HOMEWORK - NIGHT SHOOT
1 Shoot a portrait in very low light.
2 Time of day on a clear day 630-830PM shoot a full two to three hours. Begin just before sunset and
work until after sunset. Tip - if you are using flash slow your shutter speed as it gets darker outside.
If it is a stormy, rainy or dark day, start shooting earlier as it will get darker earlier.
3 Choose your location carefully. Look at content and composition, color, texture, ambient light. 'composition is the bones of your image' -Greg Heisler
Shoot a frame you like. Your exposure should be mid grey to dark in tone.
4 Place your subject in a strong place in your frame compositionally.
5 Shoot a frame with no light on your subject. Subject should look too dark.
6 Add your light on the subject. Shoot another Frame.
7 Adjust your exposure - experiment first with shutter speed, then fstop, then iso, in that order.
8 Tip - your main set up time is before sunset. Your main shooting time is just after sunset.
Around sunset your exposure will change dramatically.
9 Tip: bring and use a light meter on ambient and constantly track your ambient light
and adjust your shutter speed. Technique with a minolta or sekonic flash meter, set your meter mode to ambient (sun icon) and hold your finger down on the 'reading' button
as you shoot, at a certain time notice the exposure will change before your eyes
minute by minute. Note this time of day as '# of minutes before sunset or after sunset
when my light changed the most dramatically' in your lighting journals. This is valuable to know
when you plan your next night shoot.
10 Tip: use a tripod and cable release
11 Tip: Bring a flashlight to see your camera settings. Bring a lupe to study your preview screen on the camera back.
12 Tip: Bracket +/- 1/2, 1, 1, 1/2 stops on both shutter speed and fstop.
Also consider bracketing ISO. Remember high ISO is faster and more sensitive
but will produce more noise. Shoot as low as possible with your ISO while getting the exposure
you need for a good histogram. Reminder: expose to the right of your histogram.
Last Tip - Because the light will be changing rapidly at sunset - FEEL the light.
Feel it’s direction, Feel its color, Feel its quality, let your feeling control the light.
For example -
Make it lighter or darker to suit. Move your subject, camera, and light to control direction
to create strong shape or shadow. Think of ways to alter lighting ratios or contrast.
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Homework -Final presentation - deliver one frame with subject but only the background light showing well. deliver a second shot with the subject well lit. Try to show me your best tests and up to 8-10
alternate shots.
Here are shots done in a previous class below. These were done during the daytime
but illustrate the basic concept: Shoot a good dark exposure of your scene, where your subject is in a strong position compositionally but dark, then use your supplementary light to light your subject -
Sample set up test shot. We like the blue sky and background. Subject is positioned
so that most ambient light does not light up our portrait subject. Composition has not been adjusted yet.
Final shot: Our subject is boldly bleeding off the left and bottom edges. Her scarved head meets the top frame edge. Dancing figure is stategically placed on lower right of background. Architectural elements critically meet the top left and right corners.
With the composition or 'bones' of the image in place we may now 'paint' with light.
Essentially we maintain our exposure to keep background consistent and focus our light
only on our subject with a strobe head to the right of camera position.
Your homework is similar in many ways. Please reference this blog post by the
Bui Brothers to see inspiring shots done at night using a similar one light balanced with
background/ambient light. Their approach and advice is the same - determine your
background then light your subject to complete the image.
In-Class White Seamless Set-Up. Students had a blast staging a 'fashion shoot.' Dressing up, directing, and shooting together. Team work was key throughout the semester. One Speedotron pack with two heads crossed on the background. Two 4x8 white foamcore sheets kept the background light from spilling onto our subjects. In front two large softboxes formed one continuous bank of light and lit our subject from camera left. Each softbox contained one dynalite head which was plugged into one more pack. The light in the background we metered to be one stop brighter than the front for a clean white silo. We filled the right side with another large white card. By shooting low we were able to produce a 'mirror' effect on the floor. The background light on the white seamless reflected onto the tile board we put on the floor. 4x8' tile board is available at Home Depot for $12 per sheet. One of our students volunteered to go with me and purchase a couple sheets to demo in class. She then took it home to use in her new home studio she is building to photograph her family, an ongoing documentary project. Above is student work shot on set during class.
Shoot a white silo super clean with maximum amount of detail and edge detail. Work on these in lightroom and or photoshop to make them as beautiful as possible. Your goal is to thrill yourself - you will then thrill your client or audience. Shoot in RAW. Deliver 6 different subjects in jpeg 144ppi, 10inches long srgb. The 6 shots can work as a set or you they may be independent of each other. Deliver your favorite best image also at 240ppi, colormatch rgb, 10 inches longest side as a tif. Bring in splash items and materials to review also. Above is student work -
Our first esteemed guest artist and good friend was John D'Agostino. On a formal level John begins his work by photographing the premiere translucent subject - Tiffany Glass. To give you an idea how motivated John is, John was formerly a still photographer on movie sets for years who in 2007 made a conscious decision to dramatically shift the focus of his career leaving film movie stills for the fine art studio. In John’s short three year career as a fine artist, he has had a one man show at the Griffin Museum and is in the collections of Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego, and Museum of Fine Arts Houston. John photographs Tiffany glass collected by his grandfather Vito D'Agostino. John further honors and follows his family legacy by rendering his photographs with the formal traditions of collage and abstraction practiced by his father John D’Agostino, also a gifted artist. John uses the best Profoto strobe equipment, works with the largest layered files possible in photoshop and outputs inkjet on the best canvas available under the most stringent quality control and manual color management possible. On a business level John is equally powerful. Upon being given his show at the Griffin he self published a catalog to accompany the show which includes three critical essays. When he is not constantly churning out new work John travels nationally meeting curators, gallery directors and critics to circulate his concepts of the sublime and transendental in photography. For more information please visit - John's website
Lighting is very dim. Light from a household lamp is roughly 2,800°K on the Kelvin scale. 
The Assignment - Shoot properly exposed, high quality files demonstrating correct white balance. Subjects should illustrate, 45 degree side light, 90 degree side light, top light, back light. Bracket each image +/- 1/3,2/3, 1stop each way. Make beautiful images of subject matter of your choice. Shoot your subject of passion, point your camera at a subject which resonates within. Bring your homework files in on memory stick or hard drive for review. Above is student work demonstrating top light and back light.
