The most important concept from this workshop was understanding light and how to direct light in a pleasing manner. While I wasn’t in class due to COVID-19, I still understood the gist of the workshop. Arguably I found it harder due to the creative lighting decisions I had to make in lieu of a camera light kit from the Media School.
This is one of the better photos that came out of my experimentation. I experimented with two different light sources: A warm light bulb from a table lamp with the shield removed, and a light box courtesy of my boyfriend, the subject of this photo. It’s actually a spray booth for airbrushing, but the light was brighter and in my opinion better for the purposes of this workshop.
I think side light is the easiest lighting to get right, and probably the easiest lighting to make the subject look good as well. I experimented a little bit with chiaroscuro in this photo since it isn’t something I’ve looked in to at all before. I think the hardest part of the project was back light. Both of my attempts at back light, with both warm light bulb light and bright light box light definitely failed, and it is the reason that I most wish I had been in class so that I could have gotten a bit of a better idea of how to execute it properly.
While I could have touched it up in Photoshop to make it more in line with examples we were shown in class, I chose instead to pick a picture that I felt didn’t need any editing and turned out naturally right.
My favorite part of this exercise and overall takeaway is that I like staging photos. Almost all of the photography I’ve done in the past has been in the moment photography where I can change some things (camera settings, maybe have them pose) but 90% of the time I’ve never been able to play with the lighting in the situation. It is definitely something I’m going to experiment with further and work to improve on.