Where: At home, Indoors
When: Just after noon, when the sun was lower in the sky and not directly into the camera lens.
How: I decided that I wanted to use an indoor method as I could control the light easier using a number of reflectors and scrims.
Before starting this exercise I had a good look through some reference books;
AVA Academy Basics Photography 2 Lighting
A &BC Publishing The portrait photography course
Looking mainly at the basics of portrait lighting and how different setups can have an effect on the subject. These books helped me to understand some of the lighting conditions and helped with developing my ideas for a setup and for what I was looking for.
I waited for a sunny day and sat inside with the subject; I waited until the sun was slightly lower in the sky after mid day as I wanted the light to be direct but not too harsh. I then sat the subject with the light striking them through the window onto the left hand side of their face.
I started off by setting the camera in manual mode and mounted it onto a tripod so that I could freely move about and see how each setup looked. This allowed me a lot more freedom as all I had to do was lean into the eyepiece to see what was happening. I then changed the ISO down to 250 to allow me to shoot without having to change the ISO again; I managed to keep the shutter speed below the maximum speed of 1/4000th of a second and out of the slower shutter speeds. I then changed the shutter speed up and down as I experimented with reflectors and diffusion of the light.
I followed a process where I took a couple of images with each setup, starting with just pain sunlight and then used a scrim to diffuse the light on the left hand side just at the window. From there I used a white, silver and a gold reflector located below the camera to reflect the light back up at her face. From there I moved the reflector off to her right and used the white, the silver, the gold and the black reflectors one after another to see how each one would have an effect on the light.
Plain Sunlight
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/500 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
I was quite pleased with this as a first shot, but the left hand side of the subjects head is very over exposed and the white light is blown out and to well defined. It also cast almost three quarters of her face in shadow and there were not a lot of contrasts in the shadowed areas.
Scrim at Window
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
The scrim was held at the window and adjusted back and forth until I felt that I had the right amount of diffuse light. This reduced the overexposure on the left hand side of the subjects face; I feel however that if I was going to reshoot this image I would use a thicker scrim as the light is not diffuse enough. I can see better definition around the lips and nose, but it does leave her right eye too much in shade and casts enough shade to make her look like she has huge bags under her right eye.
Silver Reflector below and in front
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/2000 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
Straight away I could see that there was an increase in the amount of light falling on the subjects face. Again I can see that the top of her head is in greater shadow than her chin and it cast a lot of shadow on her cheekbones. I think moving the reflector up and away a bit further would work better as it is an improvement on the first two, to begin with it is no longer overexposed but it does not quite give the correct amount of overall contrast and shadow.
Gold Reflector below and in front
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/3000 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
Again I could see that there was in an increase in the amount of light. I was surprised by how much the subjects colour was changed by a gold reflector, it was a surprise to see how much light was reflected back and how the subjects face was changed in colour, shade and contrast by such a bright reflectors. I thought that the silver reflector would have been brighter but it was not as bright as the gold. I was very surprised to see that although there was more light, the level of contrast was a lot lower than with the silver reflector; the lighting effect was good but I think it left too strong a gold cast and left her neck a little over exposed.
Gold Reflector off to the right
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
Holding the reflector off to one side at a distance over about one and half metres, I moved it around until I left that there was a good amount of light reflected back onto the subjects face. At the time of taking the photograph I did not think that it was too overexposed, but I was very surprised to see that the gold reflector bounced much more light back than I expected and that this time the right hand side of her face was overexposed. I did think that it gave good colour to her hair but the gold cast on her face looked very artificial. I was not expecting to see that her eyes were in shadow and it caused her to again have bags under her eyes due to the shadows and the low levels of contrast.
Silver Reflector off to the right
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/750 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
I feel that is a better image as the subjects face is not too overexposed and the levels of contrast and shadow over her face are better balanced and she her cheekbones do not look too dark and her eyes are not cast into shadow. The left hand side of her face around her temple is over exposed, but if I had used a thick scrim over the window this may have reduced the amount of light and brought the exposure down a bit.
White reflector off to the right
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/2000 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
I am much happier with this image. Directly I can see that both sides of the subjects face are balanced out and that neither side is overexposed. Her cheekbones and eye sockets are a little cast in shadow, but I think that if I was to have her move her head amount a bit I could find a good position in which there was a good shadow contrast and no over exposure.
Black reflector off to the right.
Nikon D80, focal length 50.0mm (35mm equivalent 75mm), aperture f1.8, speed 1/4000 second, ISO 160, Manual white balance, Spot metering, hand held camera, 50mm lens, No flash.
I was very surprised by the amount of light that the black reflector bounced back; it did however create a vast amount of shadow and the largest amount of contrast out off all the reflectors. There is a little amount of overexposure on the end of her nose, but the overall image looks under exposed and very dark. I expected that the black reflector would soak up a certain amount of light and create a defined shadow, but I am surprised to see that it under exposed the image by so much.
I did find it difficult at time to balance the reflector in the right place after checking the shutter speeds and aperture; I also found it difficult to set up the reflectors without blinding the subject.
In the end I was very happy with the results as it showed that by experimenting with light and changing the light has a direct effect on the final image. Overall out of all the images and the different light effects I like the white reflector the best as it gave a good amount of balanced light and there was too high a contrast ratio and I feel not only does it give a good representation, but the quality of light helps the overall image.
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