, paint with the light; up and down or side to side strokes. Make sure the clothes worn are non-reflective, so as to ensure you don’t appear as a ghost in the picture.

Choosing the Right Surface

This is important when shooting objects on surfaces. Since different surfaces react differently to light, it is good to note the right surface to get the desired result. Surfaces such as wood are believed to require more light because the rougher the surface, the more light is absorbed. For shiny surfaces such as glass or metal, it is quite the opposite as they reflect light at maximum exposure.

Camera Settings

Adjust the following camera settings accordingly:

• Aperture: Make sure the aperture setting is high. This is because you’ll need the lowest amount of light hitting the sensor as it counters the long shutter. Any aperture set above f/8 will work perfectly. It may seem odd to take images at such a high aperture, but you can always decrease or increase the exposure when editing. Photoshop and other photo editing tools can assist in adjusting the image to the right exposure.
• ISO: Photographers report that the lower the ISO setting, the better the shots. You can try out different settings to choose the most suitable in your setup.
• Shutter Speed: Try shutter speeds of a few seconds for the initial LAPP shots and scribble with the flashlight. Then adjust the ISO and the aperture depending on what you want to paint. Once the pictures are starting to appear as you wish and you want more time to draw the images, move towards the bulb setting on the DSLR.

Additional Light Source Techniques

There are three light sources that one can use in light art performance photography. The three most efficient light sources are the on-camera light source, off-camera light source and the kinetic light.

1. On-camera Light: This involves creating the lighted image where the element that is illuminated can be viewed by the camera. This source is appropriate when creating light drawing, graffiti, photo booths and light writings.
2. Off-camera Light: This involves creating the image where the illuminated element is not visible to the camera. This involves having the artist or object behind the camera during long exposures. Light is also projected into the scenery to create the design and required color within the frame ow by using light painting brushes.
3. Kinetic light: This involves the process of leaving the light stationary and moving the camera around to create motion, colors and designs within the frames. A great example of using kinetic light is holding the camera with your hands and opening the camera’s shutter for long exposure while using the moon’s light to create drawings.

If you are ready to experience a unique art form, get innovative and you’ll be surprised with what you can create. You don’t have to follow this guide to the letter, try out something different and discover the possibilities. Create your own mix of composition, color and lighting, and blend them together to invent astonishing pieces of art that stand out in the world of photography. This is what true art entails.

About the author: Melissa is a young and energetic writer, a mom to a sweet little boy, and a fur-mom to two perfect pooches. Before becoming the Associate Content Director for Project Female, she was a journalist specializing in topics related to women in politics and policy affecting women.

Any professional photographer can take bright pictures of the high quality in the place with a good daylight, even if he uses typical SLR camera. But what can a beginner do if he has to take photos in the place with bad light? There is no need to mention that it plays a significant role during the photo sessions. However, most of the beginners think that they need to use advanced and expensive equipment to good lighting pictures.

Anyway, neither good camera’s resolution, nor a camera stabilizer, or zoom lens would help you to get pictures of high quality in the condition of bad lighting. The same refers to the splash usage, but here, in this article, the group of professional photographers made up a list of top 5 tips on how to make the best light for taking pictures and avoid bad lighting photos.

ISO

The modern digital camera offers us several methods aimed to cover as much light as possible with a matrix of the camera. And increasing camera’s ISO is one of them. Probably, this is the easiest and quite obvious way to capture a photo. ISO adjustments affects the amount of light which will get on a sensitive sensor.

And here is a trick that you should remember: the higher ISO, the more light you would get in a photo, but, at the same time, it increases the level of the grain or pixel size in your photo. Thus, don’t use an ISO of 3200 or 6400 unless you would like to get a photo with a lot of ‘noise’.

However, it is possible to retouch a slight grain with the help of post processing program devices. Increase in ISO is the most suitable alternative for pictures taken in dark rooms or concert halls. Check out some handy tips about ISO here →

Lens optics and aperture

If you often take bad photos in the rooms with bad lighting, for example, at nightclubs or concert halls, the best decision is to buy a good high-aperture lens. F/1,4 -1,8 lets you take shots with higher quality. Aperture is something like a pupil, so it helps to get more light, while the aperture is opened. If it is possible, you have to open it as much as possible to get better pictures.

The more aperture you open, the less exposure you need for the correct shot. The best way out is to do these settings manually to have an opportunity to get needed shots. While using the maximum aperture, you have to be careful, as there is a risk that bright objects may turn into blurred ones, while the background and the faded object wouldn’t be sharpened enough. So, in this case, you have to be careful, as in the case of increasing the ISO. The aperture can also be used for adding creative effects to the photographs. Check it out here →

Exposure time and a tripod

One more method to make your life easier and a photo a bit lighter is to use long time exposure. However, this method is perfect for shooting motionless objects or landscapes at sunset. Standard time of exposure is from 1 to 10 seconds, and it regulates according to the type of a scene lighting.

Here is one more tip for photographers – you have to head for objects of a middling light while adjusting time exposure. There is no doubt that longtime exposure requires a tripod. It is essential to use a tripod in order to make sure that the picture is not blurred.

Speedlight

Flash is the very last method you should use, but sometimes it is effective enough. Flash usage often gives you awful effects, but today you have an opportunity to use a speedlight. This is a special small portable flash device which you can attach to your camera or stand-alone if activated via remote control.

Black and white filter

If nothing really works, try to apply a black-white filter and decrease the level of contrast. It is not a way out of the situation, but a good alternative solution.

About the author: John Landrum is a Managing Editor of the ‘National Education’ magazine. He was born in Austin, the USA and graduated from the University of California. He is 39 years old, and you can get familiar with his works at https://samedaypapers.com/essay-writing-help.

Photography is like painting with light on a photosensitive canvas. How about painting something in the absence of adequate amount of light? Sounds challenging right! Humans have always been doing challenging tasks, and shooting in night no more remains a challenge now. While fighting with challenges occurring in low light situations as in night, photographers have discovered a lot of ways to have optimal exposure even at night. An old adage says, “problems are opportunities” that is why we call them challenges and not obstacles. Despite many challenges in night photography, there are certain “effects” those can be obtained only in night photography. Let us talk about few challenges one has to encounter while shooting at night.

1. Camera Shakes

   Due to the low ambient light, the camera goes for a slower shutter-speed. This increases chances of movement in the scene thereby causing blur. As even a small shake of the camera can produce noticeable blur while long exposure. There are two things you can do to avoid blur. First you must use a tripod. Second you can use a shutter release cable. This allows the shutter to be pressed without causing even the lowest possible vibration to the camera.

2. Noise (ISO)

   The low ambient light also necessitates the use of high ISO. But high ISO induces noise in the shot and also results in loss of detail. Again two things come to the rescue. Shoot at a lower ISO. This requires you to go for a slower shutter-speed and thus warrants the use of a tripod. Another thing you can do it to invest in a high-end camera body (almost always the latest). This by no means is practical, but the newest cameras almost always have better low-light/high-ISO performance.

3. Shadows

   To have the subject lit, we use artificial lights or flash lights, and a possible negative impact of this can be a shadow of subject behind it. Such situations require some expert lighting skills. Almost always to know the right use of flash and use multiple sources of light if possible. For a stationary subject you can try shooting the same scene multiple times with lighting from different angles and then merge the shots to get a final. This way the shadows will be less noticeable around the subject.

4. Improper Focus

   Attaining the right focus is another challenge in low-light situations. To overcome this challenge of improper focusing, you can use manual focus. Focus-assist lights can help in this situation but their reach is limited. You may want to use a artificial light to focus and then lock the focus. Once you are ready for the shot, you can switch off the light.

5. Under Exposure

   Under-exposure due to low-light is caused mainly because of two factors:

   1. The camera hitting its limits within the exposure triangle: The camera tries its best to get the right exposure. But sometimes it can just max out its limits. For example a camera with a max shutter-speed of 30sec limited to ISO1600 combined with a lens of f/3.5 scene will underexpose a scene that requires a larger aperture, slower shutter-speed or a higher ISO. This forces you to go into manual exposure.
   2. Human error in exposure when in full-manual mode: If your camera is under-exposing because of the reason above and you have chosen to go full manual; you may just nail the shot given that you are able to dial in the right settings and go with the bulb-mode. This allows you to surpass the camera’s exposure limits and keep the shutter open as long as required. But the right result will depend on quite some experimentation and your particular preference of exposure/image-feel.

6. White Balance

   The camera automatically adjusts and compensates for the light temperature. Most of the times white balance of the camera is set to auto by default, and it gives good results. But during night, the temperature of light varies a lot depending on the light source. Your best bet is to shoot RAW so that you can correct white-balance post-shoot.

Always shoot in RAW during night, as this offers control over various factors in the image data during post processing. This gives you a second chance to correct the mistakes that occur while night shoot.

9 Creative Shots You Can Take At Night

The results from night photography are so beautiful because there are some effects that can only be achieved during the night. These effects are not visible to bare eyes and can only be had with a camera.

1. Car headlights (long exposure – motion capture): Go to a height from where you can see a busy road and shoot the moving car lights at a slow shutter-speed (possibly in the range of several second for the light to travel the path and a smaller aperture for a greater depth-of-field).
   
2. Neon lights: Shoot stationary or moving neon lights and catch some interesting effects.
   
3. Fireworks: During the night, the camera has the ability to see beyond the limits of the human eyes. Given that you get a good exposure, the fireworks will look way different in photographs than they would to the human eye.
   
4. Star trails: This takes painstakingly long times and patience and demands hours of patience. But the creative satisfaction you enjoy is second to none.
   
5. Bokeh: Background lights during night, can be kept out of focus by keeping a wide aperture. And this creates beautiful the bokeh effect.
   
6. Night portraits with moon in the shot: Try to shoot portraits with moon in the shot. You can get some great silhouettes and unusual, interesting tones in the scene.
   
7. Moonlit Landscape and buildings: Shoot buildings and landscape scenes under moon light and have a refreshing and cooling emotional appeal in your shots.
   
8. Photograph the Moon: Photograph moon itself is very interesting. You will need a good telephoto or astro lens for this.
   
9. Try light painting: Light painting is done at long exposure (slow shutter-speed or in the bulb mode) by moving the source of light to painting the scene. Due to the high intensity of the light source, it is captured by the camera while the person or object used to move the light source is no captured.
   

Night photography remains challenging but an extremely creative realm of photography and very satisfying. Much of the challenge comes due to the absence of light. And it is due to the ambient light and longer shutter-speeds that you get all these awesomely creative results.

Lighting is the most important aspect in photography. It is an indispensable element for creating desired effects. It evokes drama, renders form and above all creates mood. Understanding the features and characteristics of light opens up a plethora of opportunites for creatively capturing the scene. Along the lines of various lighting techniques, high key lighting is one such lighting technique which spills the magic of bright light on the subject. This bright light magic communicates upbeat, light, ethereal or beautiful mood. Let’s quickly move ahead and learn more about high key lighting or high key photography.

Introduction To High Key Lighting

High key lighting or high key photography is the technique of creating bright images — the images full of light. Technically speaking, high-key lighting is a photographic style of lighting that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene. This was originally done partly for technological reasons, since early film and television did not deal well with high contrast ratios. But now it is creatively employed by the photographers to convey positive or upbeat mood.

Orchid High Key

High-key lighting is usually quite homogeneous and free from dark shadows. This overall bright and even illumination adds aesthetic value to the subject. It is for the very same reason that high key lighting is mostly used for capturing beauty shots of the portraits; be it child portraits or beautiful feminine photographs.

3 Quick Steps For Shooting High Key Photographs

Are you ready to try your hands at shooting some high key photographs. Here are three simple steps to help you establish a small studio set-up for photographing a bright image of a flower, product or a portrait.

1. White Background: White backdrop is a prelinimary requirement for high key images. In professional studio set-ups you will find a 9 ft wide roll of paper high on stands, rolled all the way across the background and onto the floor of the shot. An empty white wall or a plain white sheet are good contenders for seamless white background. Place the subject in the center of the backdrop or prefer using a light tent when photographing a product or flower.
2. Proper Lighting Set-up: Three point lighting or four point lighting set-up is good consideration for shooting high key images of your subject. Set up a key light to one of the subject. Make sure that the key light evely lits the subject. Next place the fill light on the opposite side to cover up the harsh shadows. And arrange the remaining lights angled to the background to eliminate the shadows casting on the backdrop. Also keep your background lights one f-stop over the subject lighting to introduce depth in your high-key photographs. Check out this high key lighting diagram by Jerry Schmidt.
   

   High Key Lighting Diagram

3. Fine-tune Camera Settings: There are no constant camera settings for high-key photographs. But one thing that remains constant is over-exposure. Owing to the white background and bright light, the camera’s meter gets tricked and underexposes the shot. You will therefore need to over-expose the shot (either by using exposure compensation dial or by turning on the manual mode) to get the correct exposure. Here are few high key images along with the camera’s settings to give you a fair idea about shooting eye-catching high key images.

Examples — Eye-catching High Key Photographs

Life Is All About Priorities by Chris JL

This shot was taken by Nikon D90 with following settings:

• Exposure Program: Manual
• Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
• Aperture: f/7.1
• ISO Speed: 200

“High Key” Kyan Carlos by Ronmarshall074

This shot was taken by Canon EOS 400D Digital with following settings:

• Exposure Program: Normal
• Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
• Aperture: f/5.6
• ISO Speed: 200
• Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV

Cecilia by Astragony

This shot was taken by  Leica Camera AG M8 with following settings:

• Exposure Program: Manual
• Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
• Aperture: f/5.7
• ISO Speed: 160

High Key Lighting Studio Set-up

Learn to take control of photographic lighting with this amazing video. Here in this video, Mark Wallace explores two dramatic lighting alternative — high key and low key. While low-key, high-contrast dark images can be achieved with minimal lighting, creating bright images is a challenge. You have to over-expose the background, evenly lit the subject and have to control the lights from spilling onto the subject. Don’t worry, it is not that difficult. Just go through this video tutorial and you’ll be in a good position to photograph soft, delicate and beautiful high key photographs.

3 Good Tutorials On High Key Photography

1. The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Shooting High Key [Photo.Tutsplus.Com]: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Shooting High Key published by Phototuts+ is a good article to begin with. Josh Johnson starts with a brief introduction of high key photography which finally develops into a full-fledged guide for picking up the right equipment, appropriate lighting set-up and precise camera settings for shooting brilliant high key photographs.
2. How to Take High Key Photos [Photopoly]: You can achieve high key lighting effect by various means — a studio set-up, natural available light or photoshopping. This article gives you a taste of all the three methods along with a few examples for inspiration.
3. High Key vs Low Key [Photofairy]: This article presents comparative view of high key and low key. It presents a contrasting study of the two lighting techniques in the light of exposure, contrast and mood. Along the way, the writer shares some valuable tips for creating artistic images by employing high key and low key lighting techniques.

Do you have some high key shots in your collection? Feel free to share the links through comments.

Lighting is the most important aspect in photography. The correct lighting setup can help you get astonishing results and a poor setup can totally ruin the shot. Lighting is a unification of both art and science. On one hand you need to be familiar with the features and techniques of lighting, to assess the impact of lights on the final result; on the other hand you need to get creative and play around with the features of light to render form, mood and drama to the capture.

Creativity follows as you learn the features and techniques of lighting. It is therefore crucial to get yourself equipped with the techniques of  lighting, the nature of light and its effective uses. The type, quality and quantity of light — all have a visually distinct impact on the results. The lighting equipment and their placement & direction not only determine the form, contours and mood of the photograph but also the photographic quality. This specially holds true for photographing  portraits in a studio as it’s the studio where artificial lighting is “mostly” used. Artificial light is also used in fashion and glamor photography where it has to be balanced with the naturally available light. This balancing of the intensity of various light sources helps you achieve special effects possible only with lighting. Remember, while almost everything can be adjusted in the post-processing phase, it’s lighting that has to be taken care of in the capture phase. No amount of post-processing can fix poor lighting. Thus the lighting has to be taken care of during the shoot itself.

The key to balancing the lighting are the lighting ratios and the inverse square law. Let’s have a closer look at the two concepts; the lighting ratios and the inverse square law.

Lighting Ratio

A lighting ratio is simply the ratio (or a balance) between the intensity of two different lights. Most of the studio setups employ a key light — the primary light employed to illuminate the subject  and fill light which is used to lighten the shadows being cast due to the key light. The difference between the intensity of key light and fill light is calculated with respect to f-stops. A strong key light and a weak fill light means a more contrasty image and vice-versa.  To calculate and arrive at the desired lighting ratio, the photographers may seek the help of a light meter but in practice it is generally a matter of individual preference and some experimentation. The photographer takes the reading of light intensity from each light source and thereafter adjust the intensity of light for each source to effectively put lighting ratios to action.

Sekonic Light Meter By Rikkyrikky

A strong key light casts shadows that are more pronounced. In order to control these, a soft-light source is employed as fill-light. In a situation where the key light is absent and only a fill light is used, the portraits tend to appear flat. A combination of a strong key light and a weaker fill light allows more shadows thereby enhancing the contours and the contrast in the portrait. A proper balance can clearly bring out the contours and features of the subject while reducing undesirable shadows.

Let’s talk in figures now. A light ratio of 3:1 is desirable for portraits. This ratio means that the intensity of main light is 3 times the fill light. To the contrary, a lighting ratio of 8:1 is considered to be low key. Similarly, different light ratios can be applied to obtain different results in an image. (ex: 2:1 for high key effect, 4:1 for slimming/dramatic effect, 5:1 for high contrast character studies etc.). Here’s a wrap of lighting ratios.

• 1:1 ratio: The key light and fill light of same intensity result in even lighting, thus producing soft high key image.
• 2:1 ratio: Is desirable for most cases.
• 4:1 ratio: Higher contrast resulting in a low key image.
• 8:1 ratio: Results in very dramatic and low key image.

Ann 2 By Checkmezov (High Key)

The Inverse Square Law/Light Falloff

The inverse square law states that when a light source is moved farther from the subject, its intensity drops by the square of its inverse. In simple words, when a light source is moved away from a subject (say for example twice the distance), the intensity of light reduces to 1/4 of its intensity.

Thus if a subject placed at point A, 2 feet away from a source of light is re-positioned at point B, a distance of 4 feet from the light source, it will receive 1/16 times the light it received at point A {i.e. (1/4)² times the “4” in “1/4” being the new distance).

Confused enough? It’s not over yet. I spent about an hour to get to grips with this theory, actually the intricacies of it. Here’s how this can be explained. Let’s take a look at this illustration:

The S is the source and A is the area of the subject (a card perhaps). The light rays (in orange) emanate from the source and fall on the card.  As the distance is doubled, the light spreads farther and a larger area is required to absorb the same quantity of light. Since the size of the subject is fixed, it only absorbs a a part of the light it originally did.

Additionally as a corollary, as the distance between the light source and subject  increases, the apparent size of the source decreases. Thus light becomes more directional, focused thus turning into hard light. The closer the source, the bigger it appears and softer the light.

The Inverse Square Law comes in handy when adjusting the distance between the light and the subject.  But varying the distance affects the quality of light too. Varying the distance is not a means to control the light or exposure, it is a way to balance multiple lights sources.

Knowing the inverse square law and the lighting ratio can greatly help you in creating compelling images. You can paint your image with the light of your choice and create a masterpiece.

Have a question? Ask away.

One of the key skills of a professional portrait photographer is the perception of light and its nature in diverse forms. Be it the natural light or the studio set-up, the portrait photographer can aesthetically portray expressions, mood, emotions and intense depth onto the photographic frame. When we talk of portrait photography, one element that helps you set apart your portrait photographs is the skill of arranging the lights to render the required effect.

The understanding of portrait lighting is required not only for illuminating the subject well, it is far more important for rendering the shape, form and character of portraits on two-dimensional flat surface. Mastering over the portrait lighting thus helps you in portraying the realism — conveying sentiments as a key aspect and adding dimension (curves and contours) for idealism. Employing the features of lights used in portrait photography help you in separating the subject from the background and foreground to give it a distinct dimension in this respect.

We all at certain point of time are engaged in photographing the portraits and learning the basics and fundamentals of portrait lighting (style, techniques and set-up) can help you get the professional results. So, let’s get started with the basics of portrait lighting and eventually throw light on the portrait lighting set-ups employed by the professionals.

Basics of Portrait Lighting

#4 Rach In The Rain by Rachel sian

The primary purpose of portrait lighting is to create a three dimensional illusion. The photographers thus employ various lights, features of light and lighting ratios to reveal the contours — render the shape and form on the photographic frame. Portrait lighting is all about the interplay of lights in form of highlights and shadows which help in creating flattering images and heightening the sense of depth.

• Primary Lights: The primary lights in the photographic lighting are referred to as the key light and the fill light. The key light is the primary source of illuminating the subject. The purpose of the key light is to highlight the form and dimension of the subject. The fill light on the other hand is the supplementary source of light which is used to fill the shadows resulted from the primary source of light. In portrait photography, the placement of key light and fill light relative to the subject is of critical importance. For example, if you want to portray soft and supple skin, place the key light near the camera and move the light closer to subject and let is fall from the side to emphasize the facial textures. Just as key light determines the illumination, the fill light augments the effect of the key light by controlling the shadows resulted from key light, thus placing the fill light closer to the camera-subject axis ensures that the shadows cast behind the subject.
• Types Of Portrait Lighting: Basically, there are two types of portrait lighting, broad lighting and short lighting. Broad lighting means that the key light is illuminating the side of the face towards the camera, thereby broadening and flattening the facial curves. The short lighting is used most of time. It is the terminology used for the key light illuminating the side of the face turned away from the camera; which results in narrowing the round or wide face, rendering the curves and form to the facial structure.
• The Size Of Light Source:The size of the light source also has an impact on the final result. Smaller the size of the light, more is the contrast in the scene; whereas the larger light source illuminates the highlights and shadows evenly resulting in soft and smooth effect in the photograph. Apart from the physical size of the light source, the distance of the light source relative to the subject also accounts for the effectiveness and intensity of the light falling on the subject. If you move the subject away from the light source (eg. from 1mtr to 2mtr) i.e, twice the distance, its brightness/illumination reduces to 1/4 of earlier observation. And in order to maintain same exposure, you will have to increase the amount of light by four times. The inverse square law comes into play in this situation and thus the results vary when the subject is moved away from the light source while the camera settings remain unchanged.
  

  The Best Way To Make It Through by Βethan

• Metering: Most of the professionals working with a studio use a hand-held light meter. It allows for greater flexibility, accuracy and control of overall dynamic range (shadows and highlights) of the portrait. The built-in lightmeters in the camera on the other hand meter the entire scene. Often the built-in meters are tricked by mixed lighting too.
• Lighting Ratios: The lighting ratio is the ratio of intensity of highlights to the shadows. The higher the lighting ratio, the higher the contrast of the image. This ratio thus intimates the photographer on the local contrast in the final result. The ratio of 3:1 is desirable in most of the cases, while 8:1 is an indicator of low key image.

Portrait Lighting Set-up

Once you are well-equipped with the basics of portrait lighting or photographic lighting in a general scenario, it is easier to understand how photographers use these basics to create stunning portrait photographs. Various lighting set-ups, the arrangement of lights in simple words is employed by the photographer to introduce the desired effect.

1. Paramount Lighting: Paramount lighting or the butterfly lighting produces a butterfly shaped shadow under the subject’s nose which renders symmetry and emphasize the feminine facial contours (the cheekbones). It is also known as the glamor lighting and is generally avoided with male subjects. In this lighting set-up, the key light is placed above and closer to the subject and the fill light is adjusted under the key light. Along with it a secondary reflector is used for reducing the shadows resulting on neck and cheek to evenly illuminate the subject.
2. Loop Lighting: In this lighting set-up, the key light is lowered and moved to the side of the subject to diminish the shadow under the nose to a small loop. And fill light is placed opposite to the camera from the key light. The lighting technique is used for balancing the oval shaped facial profiles.
3. Rembrandt Lighting: Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle under the eye of the subject, on the less illuminated side of the face. The key light is further lowered and moved to the side and is either diffused or used with weak fill light to highlight the seriousness of masculine figurines.
4. Split Lighting: Split lighting technique is used to slim down the wide face, perhaps by lighting only half of the face with key light and using weak fill light to hide facial irregularities or no fill light to accentuate drama in the image.
5. Profile Lighting:Profile lighting, also known as the rim lighting is achieved by placing the key light behind the subject, so the rim or outline of the subject’s body is illuminated. The rim light effect is quite similar to back light effect (as in the image given below).
   

   Rim Light Test by Stephan Mantler

What’s your favorite portrait lighting setup?

Light is an essential element of photography. The art of photography itself rests on the understanding and making the most of the available light. The lights affect the way the camera interprets and portrays the subject or the scene. Before using the lights for capturing the required effects and details, one should have a sound knowledge of the various features of lights. Check out the article on lighting and it’s features here. Let’s look at the various aspects of lights and technique of using the lights efficiently.

1. How To Efficiently Use Soft Light

   Naturally available light on an overcast day provides you an opportunity of using the soft light to your advantage. While most of the photographers consider an overcast day a blessing for photographing outdoors, the consistent light on the overcast day may at times produce unflattering results. Using the photographing techniques of subtractive lighting and partial blocking of light can however render shape and form to the subject.

2. How To Use Hard Light Effectively

   While overcast days are good for photography, bright sunny days offer a plethora of opportunities. The trick behind effectively utilizing the hard light lies in the art of controlling it. While hard light is suitable for capturing fine details and textures, you can consider the following techniques for controlling the hard light and producing the desired results.

   • Back Lighting: Using the hard light as the back light results in lighting the edges of the subject.
   • Using Shades: Placing the subject in the open shade, perhaps a tree or an archway helps in softening the harsh sunlight, preventing the ugly shadows and unwanted hot-spots in the photograph.
   • Creatively Portraying The Shadows: Including the shadows formed owing to the hard light offers a creative edge. The shadows and reflections introduce an element of interesting-nessin the photograph.
     

     Shadow by Balthus Van Tassel

3. How To Adjust Color Temperature

   The light which appears white to the human eye has a color temperature which renders color cast to the scene. Owing to this fact, when you photograph early morning scene, it turns out blue and kills the warmth of the sunlight as observed by the human eye. To adjust the color temperature and render the appropriate colors to the scene, you need to tune and set the white balance of the camera to one of the presets or to the manual WB mode. For example if you want to introduce warmth in the final result, you can choose sunny preset while cloudy preset can be used to render a bluish tinge in the final results.

4. Understanding The Direction Of Light And Its Effect

   The direction of the light plays a major role in depicting the desired effects. While direct light is desirable for capturing the fine details, back-lighting, side-lighting and diffused light has its own implications. Lighting the subject from the back helps in creating edge lighting effect, resulting in the halo effect and diffusing the light with the help of diffusers scatter the lights to evenly expose the subject.

   

   To Hit The Horizon by Loca Luna

5. Using The Fill Light To Your Advantage

   Fill light is the extra light provided to the subject to fill the shadows (and dark areas) and balance the key light. The primary purpose of using the fill light is to soften the effect of key light which results in exposing the shadow areas of the scene. To create the fill light, bounce the lights off the walls or use the reflectors to soften the shadows. Using fill flash is also good option to lighten up the shadows produced by key light (especially when shooting in direct sunlight).

6. How To Enhance Texture And Fine Details

   Hard light cast at an angle comes in handy for revealing the textures and fine details of the subject. When shooting outdoors, bright sunny days are an advantage for photographing the textures and details. In indoor shooting setup throwing the hard light on the subject imitates the sunlight effect and helps in portraying the shape, form, texture and minute details of the subject.

7. How To Enhance Saturation

   Deciding on the saturation levels help in getting well-saturated and vivid colors in the photographs. To change the saturation level of  the scene, just underexpose the shot by .3 to .7 EV using the exposure compensation button or prefer to shoot in RAW and enhance the saturation during post-processing stage. Slightly underexposing the scene gives the impression of darker colors.

8. How To Get The Glowing Effect

   You can get the glowing effect or the halo effect around the subject by using the back-lighting. Adjust the placement of the subject such that the light source is behind the subject. The light from the back of the subject diffuses to form the glowing effect along the edges and thus is also known as edge-lighting.

   

   Goldilocks by Pixel Pro Photography

9. How To Make And Use The Lens Flare

   Lens flare is an optical artifact created when the source of light shows into the camera-lens. The scattering of the lights may produce polygon rings or circles, which can be used to induce dreamy effect in the scene. Generally, the flare is caused when using the long lens with bright source of light shining into the lens. However the lens-flares can give a beautiful dreamy effect to scenes, especially the portraits when used creatively.

10. Employing Naturally Available Objects To Control Light

    The quality and attributes of light can be controlled and altered by using the natural objects to act as reflectors, diffusers and screens. Reflectors enable you to redirect the light towards the subject thereby reducing the shadows, diffusers help in softening the light and screens are used for either blocking, absorbing or concealing the light. The white walls of the room can be used as reflector, an overcast day serves the purpose of diffusing the light while the tree shade and archways can be used to partially block the light or come to help you on a bright sunny day. These natural elements help in controlling the attributes of light and thus help in making the most of the available light. Also, white acrylic or thermocol sheetscan work as excellent reflectors (and even as a backdrop).

How do you make use of the naturally available light?

The entire range of digital cameras, feature automatic flash firing (barring the exceptions). The digital camera’s TTL metering forces the flash to fire as and when it senses low-ambient light. Flash light has it’s own quirks and at times can completely ruin your photographs. Its scourging side effects wash-off the details and produce nasty effects. But used correctly, the flash is a handy and critical source of light a photographer has. It is therefore crucial to understand in-camera flash, its modes and its uses to make the most out of the compact and handy light source mounted or built-in your cameras.

1. Using Flash As The Primary Source Of Light

   Depending on the make and model of flash, it tends to produce hard light (a major issue with smaller DSLRs and digital cameras) which is very unflattering. However when fired in the slow sync mode the flash fires longer and gives better and more natural illumination to the scene. This comes very handy for quick portraits or for photographing small groups of people at night. If you are using the correct camera mode, the camera will automatically set the correct flash mode too. In this case you must use the night portrait mode. But in case you want to override it with aperture priority, you can manually set the flash to fire in slow sync mode. Turn on the red-eye reduction when using flash for night portraits.

2. Using Flash To Compliment Ambient Light

   The camera automatically fires the flash in low ambient light to illuminate the subject well for the camera sensor to sense it. Turn off the automatic flash and take control of it and decide yourself as to when the flash should fire. Try to avoid flash if you can arrange for some other light source. Using flash blows out the details and makes the photographs look dull and surreal. Multiple sources of light ensure that shadows are kept to a minimum. Using the flash as a complementing source helps in filling the shadowed areas of the photograph; the shadows created owing to the effect of direct and hard light. Appropriate use of flash thus helps in getting the balanced exposure in the final shot.

   

   Wedding Photography by Icaromoreno

3. Balancing the Ambient Light With Flash

   When shooting against a light source, the subject tends to get underexposed. This is due to the extreme light variations (the increased dynamic range). To bring the light levels under control you can use the flash to illuminate the subject. Turn your camera to fill flash mode when shooting under the direct light from the sun. Using the flash when shooting against the sun, fills the shadows and dark areas to result in the balanced exposure; and reduce the contrast in the final result.

4. Bounce The Flash (Directional Light)

   Direct flash (or direct light from any source for that matter) always produce disappointing results. A far better solution for illumination is to bounce the flash off a surface  — bounce it off ceiling, walls or anything which has reflective abilities. The bounce diffuses the light and softens it to illuminate the low ambient light without casting hard shadows. It may be difficult to direct the on camera flash however there are flash caps available which can be fixed to the front of the flash. These diffuse the light right at the source. Alternatively use an external flash.

   

   Bounce Flash by J.chichos

5. Use Flash For Long Exposures To Produce Dynamic Effects

   Set your camera to rear sync mode when photographing long exposures and movement. The camera in the rear sync mode fires the flash just before the rear curtain of the camera closes. It thus enables your camera to capture long exposures along with the trails of the subject or the lights following it; heightening the sense of movement and activity.

   

   Nikon Speedlight Rear Curtain Sync

6. Avoid Auto Mode For Better Control

   The camera in the auto-mode fires the flash whenever its TTL metering senses the low-ambient light. It fires the flash to illuminate the subject well for the camera sensor to sense it. The illumination from the flash not only affects the exposure, it also alters the white-balance in the image and affects the quality of light making the subject look dull and flat. Overriding the camera modes helps you use the natural light. However be careful of long exposure durations which can induce motion blur in insufficient ambient light (use a tripod to stabilize the camera).

7. Manually Adjust The Flash

   Set your camera to manual mode and adjust the amount of flash manually. This way you can ensure that the frame is filled with proper exposure and required details. It is the best way to compensate for the dominating effect of some other light source; the campus-fire in the center of a dancing group or a candle on the birthday cake. If you leave the camera to its own settings and calculations, it will produce scattered effect of light from candle or campus-fire.

   

   First Advent And First Candle Is Lit

8. When To Avoid Flash

   Flash is an effective source of light. There are certain circumstances when it fails to serve the purpose of being an effective light source. You should consider avoiding the flash when:

   • Shooting Sources Of Light: Avoid using flash when photographing lights. The intensity of the lights is pretty tricky for the camera to measure and is mostly sufficient to get you good results when using a tripod.
   • Shooting Far Off Subjects: The range of flash is limited to 3-5 m approximately. It hardly makes a difference when shooting the setting sun, moon at night, sky filled with stars or other far-off and distant subjects. It accounts for battery power and may produce reflections of interfering objects; thus disrupting the composition.

Getting good flash photographs is tricky and requires some experience in understanding its effects and side-effects. Proper use of flash not only equips you with an efficient tool but also gets you excellent results.

On-camera flash or the built-in flash is the most convenient source of light while photographing. It is a compact and easy to use light source in low-ambient light. The built-in flash is the appropriate alternative for getting the right amount of exposure in low-light.

Even though it is a good source of light and your DSLRs are smart enough to use it under low ambient light; it probably has its own set of limitations, problems and quirks. Red-eye, limited reach, washed-off details, flat & shadowless images and reflections off the shiny surfaces are some of the most prominent ones.

The limitations and problems encountered by in-built flash in no way undermine its benefits. Understanding and learning to use in-camera flash appropriately is the secret to great results. Flash has several uses. It can be used as a primary source of light when the ambient light is almost negligible, it can be used as a secondary source of light to fill up the shadow areas or it can be used to balance the ambient light (eg. when you are shooting against the sun).

You can create interesting and dynamic effects in your photographs by using flash and therefore, by understanding the mechanics of the flash. Here are some factors which affect the flash photography and impact the photographs taken with flash turned on.

1. Intensity of flash

   The range of built-in flash is approximately around 3-5m depending on the intensity of the flash unit and the camera make/model. The intensity of light output from a flash unit depends on the size of the capacitor and the voltage required for the unit to work. In simple words, the intensity of flash unit is determined by the battery power.

2. Flash modes

   Understanding the various modes of flash is crucial to its implementation in photography.

   • Auto-mode: When set at the auto-mode, the DSLRs fire-up or pop-up the flash as and when it senses low-ambient light. This helps to light up the subject and create a more even lighting.
   • Fill-flash: Fill-flash is provided to forcefully turn-on the flash; to lighten up the shadows in the image in addition to the light from the primary source.
   • Slow Sync Mode: The slow sync mode is appropriate for indoor-shooting. It provides ground for filling the background with natural lights as viewed by the human eye; which will otherwise be dark and unnatural. In this mode the flash fires for a longer duration. This mode is used for night shots. During this lengthy duration when flash is on, there are two additional modes which can be engaged for different effects. Note that these are not a sub-type of slow sync mode but are merely considerations for long exposures.
     

     Sing It by Darwin Bell

     • Front Sync Mode: Considering that the shutter remains open for a certain duration, in the front-synch mode the flash fires as soon as the shutter opens, the flash then goes off and finally the shutter closes to complete the exposure. This freezes the subject in the initial part of the exposure (the light being the strongest due to the flash) and the subsequent movement of the subject results in a blur creating an unnatural effect. This generally is the default mode on most cameras.
     • Rear Sync Mode: In this mode the shutter opens and right before it is about to close the flash fires to illuminate the scene. This freezes a moving subject in the final instance of the exposure. Thus in this case the blur follows the subject (which looks more natural).
   • Red-Eye Reduction Mode: Red-eye reduction mode is their to help you in reducing the red-eye effect in your photographs. The camera in this mode fires a continuous bright light to allow the iris of the human eye to close before the shot is taken. Due to the intricacies involved, the results often vary and are disappointing unless used properly.

3. Sync speed

   Sync speed is the fastest shutter speed which can be used when using flash. At a certain high shutter speed (depending on the camera) the shutter blades move very fast and in close proximity to each other with one following the other. At the synch-limit, this distance between the two shutter blades becomes smaller than the camera sensor. When the flash fires, only the part of the sensor which is exposed at that instance gets to capture the light and the other parts of the frame are dark or dull due to the lack of ambient/light/flash. Synchronizing shutter speed with flash is of utmost importance for capturing the entire frame; even at high shutter speed.

Understanding the on-camera flash is the key to making better use of flash and to avoid unwanted artifacts and effects created by it. Used properly, flash works as a very effective and handy light source. Watch out for our upcoming article covering how to make the best use of flash.

Lighting effects can bring out some of the most unique, interesting and dramatic compositions. We have already discussed the various features of light in a previous article and it is essential that you understand light before you proceed with this article. So if you haven’t read that article I’ll wait…

Natural lighting can be the most dramatic and brings out some unusual effects during certain times of the day. The dawn and the dusk are two parts of the day when the natural lighting is in its best and most unusual forms. These times of the day are also referred to as the “Magic Hours” or the “Golden Hours”. The light during these times has very special characteristics – the intensity is very low, the angle is unusual (as compared to the most part of the day when the sun is generally above us), the light is diffused, the sky and the clouds reflect in amber casting different hues and colors. The colors in the scene are varied and more saturated than during other parts of the day, the shadows are long and mysterious and the sky contains a variety of gradients from any one part to the other. The magic hour is one of the best times to experiment and shoot in natural lighting. It is no surprise that some of the award-winning shots of landscapes have been captured during the magic hours.

However shooting during these times of the day pose their own challenges so it is essential that you go prepared – especially when you sacrifice your morning sleep and leave the bed on a cold morning.

1. Low Light Conditions: When the sun is on the horizon, light is low in intensity. You will need to be prepared to take long exposures and it is very important that you carry a tripod along to reduce camera shakes.
2. Camera Mode: Most of the times I prefer to set the camera to auto mode and it takes care of everything. However auto mode tries to balance the light for optimal exposure of the subject which is not what we want during the magic hours. During the magic hours you want to make sure the auto mode doesn’t overexpose and make the photographs look like as if they were shot in the noon. Set your camera to programmed-auto or the manual mode and experiment. Read Digital Camera Modes: What do they mean.
3. Bracketing: You will definitely want to bracket your shots. The underexposed shot will most likely be the one that you will want to retain – it will have saturated colors and very dramatic effects. Read more on how to bracket your shots.
4. Timing: The biggest challenge photographers face during the magic hours is the timing of the shot. The light during the magic hours changes so rapidly that you’ll want to start with taking one shot every 5 minutes. Once the sun is on the horizon you’ll want to take one shot every minute. No matter how much you practice there will always be a chance that you may miss the moment. And you don’t want to repent and come back the next day. There are only a few minutes of the magic light during the magic hours. You don’t want to miss them.
5. Image Format: In tricky shots like these you want to shoot in RAW (if your camera allows). Though manipulation is not a way of the purists, technology can be leveraged upon to get the best out of every shot (after all beautiful photographs are generally post-processed in one way or the other to make them sell). RAW allows you full control on the picture data.
6. Angles: Try different angles. Light during these moments varies with every angle as does the reflection and gradient and the colors.
7. Peripherals: As always carry extra battery, storage etc. since you will be taking shots every few minutes, shooting in RAW and bracketing them too.

Now that you know what you need, set the alarm, go out and shoot some lovely pictures and share them with us.

Photography is all about light. Photography means capturing light. Lighting is one of the most important aspects of the art and a good understanding of light and it’s nature is essential for getting the pictures that you want. Let’s start with understanding the features of light in this post. Once you know about the features of lighting you can learn about various lighting techniques here. For now, let’s begin with the fundamentals of lighting, i.e. light and its features.

1. Temperature

   The white light that you see always has a color cast. Our eyes are good at adjusting to the neutral color that they neglect any color cast in the light and see it as white. The color temperature affects the picture in various ways sometimes bringing an overall reddish tinge to the picture and greenish or bluish at other times. Good cameras thus features a White-Balance control to compensate for the unwanted color cast to bring out the original colors for accurate rendition. White-balance has been covered in another post and you can read more about white-balancing here.

2. Quality

   There’s nothing as good and bad. It’s the nature of the light that you employ to get a desired effect. We have this in two flavors hard-light and soft-light. Hard light is more focused and harsh in nature wherein the shadows come out with defined and sharp edges. A soft light is a diffused or more evenly spread light that renders shadows as soft shades bringing a glow to the subject. Depending on the requirement and the mood you want to bring to the picture you can use hard or soft light. Portraits especially fashion and glamor photos call for soft lighting wherein the models are bathed in a soft glow. At other times you may want to bring a special mood to the subject by intelligent use of hard light for a particular purpose. The resulting image will have defined shadows depending on the direction of the light.

3. Quantity

   Again nothing good or bad here too. But I always favor more light than less. Light is just the playground for the camera and your imaginations. The more you have (and depending on your equipment) the more you can control to bring in the desired effect. More light is mandatory for shooting sports because you want to have enough of it to allow high shutter speed and freeze the action. Less of it shows very well and comes out beautiful when you have a tripod and you are shooting city streets at night. A low ISO with a long exposure is just what you need to see the beauty of city lighting at night. Apparently the camera is designed to take care of  the exposure with minimal impact by the amount of light incoming. But actually, amount of light does matter. See how.

4. Direction Of Light

   Very important. You can throw the light from down under the chin to get a horror effect. Or employ side light for adding drama.

5. Type Of Light

   This pertains to the equipment you employ to get the type of light you want. The ambient light or flash or a combination of both is used to get a desired effect. Using a flash on back-lit scenes wherein the subject is generally underexposed is just one example of using the type of light to achieve a desired effect.

I’ll summarize the information that you take back from this article and repeat that knowing the light is very important. Start by keeping it simple. There are five things – temperature, quality, quantity, direction and type. Temperature induces the color, white-balance corrects it; quality is hard and soft, quantity is the playground of the camera, direction gives the mood and type pertains to the equipment you employ to get the light. And now your comments :)