INTRODUCTION:

Before you go on and read this “manual” it is important to keep in mind that the way I teach photography and present it in this “manual” is radically different than other “manuals”. Most “manuals” start backwards. They start with an amazing image and then teach you how to take that image. This might make perfect sense for most people but there is a problem with this approach: it teaches you how to create images like someone else instead of empowering you to develop your own style and your own voice. This manual enters the problem in a radically different way. My assumption is there is no correct way to photograph an image; it is a subjective analysis (I do every now and then give my input as to what I personally believe is wrong with an image or a technique but I always provide images and thus allow you to make up your own mind.) Another problem with most photography manuals is they never show you the zits or the horrible images; trust me there are a more than a few horrible images in this book. The best way to think about this “manual” is as scientific experiment. First, I collected and organized all of the information one needs as a photographer and wrote it down. Second, I went out took pictures using these techniques. Sometimes the pictures confirm what I wrote; sometimes they contradict it or render it irrelevant. So what is the best way to use this book. I think this book is best used as a photographic reference for what various techniques do. The interesting thing about this book is that it can be both used in a positive and in a negative way. On the positive aspect look through the images, if you see something you like follow the steps. In a negative way you might hate all of these images, well now you know what not to do. In summation this manual is a starting point. I believe photography is an art form and being an art there is something magical about it. I wrote this book in order to confirm this. I did not know if I would be right but I think I am. So what this book does is provide the scientific knowledge you need to know and makes you secure and able to branch out and create your own style. So go out and shoot. Follow what I have to say or ignore it!

OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY

We will first start with outdoor (natural light) photography and make all of our lighting adjustments in camera. Next, we will discuss the use of flash in an outdoor setting. PART I: IN CAMERA LIGHTING A. ISO, SHUTTER SPEED, APERTURE INTRO: There are three, key ways to adjust your lighting outdoors: ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture. This section is an overview of all three settings and their relationship to one another.

ISO SHUTTER SPEED APERTURE Definition Your cameras sensitivity

towards light (the equivalent of film speed)

The control of light based on speed. Thus, shutter speed, has a secondary function of freezing action or how your camera reacts to movement.

The control of light based on the depth of light. Thus, aperture has a secondary purpose in controlling depth of field. Depth of field is how much of your image you want in focus. A shallow depth of field, i.e. low aperture #, will only have the object you are focusing in sharp and in focus. A large depth of field, i.e. a high aperture #, Will have the entire image in focus.

Units 100, 200, 400, 800 (these are the basic speeds you will use, your camera probably has higher speeds)

• 1/1000 s • 1/500 s • 1/250 s • 1/125 s • 1/60 s • 1/30 s • 1/15 s • 1/8 s • 1/4 s • 1/2 s • 1 s

(these are the shutter speed equivalent to full f-stops and there may be interval shutter speeds depending on your camera)

• 1.0 • 1.4 • 2 • 2.8 • 4 • 5.6 • 8 • 11 • 16 • 22 • 32

(these are full stops, remember your camera will be set in either 1/2 or 1/3 stops)

Relation to f-stops

Every move in ISO is the equivalent of 1 f-stop (view aperture table for review of f-stops). E.g. from ISO 100 to 200 is 1 f-stop)

This table shows the relationship between shutter speed and aperture. What this table shows is shutter speed equivalents for various f-stops and vice a versa. For example: an aperture of 8.0 with a shutter speed of 60 is the equivalent of an aperture of 11 with a shutter speed of 30. (Simply stated if you move up one f-stop in aperture from 5.6 to 8.0 you move accordingly down in shutter speed from 60 to 30) How to use this table. Step 1: calculate the proper exposure (more on this later) Step 2: pick what new setting you want. For example if you want the background to be more out of focus ( a lower f-stop) say 2.8 instead of 4 Step 3: adjust shutter speed (or aperture accordingly) Back to our example: lets say the proper shutter speed for our image at an aperture of 4.0 was 125, since we are moving down one f-stop the new shutter speed will be 250.

Units relation

The higher the ISO speed the more light. Thus an

The longer the shutter speed interval the more light, e.g. more light at

The larger the number the less light there

to light image using an ISO speed of 100 will be darker than an image with an ISO speed of 200 and visa versa.

setting of 1s than 1/30 s. Since we are controlling ambient light the difference between shutter speed settings (in terms of light) will not be very noticeable.

will be; 1.0 will have more light than 8.

Drawbacks Warnings & Notes

The drawback is that the higher the ISO the more noise there will be in an image. This is most noticeable in the shadows of the image. Also note that different cameras handle noise better than others; most modern high end cameras will not have any discernable noise up to and beyond ISO 800

If your shutter speed is too slow your image will be out of focus. A good rule to keep in mind is that your shutter speed should be larger than your lens length. Thus if you are shooting with a lens of 60mm you want a shutter speed larger than 60.

The lower the aperture the more problems the camera might have in terms of autofocus.

The Following sections will provide visual examples of the points illustrated above.

1. ISO Two key points: 1) Image goes from darkest to brightest. 2) Increase in Noise

2. SHUTTER SPEED Two key points: 1. Light (notice images go from bright to dark) 2. Sharpness of images (notice the faster the shutter speed the less blur there is) Object in motion (blur) (in order to better illustrate this point we are going to isolate this effect, by maintaining the same exposure through out our various shutter speeds; I am doing this using the relationship previously explained in the aperture table above.)

3. APERTURE Two key points: 1) notice images go from bright to dark 2) notice the sharpness of the images

To better illustrate the effect Aperture has on sharpness I will isolate this effect; in order to do this I once again refer to the aperture table.

B. EXPOSURE This is where the art of photography comes into play. Some believe that there is a proper exposure, and while I somewhat agree with this, there is also artistic creativity, the purposeful under-exposure or over-exposure of an image. My best advice is to learn how to properly expose an image or what you like best and then move forward from there.

Part 1: isn’t this automatic? With these wonderful digital cameras we have, can they not figure this out on their own? My camera does, after all, have an automatic mode. While your camera does have an automatic mode here is what you will get if you shoot in automatic mode: If you are happy with this please move on to the next section. (For those of you who like gadgets and precision you can buy a light meter that will give you an exact reading and tell you what your settings should be.) Part 2: partial automation While putting your camera in full automatic mode does not give us your desired image does putting your camera in semi automatic mode work? Your camera has two semi-automatic modes: shutters speed priority and aperture priority. In shutter speed priority you choose the shutter speed and the camera picks the correct aperture. In aperture priority mode you pick the aperture and the camera picks the shutter speed. Here is what happens if you shoot in these two modes:

Part 3: fully manual So now, it is time to take full control. There are several ways to approach this and we will deal with them concurrently. The first thing we need to decide is what part of our image do we wish to properly expose. We have three options:

1) the foreground 2) the background 3) try and balance the two

When we shoot in an automatic mode the camera does step three. Thus, by shooting in manual we can decide what part of the image we would like to emphasis the most by either under-exposing it or over-exposing it. The following two images are examples of this technique: Foreground properly exposed Background properly exposed. Once we have chosen the part of the image we would like to expose we move on to how to properly expose that part: Step 1: First we need to assess the image to see how dark or light the image is. We do this by setting a fixed aperture, shutter speed, and iso. In order to do this we need to ask the following questions:

1) What is the depth of field I want? Do I want to blur my background or do I want everything to be sharp?

2) Is my object moving or will it be stationary. 3) How bright is it outside.

Depending on your answer you will set your camera accordingly and with the previous rules we have discussed. Step 2: This image is too dark / too bright. We now have one of 3 options:

i. change the ISO ii. change the Aperture

iii. change the Shutter Speed

The following images are an example of each: There is no right or wrong answer here and it is primarily based on your preference and the look you are trying to achieve; also keep in mind the questions you asked yourself in step 1. Step 3: Repeat step 2. Continue to make changes until you get the image you have in your mind/ your desired look. You can either continue to change the same setting or use a combination. For example if you do not want to change your aperture and in step 2 you went from an iso of 200 to 400 and are worried about noise you need to change your shutter speed. Step 4: I’ve changed everything I can and it is still too dark !! Time to use a Flash.

PART II: FLASH As noted above if you change the ISO, Aperture, or Shutter speed too much you will get blurry, noisy, or just bad images. So what do you do if you need more light? You use your flash, of course. There are various techniques to using a flash and I will now go over them: I. Automatic Your flash does have an automatic setting called TTL in which it will figure out the proper exposure. Since you have your settings already in place, this might be a viable option (especially if you are new to photography). This means is by no way perfect and most of the time does not give you the desired results so it is best to set your light manually. Example: II. Manual When setting your flash manually there are two main settings: 1) Zoom This is how narrow or wide the beam of light is. (General rule of thumb is to make it match what your lens length is) Feel free to experiment with different zooms however. Examples of diff zoom lengths:

2) Exposure typical exposure scale: 1/64, 1/32, 1/16/ 1/8, ¼, ½, and full (1)

• note I have listed full f-stops and your flash might set up for ½ or 1/3 f-stops, e.g. 1/32 has + 3 then + 7 before it reaches 1/16.

• As is evident 1/64 is the weakest while full is the brightest. Now it is mostly trial and error.

1) Set your flash to its lowest setting and shoot. 2) Judge the image, if it is still too dark move up one step or if it is really dark move

up two steps. (also the angle of your flash will make a different, try to stay away from pointing it directly at your subject) (also keep in mind that your flash has a limited distance)

Examples:

STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY

PART I: BASIC LIGHT SETUP- 45 degrees / one light setup Before we move on to ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture, in a studio setting, we need to go over the basic light setup I will be using to demonstrate these techniques. (If you are working with a one light setup this is the ideal setup to use as well)

I. X, Y, Z axis y

x z We want to achieve two things: 1) position the light at a 45 degree angle to the model. (for both our x and y axis) in order to create flattering light and a simple setup 2) create a simple setup in which the camera is directly in front of the model . In order to achieve this we need to construct a right triangle: Light Model Camera

My light setup:

Yes it is somewhat ghetto, but it does prove a point: you do not need a pro studio to be a photograph; just a background and a light. From the model to the tripod is your z-axis. From the tripod to the light is our x-axis. And the height of the light is our y-axis. A. The X axis The X axis is distance between the Camera and the Light on a horizontal plane. Since we have a right triangle the distance between our Model and Camera and the distance between our Camera and Light are the same.

B. The Y axis The Y axis is the height of your light.

Since we have a right triangle and your light is parallel to your camera the height of your light is equal to the distance between the camera and the model

C. The Z axis The Z axis is the distance between your light and the model. Since our light is parallel to the camera it equals the distance between the model and the camera.

*Note: please make sure the light is out of the frame.

1. Right or Left Another question you might be asking is does it make a difference if the light is on the right or left side of the camera.

The answer depends on what side you want in the shadows and what side you want in the light. This can be achieved in two ways: Have your model turn their face towards the camera (broad lighting) and have the greater portion in the light. Or have your model turn their face away from the camera (short lighting) and have the greater portion in the shadows. (short lighting will make your models face look thinner) If you wish to have your model look straight ahead at the camera then you can achieve the same affect by moving your camera to the

*Note: Keep in mind your ceiling height. Also keep in mind that this is not set in stone because a lot of places have low ceilings; we will work around this later.

right or left of your model.

Here are two examples:

1) Light on the right side:

light on the left side:

As you can see there is a noticeable difference Between the two images.

Why the difference? Honestly I do not know. The camera settings are the same for both images And both lights are equidistant apart from the model. Maybe my angles are not exact and other minor discrepancies Like that. This is just the magic of light and the reason this book Has pictures.

PART II: ISO, SHUTTER SPEED, APERTURE INTRO: This section will mostly review what you have learned in the outdoor photography section but with key exceptions in terms of Shutter Speed. ISO SHUTTER SPEED APERTURE Definition Your cameras sensitivity

towards light (the equivalent of film speed)

The control of ambient light (in a studio setting Shutter Speed on camera no longer is a key factor in light and will be replaced by the “shutter speed” on your studio strobes / lights)

The main (on camera) control of light. (depth of field is not significant in a typical studio environment because you are normally shooting with a white background and thus do not need to put your background out of focus; as such try to shoot with as high an aperture as you can)

Units 100, 200, 400, 800 (these are the basic speeds you will use, your camera probably has higher speeds)

• 1/1000 s • 1/500 s • 1/250 s • 1/125 s • 1/60 s • 1/30 s • 1/15 s • 1/8 s • 1/4 s • 1/2 s • 1 s

(these are the shutter speed equivalent to full f-stops and there may be interval shutter speeds depending on your camera)

• 1.0 • 1.4 • 2 • 2.8 • 4 • 5.6 • 8 • 11 • 16 • 22 • 32

(these are full stops, remember your camera will be set in either 1/2 or 1/3 stops)

Relation to f-stops

Every move in ISO is the equivalent of 1 f-stop (view aperture table for

Since Shutter only controls ambient lighting it no longer

Your main relationship is no longer to shutter

review of f-stops). E.g. from ISO 100 to 200 is 1 f-stop

has the same strict relationship it once did to F-stops.

speed but to your studio lights. Your studio lights will either have a digital readout or measured in f-stops (this will be explained in more depth later on)

Units relation to light

The higher the ISO speed the more light. Thus an image using an ISO speed of 100 will be darker than an image with an ISO speed of 200 and visa versa.

The longer the shutter speed interval the more light, e.g. more light at setting of 1s than 1/30 s. Since we are controlling ambient light the difference between shutter speed settings (in terms of light) will not be very noticeable.

The larger the number the less light there will be; 1.0 will have more light than 8.

Drawbacks Warnings & Notes

The drawback is that the higher the ISO the more noise there will be in an image. This is most noticeable in the shadows of the image. Also note that different cameras handle noise better than others; most modern high end cameras will not have any discernable noise up to and beyond ISO 800

The traditional rule is to find your lights sync speed and set your shutter speed at that. If your shutter speed is to fast (typically faster then 1/125 sec ) you will get banding; black bands around your image. If your shutter speed is too slow your image will be out of focus. Also remember the relationship between your shutter speed and your lens length.

The lower the aperture the more problems the camera might have in terms of autofocus.

(your shutter speed should be faster than your lens length)

The Following sections will provide visual examples of the points illustrated above (all images where shot with the light on the right side of the photographer facing the model, left side of the model facing the photographer.)

4. ISO (variable ISO, aperture 8.0, shutter speed 125) 100 200 400 800 1600

Two points: 1) As you can clearly see there is a clear difference between the various ISOs. (also make a mental note that somewhere between ISO 200 and ISO 400 is a good image. What this tells us is if we expose by ½ or 1/3 of an f-stop we will have the image we want)

2) Noise There is no noise in the images. This is because the ISO 800 and 1600 are over-exposed and thus do not have shadows. If there were shadows or if the images were under-exposed there would be noise. This also teaches us that if we want an over-exposed image then we can use a higher ISO and not worry about noise. Finally, these are also rather small images. Noise becomes a lot more evident if we enlarge our images or zoom in.

5. SHUTTER SPEED (ISO 200, Aperture 8.0, variable shutter speed) 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 1/500

Notice the banding on

the right side of the image. This is because our shutter speed is too high

Sever banding problems.

Key points: 1) Notice that the overall brightness/ darkness of the image does not change too much; contrast this with the effect

Shutter Speed had in outdoor photography.

2) when we exceed our sink speed we get banding on the image

6. APERTURE Two key points: (ISO 200, Shutter 125, Variable Aperture)

5.6 8 11 16 22

As expected the images go from bright to dark.

Back to aperture. To better illustrate the effect Aperture has on sharpness I will isolate this effect; in order to do this I need to briefly introduce how your strobes work:

GHOST IN THE SHELL

Before we move on with aperture I wanted to bring something interesting to your attention. At this point we have three images that have been shot at with the following settings: ISO 200, Shutter speed of 125, and an Aperture of 8.0. Logic would tell us these three images should be identical, but they are not! Here are the three images (with exif data to prove the settings): ISO Shutter Speed

EXIF Summary: 1/125s f/8.0 ISO200

1/125s f/8.0 ISO200 1/125s f/8.0 ISO200

Background is slightly darker Lighter background The background is even lighter on this Image. The model is also slightly Lighter.

3 images, 3 exact same settings, 3 different images. This just goes to show that even digital photography is not an exact science; there are still weird quirks about it and that is what makes it an art form.

D.

STROBES

Strobes provide variable lighting (as opposed to hot lights which provide continuous lighting, although many strobes can also be used for continuous lighting as well.) for photography. Your strobes will have one of two interfaces: f-stops or digital readouts. F-stops : a typical setup: 1/32, 1/16/ 1/8, ½, full power 1/32 being the weakest and full power being the brightest (normally uses a slider to control the output) Digital Readout- instead of having f-stops the readout will feature normal numbers and you can adjust it digitally. In order to find the f-stop equivalent you need to consult either your manual or your manufacturer. We will expand on the use of strobes in a later section.

WHITE BALANCE

Since we just did a basic over-view of strobes I think it is best to review white balance. Since we are shooting with studio lighting it is important to find out what the white balance is for your lights. In order to do this you must consult either your instruction manual or your manufacturer. If your camera does not let you assign a white balance and uses pre-sets find the pre-set that is closest in temperature for your lights (this will typically be the flash preset) Here are examples of the various white balances: AUTO:

TUNGSTEN:

(notice how dramatic an effect your white balance can have on an image) DAYLIGHT FLUORESCENT

notice a more rosy hue.

FINE WEATHER:

image is more subdued / duller. FLASH:

our default setting CLOUDY WEATHER:

slightly brighter image SHADE:

Once again a rosier hue.

1. Aperture and sharpness In order to isolate the effect of Aperture on sharpness we will use the same exposure for every shot. For example- I want to maintain the same exposure for an f-stop of 2.8 and 4. What I need to do is first maintain the same shutter speed and iso. Second, when I go from 2.8 to 4 I am moving one full f-stop and I will thus adjust my lights one full f-stop (this is the same technique used with shutter speed and aperture in outdoor photography) In the following examples I compensated my change in aperture with a change in ISO. Having done this we can now see the difference in sharpness between the various f-stops more clearly:

5.6 8 11 16 22 100 200 400 800 1600

Hard to tell any difference at the current size so I will place the first and last images side by side:

Not a world of difference really but the image on the left is somewhat sharper than the one on the right. Since we are shooting in a studio and we have no real need to blur a background it is usually best to use as large as an aperture as you can.

PART III: PROPER EXPOSURE

Now that we have all of our pieces we are ready to shoot. Before we shoot I need to go over the methodology I will be using for this section. In order to stay true to the nature of this book, that of letting you explore and find what works best for your style, I am staying away from absolutes and the general scientific approach generally used to teach this section. I will walk you through various approaches and let you choose what works best for you. The final word, and what makes this section the most difficult, is that there is no objective answer. There are general agreed upon thoughts as to what a proper image should look like but you as an artist have the final say as to what works best for you. Remember though, if you ignore these general rules do it with a purpose and be able to convince others on your stylistic choices. Part A: isn’t this automatic? With these wonderful digital camera we have, can they not figure this out on their own? My camera does, after all, have an automatic mode. While your camera does have an automatic mode here is what you will get if you shoot in auto.

Lets just say this isn’t the best image we have produced today. Here is the exif data (or what the camera calculated) 1/60s f/4.5 ISO200 The shutter speed is different than our ideal shutter speed (we set ours at 125) Aperture is also lower than our ideal aperture (8.0) At least the ISO is right. We can also see that the background is too dark, as is the image in general. Finally, you notice there is a new shadow formed behind and around the model? This is because when you shoot in auto, the camera has the annoying tendency of wanting to use the pop up flash. So the image you see is the effect of a pop up flash, not the most flatering. If you are happy with this please move on to the next section. (For those of you who like gadgets and precision you can buy a light meter that will give you an exact reading and tell you what your settings should be.) Part B: partial automation While putting your camera in full automatic mode does not give us your desired image does putting your camera in semi automatic mode work? Your camera has two semi-automatic modes: shutters speed priority and aperture priority. In shutter speed priority you choose the shutter speed and the camera picks the correct aperture. In aperture priority mode you pick the aperture and the camera picks the shutter speed. (Your camera has a separating setting where it picks the aperture as well, I did not use that for these images) Here is what happens if you shoot in these two modes:

Aperture Priority

What the heck happened here? If we look at our EXIF data: 14s f/8.0 ISO100 Notice how slow that shutter speed is, 14s. The image is a result of that. The reason the camera picked such a slow shutter speed is because it thinks there is no light. The main problem with using your camera in any automatic mode in a studio is that your camera cannot communicate with your light properly and thinks there is not enough light. There are two exceptions: 1) If you use your hot shoe flash as your lights and in TTL mode then your camera

can communicate with the lights.

2) If you use hot lights then your camera will be able to actually see the light and should have an easier time calculating the proper exposure time.

2. Shutter Speed Priority

EXIF Data for the image: 1/125s f/4.5 ISO100 44mm Not too bad. From previous examples our ideal set up was an aperture of 8.0 (but that was at an ISO of 200 and thus an ISO 100 equivalent would be 5.6) so overall this is near the range we would like.

In conclusion if you are shooting in a studio and want your camera to think for you your best bet is shutter priority and setting your ISO manually (feel free to try auto ISO to see what results you get). Also if you are shooting this way you will need to make all adjustments by changing your lights.

Part C: fully manual So now, it is time to take full control. There are several ways to approach this and we will deal with them concurrently. Step 1: First we need to assess the image to see how dark or light the image is. We do this by setting a fixed aperture, shutter speed, and iso. The typical settings we will use are an aperture of 8.0, a shutter speed of 125, and an iso of 100.

Step 2: This image is too dark. We now have one of 3 options:

i. change the ISO ii. change the Aperture

iii. change the settings on your strobes

The following images are an example of each:

i. Change ISO from 100 to 200:

One can clearly see the desired effect of lighting up the image.

ii. Change aperture from 8.0 to 5.6:

A similar effect as before. (It seems to be somewhat lighter as well, the ghost in shell appearing one last time). iii) Change strobe settings (increase by 1 f-stop)

There is no right or wrong answer here and it is primarily based on your preference and the look you are trying to achieve. If you have a specific aperture you would like to work with and are worried about noise then change the settings on your strobes. If you are intimidated by your lights or prefer in camera control, change your iso or aperture. Step 3: Repeat step 2. Continue to make changes until you get the image you have in your mind/ your desired look. You can either continue to change the same setting or use a combination. For example if you do not want to change your aperture and in step 2 you went from an iso of 200 to 400 in step 3 you will need to change the settings on your strobes.

PART IV: LIGHT MODIFIERS Bare Bulb (no

modifier) Reflective umbrella Shoot through

umbrella Harshness of light

Harshest light (i.e. dark shadows)

Medium

Softest

Effect on F-stop None Little to none 1 to 1 ½ f-stops

(depends on size) The theoretical impacts that the modifier was supposed to have are

not very visible here. This is primarily because of the distance we used and the fact we kept the distance constant. The images do, however, demonstrate that a light modifier does diminish our light output.

A. Harshness of light How harsh your light is depends on three laws:

1. Large light sources give you soft light, and small light sources give you hard light.

2. The closer a light source is to the subject the softer the light, and the farther away the light source is, the harder the light.

3. The closer a light source is to an object, the brighter it is. Light diminishes rapidly, but not in a linear way (this is known as the inverse square law). an object (e.g. your model) that is twice the distance from your strobes will receive a quarter of the illumination. For example if you move your subject from 3 meters away to six meters away, you will need four times the amount of light for the same exposure.

PART V: SIMPLE TWO LIGHT SETUP All we are going to do here is to repeat the exact same thing we did for our one light setup. So we will put a light on the other side of the camera at the same distance as the previous light and at the same height (i.e. the distance between the model and the camera) A. KEY LIGHT AND FILL LIGHT The previous light we will call our key light; this is our main light. If we look at this image again: We will notice there are some shadows. Thus, the role of our second light will be to soften (or even eliminate these shadows); this light we will call our fill light. A. RATIOS Depending on how harsh or soft you would like your shadows (or even if you want shadows ) you will set your ratios between the key and fill accordingly. First set of numbers is your key, second would be your fill. (Your fill is less than your key because you still want some shadows) 1. 1:1

Notice that the image is darker than the previous one light setup. Why? I have no idea. This further illustrates the point that photography is not the exact science a lot of people think it is. Theoretically one thing is supposed to happen, realistically something else happens. Try it yourself and I’m sure your results will vary as well.

1. 2:1

As expected the image does get brighter. You can also see that one side of the image is darker than the other. 2. 3:1

Image continues to get brighter. B. LIGHT MODIFIERS We will now see what effect light modifiers have on two lights. Keep in mind what we discussed previously about the harshness of light. For example if you want harsher shadows you could choose not to use a modifier; if you want to eliminate shadows all together then you would probably choose a shoot through umbrella. For these images we are maintaining a 2:1 ratio.

KEY LIGHT FILL LIGHT BARE REFLECTIVE SHOOT

THROUGH BARE

REFLECTIVE

SHOOT THROUGH

• As expected the bare bulb column has the brightest images and the shoot through

column has the darkest images. • Shoot through images have an even background lighting.

PART VI: ADVANCED LIGHT SETUP Finally we will see some examples of more advanced 2 light setups. These are just a few examples, the possibilities are nearly endless and I encourage you to experiment. The important part of this section is show that you can move your lights anywhere, even on top of each other.

A. Stationary key light / moving the fill light In these examples we will keep our key light where it is and move the fill light along the varies axes. Our fill light has a shoot through umbrella and our key light is bare. We also maintain our 2:1 ratio.

Camera settings: Shutter speed 125, Aperture F8, ISO 200

1) X-AXIS- we are going to move our fill light along two point of the X-axis. Slightly behind the camera and the same spot as the fill light.

a) Original setup- parallel to camera, six feet away

b) Shared w/ camera

not much of a change, if any. c) Shared w/ key This setup is a little complicated and I will use what is called paramount lighting. Our fill light will be slightly behind our key light and slightly higher (so technically this will also change our y-axis as well)

Noticeable change. Background is evenly light and brighter. Model is also more evenly light.

2) Z-AXIS There are two ways to move our fill light along the Z-axis. One is dependent of the x-axis (that is along a position on the x-axis, the position we will be using on the x-axis is our original position). The second way is independent of the x-axis (this is where the x-axis equals zero)

a. dependent on x-axis i) parallel to model

Similar to previous image with the exception of the shadow to the left. An interesting use of this is to feather the light, i.e. to use the edges of light to illuminate the model. The reason we do this is so no light falls on our background and thus creating a black background out of a white background. In order to achieve this I will need to deviate from our traditional set up in two ways. 1. I need to move the model is far away from the background as

possible. 2. I will move the key light parallel to the fill light and model and

mimic the feathering action. ii) behind camera

I am moving the light back equal to the distance between the model and the camera. In my case the light is 12 feet away from the model.

Interestingly there is not much of a different; this shows how little our fill light is doing.

b. independent of x-axis

i) behind model / backdrop

further emphasis the fact our fill light is not doing much. ii) behind camera This is similar to what we did for the x-axis but I will be moving it further back (equal to the distance between the model and the camera).

CONCLUSIONS:

The general conclusion we can draw from these exercises is that photography is not the automatic, scientific endeavor a lot of people think it is. You can use the same settings and yet get three different images. You can use the exact same settings and your image might change from one shot to the next. It is these maddening discrepancies that make photography an art form. The final point I would like to make is about image quality. I think we got some very good images out of these exercises. What I mean are properly exposed images with minimal to no shadows. So at a very basic level one has learned how to make suitable images. Have we made art? I, personally, do not think so. The reasons for this are many. First, and foremost, I did not set out to make art. This also goes to show that the art of photography has many more factors than just how you shoot. If you do want to make more “artistic” images what should you do? I think the best thing would be one or two of the following:

1) explore the nuances that were left out of this manual. See what ½ and 1/3 stops do in terms of lighting.

2) Break the rules. Our lighting set up was very geometric and rigid. I, as a photographer, never shoot like this. So move both of your lights along all three of your axes. Do not worry about your angles so much or how far a light is from a model. Try and crazy setups and see what you like best.

Invert your fill and key ratios, so that your fill light is 2:1 or 3:1. In short just feel free to play around. What I have strived to do with this manual is to empower you. To show you that it really does not make that big of a difference how you set up your lights so you never be afraid. So go out and shoot !!

IF YOU ARE INTERSTED IN CONTINUING YOUR EDUCATION AND WOULD LIKE TO SCHEDULE A 1:1 SESSION WITH ME PLEASE EMAIL ME

AT EMRANI@FAMEINACAN.COM

(I work with all budgets and skill levels.)