'http://blog.perzennstrom.com Fashion Photography Fashion Lighting - the Basics. I’m going to stick my neck out a bit here - Drumroll... Lighting is overrated! This might sound like blasphemy - especially since this article is is supposed to be a basic introduction to fashion photography studio lighting - but bear with me just for a moment. In photography circles we’re inundated with statements and ideas such as “a Photographer is a Painter using only light” or blatantly cheap flattery such as “Your light is beautiful” (If You really want to get on a photographers good side - just tell him/her that his/her light is beautiful. I actually don’t buy any of this and I say it again - I believe lighting is overrated (especially if You come at it from a fashion photography perspective) and in this article I will tell You why. If You’re a fashion photographer I believe speed and flexibility are much more important than lighting. What really matter is not the lighting but what is in front of the camera. Well - after this preamble let me jump straight into the basics of studio lighting because even after having said all that I believe You need to know the basics of lighting. Learn it and then un-learn it. Make lighting become part of Your photographic reflexes. There are only 3 things You need to understand to really get lighting. If You master this you can reverse engineer any images to understand how they were lit. Any changes to these three things will change the character of Your lighting - so pay attention please... Relative Size of Lightsource Ambient light Color of light And even if You do become a master of lighting there is something very important that I’d like to underline - If it looks good - just shoot ! That sounds pretty simple but You wouldn’t imagine how many photographers that drag on the session, endlessly making miniscule adjustments to the lighting that doesn’t actually make a difference and in the process losing what’s in front of the camera - the model. So again… If it looks good - just shoot it ! Relative Size of Lightsource The relative size of the lightsource is the most important aspect of the character of the light - by character I mean the fact that we say “That’s a really hard light” or “That is very soft and flattering light” “The relative size of the light source determines how the edge of the shadow will look.” It is the relative size of the lightsource that will determine this. Look at the edge of the shadow - if the edge is sharp and hard we have what we call a hard light if the edge of the shadow is soft - we have a soft light. It is the relative size of the lightsource that gives us a either hard or soft light. A big lightsource gives a soft light. A small relative light source gives a hard/sharp light. Character of Light - Hard Light A good example to use is the sun on a cloudless day. The size of the sun is enormous but because of the distance the sun appears very small in the sky - ergo a hard light! Character of Light - Soft Light Now think of the same scenario - but this time on an overcast day with clouds filling the entire sky. In this case the relative size of the lightsource is very, very big - the whole overcast sky (which takes up 50% of Your total field of vision). The light on a day like this is very, very soft and the edges of the shadows are super soft - in fact there are no real shadows actually. (An even softer light would be inside a white room with all white walls, ceilings and floor…) Ambient Light Ambient light is any light that You don’t actually control - you can also think of it as “junk light” - the unintended light which is left over or just bouncing around in the studio. Examples of ambient light are reflections off studio walls or floor or ceiling, or stray light creeping out from umbrellas or soft boxes. Ambient light is very important- it fills in the shadows and decreases the contrast of the image - it makes the shadows brighter. Learn to control the ambient light. In a studio situation this is typically done by using black&white polystyrene flats “killing” off reflections from walls and ceilings - usually with the intention to darken and deepen the shadows. “The ambient light determines the “fill” in the shadows… If the ambient light is strong enough = no shadows” Color of light This is easy - no need to really talk about it actually... https://www.facebook.com/PerZennstromPhotography https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/105299232407152293991/105299232407152293991/posts https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PerZennstrom/posts https://twitter.com/perzennstrom http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00MRYX3J2'
Tags: Fashion (Industry) , fashion photography , creative photography , Photograph (Media Genre) , Photography (Visual Art Form) , fashion photographer , Photographer (Profession) , Photographic Lighting , Creative photographer , Modern Photographer , Modern Photography , Berlin photographer , Berlin Fotograf , Berlin Modefotografie
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