Let's Talk About Light, Baby!

Hey guys! I shared this on the CM forum a few days ago and I wanted to go more in depth with it here. 

I had quite a few more characteristics that I wanted to add but I also had to do things like eat, take care of kids, etc...

This is such an amazing topic and I would love to see us really dig into it. As photographers we all love and appreciate light. Without  it we are just holding really expensive and pointless pieces of equipment. 🧐

Natural light is glorious and should be taken full advantage of and I am all for turning off the flash and enjoying the light from our sun. However, Using supplemental light, like  a flash or strobe gives us even more control and options and the ability to create the light we want at any time of the day (or night)

Let's talk about light and how we can control its many characteristics with our super-handy off-camera-flash.

Some  of the Characteristics of Light

Direction:  This refers to the position of your main light source in  comparison to your subject.

With a flash, we  have very precise control to the direction of  our light  and    where our shadows fall, this can help us to create  shape and volume. It can also decrease or  increase the texture of our subject.

Color: The color of light can have a big impact on your image. Color conveys mood and is a big part of storytelling in imagery. With flash we have the option to use gels (colored cellophane) to correct color casts or add creative color to your scene. Our next exercise will be with gels. Super fun!

Quantity: This refers to the  amount of light we have in a scene. We can measure this with  the meter in our camera, a light meter, and even our eyeball.

The quantity of light  plays a giant role in the  settings you choose for your images.   

Here is an example of a small quantity of light:

And an example of an image with a ton of light.

Quality: The quality of your light can be based on how hard or soft is it is. Diffuse light is very soft with a gradual change from highlight to    shadow. A specular light has a very hard and distinct shadow. When using OCF we can control the quality of light with our chosen modifiers. 

 Below is an example of hard light. The  bare flash was only inches from her face causing specular highlights and harsh shadows.

Here is an example of moderately hard light. The edge of the light on his face has a short gradation from highlight to shadow.

The light source was a bare flash, which is very small relative to my son.

And here is an example with a large modifier, notice the gradual change of values from the shadow to the highlight.

Size: The size of our light source in relation to our subject,   will have a big impact on the softness/hardness of the light.   A tiny light on  a large surface will create hard light while a tiny light on a tiny surface will create softer light.   The examples above showed this principle.

Distance:   The distance of your light from your subject plays an important role in flash photography. If I have a giant soft box right next o my subject it will create very soft and diffuse light. The further away I move my subject from  the light, the smaller the light source becomes and the transitions from shadow to light will become more pronounced. 

Duration:   This is a characteristic of light that  offers so much  fun for the strobist (a person who    practices OCF). The duration of your flash can freeze a drop of water with  extreme sharpness or show   movement when combined with a slow shutter speed.    We  can even combine   constant light with flash for a variety of creative looks.

This week we are going to take one of the mentioned characteristics and  explore it more fully.

We will start off with playing with color temperature and gels. If you do not have any gels, don't feel that you need to go and buy some. You can use colored cellophane (like what might be wrapped around   a Valentines Day bouquet) or other similar material.    You can also play with your in camera WB   options to change your color temperature and   feel free to adjust your color in your favorite editing software. The goal for this week is just to explore with different color changing options.

This image is the true color.

When using gels with flash, you will want to fix the gels over your light source. For the image below I had the gel over a small flashlight with a 3.2 second exposure.

I will   shoot and share a video using gels soon. In the meantime, feel free to have fun with shifting the color of your images.

Happy Creating!