Category Archives: Light

Hyper real

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With today’s fast cameras, big sensors, and great noise reduction technology, like that in Lightroom 3 tha I described earlier (magic), we can see better with our cameras than we can in real life. It is fun to experiment with that.

Like in Montreal the other day. Here’s a street the way it looked to me:

McGill College in the dark, photographed by Michael Willems

McGill College in the dark

But with my camera (a Canon 1D Mark IV) set to auto ISO, and at 3,000 ISO, I got this:

McGill College in the dark, photographed by Michael Willems

McGill College in the dark, at 3000 ISO

And by white balancing this RAW imaging to correct the yellow Sodium light, we get this:

McGill College in the dark, photographed by Michael Willems

McGill College in the dark

I can actually see better with my cameras than I can see in real life.

And I suggest you all try this. Go out and use auto ISO or a very high manual ISO. Apply noise reduction (in the camera if you shoot JPG, or in Lightroom so you get more control). See what happens!

Detroit speaks: Cubic Inches

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Detroit used to say: there’s no substitute for cubic inches.

And indeed there isn’t. Wanna have torque: need a big engine.

Similarly, in cameras there’s no substitute for lots of glass. Here’s a shot the other day in a bar with live music:

A scene in a bar ion College Street with live music, shot by Michael Willems

Bar on College Street with live music

So can I do this with my point and shoot, or with a kit lens?

Alas, no. With a fast lens I was using the following settings:

  1. Sensitivity set to 1,600 ISO
  2. Manual exposure mode
  3. Aperture at f/1.4
  4. Shutter at 1/30th second
  5. No flash

Surely there are better solutions than spending money on a fast lens! Could I have used a cheaper lens? Not with those settings: the picture would have been too dark.

  • Higher ISO then? No, most cameras will not go higher than 1,600 – or if they do, much noise results.
  • Longer shutter speed? No, the girl would have been a big blur.
  • Just use Flash? No, the black walls did not afford flash bounce capability and direct flash would lead to a really bad picture.

So, sometimes you need the power of fast prime (fixed focal length) lenses. And that is why my 35mm f/1.4 lens is my favourite party lens.

Why use artificial light?

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In yesterday’s post, I talked about making “hyper-real” images by using light coming from unexpected directions.

Today, another reason to use artificial light in photos: because the available light is too contrasty.

Here’s a picture of a model last Sunday in available light in the forest. Horrible contrast: pretty girl and great model, but not a picture I would use:

A model in natural light, photographed by Michael Willems

A model in natural light, in the forest

No, that just will not do.

Instead, let’s use a strobe in a softbox, and a gridded light as hairlight. Now we get:

A model in outdoors studio light, photographed by Michael Willems

A model in outdoors studio light

You can easily see how much nicer that is. The soft strobe light overpowers the sun, and removes the harshness and the contrasty nature of the available light. It also allows me to decrease the exposure of the background.

So next time you see a photographer lugging light stands and batteries and cables and such, you know why.

Where's the light?

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In the picture I posted the other day of the female runner, did you notice the light? No, really, did you notice the direction of the light?

Here, let me post another one from the same shoot. Straight out of the camera (i.e. this is not the result of photoshopping):

Female runner running down the hill, shot by Michael Willems

Female runner running down the hill

You can see the sun is behind her: look at her shadow.

Normally that would lead to her front being dark. Bad light!

But instead, she is well lit and even has a bright side light on her face. That shapes her face and makes the picture much more interesting than it would otherwise have been.

You may recall, two flashes were used – two simple speedlites (Canon 430EX speedlites, fired by Pocketwizards). One bare, and one, the fill light, with a Honl Photo Traveller 8 softbox on it.

Light from “unnatural” directions like this leads to a look that is not natural, but rather, hyper real. A sort of otherworldly look. And as you may have noticed in many of my photos, I believe that that is a good thing to strive for in artistic photos.

Exposing the background correctly is also important – it is darker than your camera would have made it if it has had the final say.

Colour is important here too – I am partial to a combination of red, blue and green; and the pink is close enough to red to make it interesting.

Can you see that the background is a bit blurry? That is becasue I was pannign – following th emodel with the camera as I shot.

(Want to learn more? Well, you can: these are just some of the techniques we teach in our workshops: stay tuned or contact me for more information)

Learn to shoot like this:

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If you want to learn to shoot like this:

Model Tarra in the forest, shot by Michael Willems

Model Tarra in the forest

… then you are in luck. Another “Advanced Lighting” workshop is planned!

Saturday 26 June, all day, and again at my country property in Mono, Ontario. 15 acres of Niagara escarpment forest at our disposal to shoot using creative light.

This is a follow up to the previous workshop held last week, and will be useful for photographers who took that course, as well as those who did not. You will go home with creative and technical knowledge, portfolio shots, and the ability to put the knowledge to use yourself.

Details here: http://www.cameratraining.ca/Mono-Day-2.html

A reminder of how to flash

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..that is, of how to use flash outside when it is bright. I thought I would explain yesterday’s shots further in this context by simply showing a logical sequence.

One – a snapshot. Here is a shot of my hand on a bright day (i.e. today, a few hours ago at the Royal Botanical Gardens), when the hand itself is not in the sun. Say I used Program mode and just shot. We all know (and hate) this kind of shot:

A hand, not well lit

A hand, not well lit

Two: snapshot with flash. Okay… so now let’s turn on the flash. Still just program mode, but now I pop up the flash:

A hand, lit by flash light

A hand, lit by flash light

Better, and we could stop there – perfectly OK.

But I prefer to go the extra step.

Three: snapshot with flash and negative exposure compensation. Remember Willems’s Dictum: “Bright pixels are sharp pixels”. I want my hand to be brighter, not the same or darker. And I want colour in the background. So now I use Exposure Compensation (the “+/-” control on my camera) and turn it down, say to minus 1 or even minus 2 for extra drama. Here’s -2:

A hand, well lit by flash

A hand, well lit by flash, with -2 stops Exp. Comp.

Wow, now we have drama. Maybe too much drama for some of you, in which case do not use -2 stops; try -1 instead.

Simple, innit?

It's too bright outside. Quick! Hand me a flash!

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We do not use flash “because it is too dark” – at least not just.  We very often use flash because it is too bright outside.

By using a bright flash, we can:

  1. Decrease the exposure of the background, thus making it less bright
  2. Then use the flash to increase the exposure of the foreground, to avoid darkening it as a result of step 1 (becasue this would otherwise happen).

Step 1 also

  • Increases the colour saturation.
  • Allows you to make your subject stand out against the background.

Step 2 also allows you:

  • To accent parts of your shot,
  • To “model” shapes,
  • To throw light where you want it.

At yesterday’s all day Country Creative Lighting Workshop in Mono, Joseph Marranca and I used technique to do exactly that. So you turn a simple snap into this, instead:

A female runner

Female runner on a country road

For this, we used technique. Technique that included (apart from a talented model):

  • The use of two speedlites, set to manual, fired by Pocketwizards
  • A Honl Photo Traveller 8 portable softbox on one
  • Manual camera exposure settings

Two simple off-camera speedlites can create a shot like that? Yes they can. 430 EX speedlites can overpower the sun? Yes they can. Try it!

Flash consistency – a note

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So you are surprised that your flash pictures always turn out differently and unpredictably, especially when using automatic (“TTL”) flash?

Then this may help:

A. First, worry about the background, ambient light:

  1. First, decide “should the background light do any work?”. If you are using an automatic or semi-automatic mode, like P, Av/A or Tv/S, the camera will try to light the background well. so it will not just be the flash doing the lighting.
  2. Realise that there are limits to the previous: on Canon always in P mode, and on Nikon in P and A when “Slow Flash” is disabled, the camera will limit shutter speed to avoid blur.
  3. So if you want total predictability of the background, use manual, and set your meter to the desired ambient lighting level (I recommend you start at -2 stops, i.e. the light meter points to “-2”). See a recipe below.

In a typical room, a starting point might be 1/30th second, f/2.8, 400 ISO, and the flash pointed behind you. Auto ISO is not recommended!

B. Then, concern yourself with the flash:

  1. The foreground is mainly lit by flash, not by your Av/Tv/ISO settings.
  2. Canon cameras in particular try to avoid overexposing part of the picture, so even a small reflective object in the flash picture can result in a dark, mainly underexposed photo.
  3. The flash exposure metering is, on most cameras, biased toward your focus points. So the camera looks mainly where you focus.
  4. If you take a picture of something bright (a bride in the snow) the camera will underexpose it to give you a grey bride. If you take a picture of a dark object (a groom in a coalmine) the camera will overexpose it to give you a grey groom.
  5. To fix this, you can turn the flash up and down using flash exposure compensation (“Flash Exp Comp”).
  6. Play with the light: aim your flash at walls or ceilings if you can. and create a “virtual umbrella”.

Try it and see if you get more consistent!

Here’s a typical recent flash picture, of a nice photographer I met recently:

Flash picture

A flash photo - yes really.

Doesn’t look like your usual “deer in the headlights” snap? That’s because I was following my own suggestions above. Note I also used a Honl Photo 1/2 CTO gel, to make the flash light look a bit more like the background Tungsten light. I like warm backgrounds, but I often make them a tiny bit less warm this way.

A few flower tips.

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Today, I shot some flowers, in anticipation of a photo club walkaround on Monday.

I’ll share a few here, to get you started.

If you have a macro lens, use it. If not, then consider a 50mm lens and get as close as you can: then crop in post-production. That’s why you have all those pixels. (If you use a “normal” lens, set it to a smaller f-number to get shallow depth of field).

And look for nice colour contrasts: purple and green is a great combination.

Here’s a shot taken in simple non-direct light (direct sunlight is not great), with a macro lens set to f/5.6. Normally, f/5,6 at close range gives you too narrow a depth of field, but in this case it works:

A flower

A flower, shot with a macro lens.

Red (or orange) and green is a great combination, also:

Poppies

Poppies, shot with a macro lens

As said, if you can, avoid flash, and direct sunlight. Except translucent light, i.e. a flower lit by the sun from behind, can work very well:

Translucent tulip

Translucent tulip, lit from behind

Simple backgrounds are essential. Dark backgrounds are nice too, if you can get them.

A tulip

A tulip

Can you see that the iris shot below does not have a simple enough background, and that the light is a bit harsh? If I had been able to, I might have used a black sheet of paper behind the flower.

An iris

An iris

Importantly: get your exposure right. Foliage is dark: your camera will try to over-expose it. You may well need to use exposure compensation, of perhaps -0.5 to -2 stops, to get the right exposure. I am sure I used that in most shots here.

(“I am sure” because I am not sure: it is so automatic that I am not even consciously aware!)

This, I hope, is a start: go try some flower pictures!