Photography Talk Continued with Guest Pro Photographer Kelly Lyle – Finding the Light

Another very interesting characteristic caused by light is dimension. Ultimately the direction of light that is hitting an object which give dimension to it in one way or another. This is incredible important in portrait photography and is easy to mess up. Lighting somebody from the wrong direction can make them look heavy as apposed to thin. This is a direct cause of the direction that the light is hitting the subject in relation to the subject. Might sound a bit confusing, but it really isn’t.

You may have heard that natural light is the photographers best friend. Why do you think that is? Is it because of the way the light falls? the dimension it creates on subjects? The softness it provides? Perhaps it is all of these things and more if you know how to recognize it and take advantage of it!!

Here area few natural light shots Kelly took at our wedding. Notice the very soft dimensional light that Kelly totally took advatage of. He posed me in the perfect spot so the light “fell” over me in just the right way. Creating in my opinion the “Best” kind of light for portraits. Notice how softly the light falls over my nose so it hits the other cheek. The light also penetrates into my eyes which is key to a good portrait.

Finding the Light – Me in natural light posed by Kelly Lyle

Here’s another nutral light shot I of my Mom using the same principles Kelly used in the image above. Notice how well the natural light works, making my job very easy!  Point and shoot pretty much

Finding the Light – My Mom in Natural light

Now sometimes there just is no light, and you need to use flash or studio lights etc.. This is perfectly fine, you just need to know how to place them so the light “falls” correctly. The easiest way to do this in my opinion is to use diffusers for your light source. Diffusers help spread the light around so you get softer light and less harsh shadows.  For my studio lights I prefer to use 1 huge 30×60 softbox and a reflector for fill. This simulates that gorgeous window light we talked about earlier. Check out this shot using the 1 light large diffused light source and a reflector to bounce some of the light back for fill. Here is a video on the lighting set-up if your interested: Basic Studio Lighting

Finding the Light – Studio Portrait

Here’s another studio portrait I did using the same exact lighting set-up as above. Very simple and it looks great in my opinion

Finding the Light – Studio Lighting

Now here is a shot that has side lighting which creates a nice dimensional face when used properly.  However, in this case I was photographing my two nephews side by side and the light was only hitting the first face. So recognizing that the light stunk, I chose not use the side light bounce flash technique. I was just fooling around with Kelly anyway when I took this

Finding the Light – Side lighting

Sometimes the light is just magical. This is usually referred to as the golden hour, but we have all seen it during storms and stuff as well. Basically the light is super warm, and because it is going through so much atmosphere from our perspective it’s on low power. I was able to look directly at the sun when I took this shot because it’s intensity was choked out by the atmosphere at the golden hour. I just so happen to be in the right place at the right time as well with my camera

Finding the Light – Crop Duster

As you can see finding the light is not always easy and once you do find the light you must identify it. Once identified you can figure out how to work with it if need be, or move on to better light. I really want to emphasize that “finding the light” may seem easy, but using it to your advantage is really where the skill comes in.  Now get out there and find some light!! Or create it yourself with studio equipment!!