Category: Course Activities (Page 4 of 10)

Next Week

Bring in a stuffed animal to work with approx. 6 inches to 12 inches in size.

Light Quality

Direct light or hard light – the rays of light are nearly parallel and strike the subject from one direction creating hard edged dark shadows with little detail.
Examples: a spotlight, sun on a clear day, or a bare flash

Diffused light or soft light– the rays of light are scattered and coming from many directions. It appears even and produces indistinct shadows. Examples: overcast daylight, a light covered with tracing paper or other translucent material.

Direct Light and Direction

Front light comes from in front of subject from the camera position and the shadows fall behind the subject not concealing any details.

Side Light comes from 90 degrees to the camera. it adds dimension and texture to the subject.

Backlight comes from behind the subject towards the camera.

Inspiration

Labs

Lighting Direction

Homework

HW 7: Lighting Direction

Portrait Poses

There are three basic positions for someone’s head and face in a portrait.

1. Front view
2. 3/4 view
3. Profile

Expression

For family photos a smile is a must but not so for a portrait. It is however important that your subject look comfortable. It is your job as the photographer to talk with your subject and make them feel comfortable.

Focus

When shooting a portrait, the subject’s eyes must be in focus. Full stop. Period.

Inspiration

@dont_smile_nyc

https://www.instagram.com/dont_smile_nyc/

Considerations for any portrait:

Use a vertical orientation.

Focus on the model’s eyes.

Watch the background for distracting things behind the model’s head.

Considerations for outdoor portraits

Work with the model in shade or place the model with the sun BEHIND their head.

Use a reflector to add light to their face.

Do not use direct sunlight on the model’s face.

Resource

Using Fill flash

Ambient Light-the existing light that you cannot control

Fill Flash-brightens shadows

Built-in flash-part of the camera and throws light about 6 to 10 feet

External flash-added to the camera on the hot shoe and can throw light 15 to 20 feet 

E–TTL (Evaluative-Through The Lens) is a Canon EOS flash exposure system that uses a brief pre-flash before the main flash in order to obtain a more correct exposure.

Use M or manual.

1/1 is full power. for fill flash, try 1/16 and adjust from there.

Use Zoom to spread or focus the light. Wide angle numbers (smaller numbers) spread the light. Higher numbers focus the light.

High speed sync-allows the camera to be set at shutter speeds higher than the camera sync speed 

Resource

Lab

Outdoor Portraits

Homework

HW 6: Window Light Portraits

Submit to the CUNY Photo Challenge by Oct 28th! 1 pt of extra credit if you send me the screen shot of your submission.