By Russ Burden
Example No.1Before and After:These two images were made with a digital point-and-shoot camera. I intentionally included these before and after pictures to prove one doesn’t need to spend thousands of dollars on sophisticated lighting equipment to net a pleasing image. This is a photo of a participant on my nature photo tour to Hunt’s Mesa and Capitol Reef National Park. When I saw how the fall foliage and the red vest blended, I knew there was a photo opportunity, but the light falling on the subject was awful. Out from my pocket came my little point-and-shoot. I knew I had to use fill flash to counteract the high-contrast light falling on the subject. I set the flash mode to “Forced On” as it otherwise would not fire due to the intensity of the ambient light. I made the image, but the result was still less than ideal. I showed the photo to the “nature-walk class,” and the realization was the flash on the point-and-shoot was not powerful enough to overcome the harsh sun. I then asked for two volunteers to stand to the subject’s right side to cast their shadows across her. This softened the light to the point the flash on my trusty point-and-shoot worked just fine, as evidenced by the result in the “After” photo. Moral: A combination of flash technology along with a bit of ingenuity and two volunteers worked together to provide a nice souvenir portrait, even with a point-and-shoot camera. |
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Example No.2
Overhead Sun and A Large Hat – Two Major Obstacles:When the sun hovers directly above, deep
shadows appear in the eyes, under the nose, and under the chin. To make matters
worse, the lit portions of the face tend to be washed out. Add to the mix a
hat that creates its own havoc-filled shadows, and the photographic nightmare
begins. Thankfully, the fix is as basic as the pop-up flash on a DSLR, providing
the photographer is close enough to the subject. As an instructor for the Panasonic
Digital Photo Academy, I went to New York City for an orientation. During this
orientation, one session included a photo shoot in Central Park with live models.
I positioned one of them by an iron fence, as the setting matched her outfit.
As you might imagine, the light was horrendous because the hat created a strong
shadow directly across her right eyebrow and left eye. I set the focal length
of the lens on my Panasonic L1 DSLR to 50mm and moved in close so the pop-up
flash would be strong enough to offset the harsh ambient light. I had to set
the aperture to f9 because of the strong ambient light, but in checking the
depth of field, this was not a problem in that the background was far enough
away to throw it out of focus. I set the compensation on the flash to +2/3 so
it would act more as a main light rather than a fill, which was necessary to
overcome the shadow cast by the hat. Look closely at the image to see how the
shadow line of the hat crosses just above the eyes but even the light is a result
of using the flash and moving in close to overpower what would have otherwise
been a poorly lit photograph.
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Example No.3
White Reflector:In the portrait of the
girl in the red blouse, I used a reflector to bounce light back onto her face.
The weather conditions included cumulous clouds in the sky. I took the photo
when the sun just started to be obscured by one of the clouds. This provided
directional, yet soft, light. The reflector kicked back just enough light onto
the subject’s face to make it the brightest part of the image. Without the reflected
light, she wouldn’t stand out as prominently, and soft shadows would have appeared
in her deep eye sockets and under her nose.
To learn more about this topic, join me on one of my photographic
nature tours. Visit www.russburdenphotography.com,
and click on the “Nature Photo Tours” button for more information. Also, pick
up a copy of my book, “Amphoto’s Complete Book of Photography.” A signed copy
can be purchased directly from me, or visit your local bookstore or Amazon.com.
Contact me at rburden@ecentral.com to order a signed
copy.
Prepared by TakeGreatPictures.com.
For more tips, visit www.takegreatpictures.com
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