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Rolling with the BIG Dog - Understanding Lighting - part 2 of 1 2 3 4

by Damian McGillicuddy Published 01/08/2016

After wracking my brain for a few minutes and coming up with no solutions, I threw up my hands in despair and just had to go back and at least pretend that I'd come up with something. And as I turned around to walk back, the light on them from where I was standing looked absolutely stunning. And it made me realise that the natural light itself is the primary factor on location when shooting without supplemental light - not the car, not the background I'd chosen, but the light.

What I'd been doing was trying to force a square peg into a round hole, trying to realise my concept instead of working with the light. So I simply grabbed my kit, asked the couple to turn around, forgot all about my creative concept with the graffiti background and just took the best picture as dictated by the light. Because the light is always key; if the light is right, the picture looks right. And this is what I'm currently teaching on my 'summer street' workshops.

BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLY

The images here were taken during both the 'Holiday Snap Summer Street walk' workshop that's being held across the country at the Olympus-McGillicuddy Training Academies, as well as the dedicated 'OM-D Beside The Seaside' afternoon and evening workshop I'm hosting for Olympus - but of course, as with all my training, anyone using any make of camera is invited to attend, as the important thing to me is to raise the standard of photography regardless of what kit people use. So, let's start with the image of my raven-haired 1950s' pin-up subject sitting on the back of the bench, where she looks like she's butterfly lit. Well, it's simple - at that moment and in that location, I saw the shaft of light sort of skipping down the shelter, which tells me that it's very directional and it's quite contrasty - just like a beauty dish.

So it made total sense to simply manipulate her face to the point that the lighting pattern mimicked a beauty dish and butterfly light. However, it only makes sense and that thought only occurs because you understand light and you know the principle of that lighting pattern! If you don't, you fall into that old trap of just shooting and shooting and shooting, and that's when you get panda eyes and bad lighting patterns.

Remember, the name of the game is to create shape, form and depth using light and shade. We're trying to tell a three-dimensional lie in a two-dimensional medium, so understanding light and being able to manipulate it to get the effect that you want is crucial.

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1st Published 01/08/2016
last update 09/12/2022 15:00:01

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