Class Work - Rim Light Outdoors

 





















In-Class Set-Up - Rim Light.  Define shape of your subject by lighting around it. Note the edge of your light as it comes around from either side of your subject. Observe where the light stops because it cannot wrap further around your subject. This set up was lit with two heads back left and two heads back right.  All with grids to focus the light on the sides of our subject. The strobe rim lights are metered to be about a stop brigher than the ambient light.

Homework - Split Light

Class Demo - Painting with Light

In-Class Demo: Painting with Light. I used a 4 D cell battery flashlight with a tungsten bulb to paint a 20 second exposure at f16.  One flashlight creates all the light on each student and the background.

Class Work - Fun on White Seamless !

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.

Homework - Build Your Own Ringflash

Many students chose to research online and build their own softboxes, snoots, and softboxes. Many do-it-yourself resources are available. Online a good place to start is the strobist.  Strobist has a great deal of practical information on how to use speedlights but many concepts and techniques translate to studio lighting and vice versa.

Class Work - Portrait Balancing Strobe with Ambient Light

In-Class Set-Up: Students are encouraged to first create a strong composition with content in critical framing arrangement with the four edges of the image. Once the composition or 'drawing' is in place, we paint with light.  In this case one speedotron strobe head with grid is fired camera left balancing the exposure of our subject who stands in the shade of brick wall with the strong daylight in the background.  Greg Heisler describes intentional composition as the bones of the photograph before you paint with your light. Above is student work executed during class.

Class Work - Hot Light With House Plant Gobo

In-Class Set-Up: Hotlight on camera left using glass vase and dried flowers as gobo to create shadows on blue seamless background.  Students took turns laying on seamless and photographing each other while directing each other how to pose and adjust light and gobo for various effects. Inspired by Michael Grecco's Lighting and the Dramatic Portrait.

Camera Throw !

 

To 'Lighten' the mood, students look up as we throw a camera up in the air. Pavlina holds her new homemade ring flash on upper center of frame.

Class Work - Splash !

Student directed splash shoot.  Students requested a splash shoot.  One student volunteered to bring in an aquarium. Everyone brought in objects of their choice to drop in and photograph. Shot with one small softbox camera left with a fill card on the right. Black cardboard gobos were used to control where the light traveled.

Class Demo - White Silhouette

Class Demo - Student handbag placed lying down on white translucent plexiglass. Softbox pointing up underneath plexiglass
lights background and turns it a clean white. Camera on camera stand pointing down.  Bag is lit with one handheld modeling lamp of 
dynalite head from side to emphasize surface detail of leather. Light meter reading of bottom light is approximately one stop brighter than top light.

Homework - Portrait on Location

Produce three portrait shots on location.  Use a light focused on your subject and balance this with the ambient light in the scene.  

Step One - Begin with the ambient light.  Create an exposure that you like while leaving
an opportunity to light the face separately.  Compose your shot to your liking.  Control and adjust the direction, quantity, quality, and color of the existing light to your liking.
Step Two - Calculate what type of light to use.  Light the face.  Control and adjust the
direction, quantity, quality, and color of the light to your liking.  Fine tune the light and your exposure to marry your supplemental facial lighting with the ambient lighting.
Ken’s Tips -
Put your subjects face in shadow. Try using the ambient light as a back light. Open shade is easier to control than shooting in direct open sunlight. Use your shutter speed to control your ambient light. Adjust the power of your flash to balance your subject’s face light. Move your light closer to increase face brightness. Experiment with snoots, grids and gobos to place the light where you want it and to sculpt the face with light.Mark your camera position on the ground.  Mark your subjects position on the ground. Mark your light position on the ground.  Record this in your notebook. Record power settings of your light, height of light sources. Time of day, weather conditions. To alter quality of light direct your subject to turn to one side or the other.  After your face and background are lit, examine other details of your shot and fine tune. For instance is wardrobe to your liking?  Is it lit too bright or too dark?  Do you wish to move your light so it better illuminates important details like a shirt or hat or glove? Experiment with body language.   Have fun, play. Keep an open mind and be creative. Successful student image above.

Homework - White Silhouette

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 -

Guest Speaker: John D'Agostino

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

Homework - Translucency

The Assignment - Find or create a translucent subject and photograph it back lit with as much detail and texture and color as possible. Be bold and graphic.  Do this with 6 different subjects.  Suggestions - sliced fruit, fabrics, papers, liquids.  Student work above.

Homework - Replicate Light from Favorite Paintings

The Assignment - Photograph a solid object with three different set ups, use alternate lighting from last assignment. If you used studio lights last time then use unorthodox lighting such as flashlights, desk lamps etc.  Take three of your favorite five paintings which you wrote about this week and replicate the light in real life. You may interpret the subject but try to come as close to the light in each painting as possible.  Written part: In your notebook, take copious notes and detailed drawings incorporating camera position, light position, type of light, power, light modifiers used, distance of camera to subject, distance of lights to subject.  If walls, gobos, fill cards are used indicate those in your lighting diagrams.
Your goal is to be as clear as possible so that you may simply hand your diagram to another photographer or assistant and they will be able to set up and replicate by reading your diagram and notes. Label your work with the standard naming convention: ‘20100219_firstname_asl’ 

Homework - Four characteristics of Light in Painting

Lighting is very dim. Light from a household lamp is roughly 2,800°K on the Kelvin scale.

The power of this light seems to have weakened. All of the subjects are top lit. There is fall off of the light in the background which causes it to be less intense near the perimeter of the picture.

This painting has very expressive details when looking at the hair, neck, and face (eyes and lips especially). Light seems to be directly hitting from top to bottom portion of the face, leaving the face centered and the neck almost faded with shadowy details. The color of her hair and lips reflect very well to her skin. Somehow, I would prefer a lighter background color, only because I do not want to see her hair blend too dark with the background. Overall, the woman on this painting expresses good highlights for a portrait and composition.

  

This painting has a good source of light and shadows hitting many directions. There is a very sensual pose with a soft, moving light. The figurative shape and lightened dress gives off such admirable desire and beauty. The couch she is sitting on gives off a great deal of shadows, her posture shows much valuable detail in form and lines.  

The Assignment:

Search the internet and find 50 examples of light in painting which resonate within you.

Recognize light.  Out of these 50 choose 5 favorites and describe the direction, quality, color temperature, and quantity of the light in each painting.  Email me a pdf of the 50 images plus separate the 5 favorite and include your description. Use full sentences.  Above are selections and descriptions written by students.

Homework - Direction of Light

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.