Creative lighting: digital photography tips & techniques

259 Pages·2011·43.901 MB·English

by  Davis, Harold

DAVIS
Creative Lighting
Digital Photography Tips & Techniques
C
Creative Lighting
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One of a photographer’s most essential skills is the Moving indoors, Creative Lighting shows you how to e
ability to accurately and creatively observe light. take advantage of ambient light, and use continuous a
Creative Lighting: Digital Photography Tips & lighting and strobes to make the most powerful t
i
Techniques explains the impact of light whether you are images possible. v Digital Photography Tips & Techniques
using natural light when photographing landscapes, Richly illustrated with Harold Davis’s beautiful e
or using strobes and soft boxes in the studio.
images, Creative Lighting explores exposure and how
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From observation comes the ability to manipulate. to effectively use many kinds of lighting, as well as
i
g
You’ll learn how to use exposure settings that have the creating and using shadows and refl ectivity. Then
most impact on lighting, and the best ways to take it takes you into the digital darkroom where you’ll h
advantage of—and enhance—existing light in the fi eld. fi nd out how to enhance lighting effects with Adobe t
i
You’ll also fi nd out how to plan photography around Photoshop. n
natural lighting from the cycle of days and seasons,
The technical details are here, too: for each photo in g
and discover the best techniques for rendering light in
this book you’ll fi nd the focal length of the lens used,
motion from car headlights and other moving objects.
aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and the back story behind
the image.
Learn to “see” light and its impact on photos
D
Use natural light to make spectacular images ig
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t
Plan your photos around light and lighting a
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Use exposure controls to enhance lighting P
h
o
E xplore chiaroscuro, shadow, high-key and
t
o
low-key lighting
g
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E nhance lighting with multi-RAW and a
p
HDR processing h
y

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Harold Davis is an award-winning professional photographer. He p
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is the author of more than 30 books, including Creative Portraits:
&
Digital Photography Tips & Techniques, Creative Black & White: Digital
T
Photography Tips & Techniques, and Creative Night: Digital Photography e
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Tips & Techniques. Harold writes the popular Photoblog 2.0, h
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www.photoblog2.com. i
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Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks
HAROLD DAVIS
PHOTOGRAPHY/Techniques/Digital
$29.99 US/$35.99 CAN
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Creative Lighting
Digital Photography Tips & Techniques
Harold Davis
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Creative Lighting: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques
by Harold Davis
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
All photographs © Harold Davis
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-87823-1
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
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4 Creative Lighting
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Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Courtney Allen, Graham Bird, Mark Brokering, Steven Christenson, Gary Cornell,
Barry Pruett, Sandy Smith, and Matt Wagner.
Credits
Acquisitions Editor: Courtney Allen
Project Editor: Matthew Buchanan
Technical Editor: Chris Bucher
Copy Editor: Matthew Buchanan
Editorial Manager: Robyn Siesky
Business Manager: Amy Knies
Senior Marketing Manager: Sandy Smith
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley
Vice President and Publisher: Barry Pruett
Book Designer: Phyllis Davis
Media Development Project Manager: Laura Moss
Media Development Assistant Project Manager: Jenny Swisher
(cid:193) Front piece: On my belly in wet grass, I pointed a telephoto macro lens directly at the rising sun, captured through the blades of
grass and water drops. I intentionally used shallow focus to emphasize the refractions created by the sunlight.
200mm macro, 1/640 of a second at f/5 and ISO 100, tripod mounted
(cid:193) Title page: To get the lighting right, I combined an exposure of the rising full moon with a longer exposure (to let more light in)
of the San Francisco skyline.
400mm, 2 combined exposures at 1/30 of a second and 1/2 of a second, each exposure at f/5.6 and ISO 400, tripod mounted
(cid:193) Above: The lighting was perfect on these water drops caught in a spider’s web in the sunshine following a brief shower.
200mm macro lens, 24mm extension tube, close-up filter, 1/2 of a second at f/32 and ISO 200, tripod mounted
(cid:203) Page 6: To bring out the drama inherent in this model’s eyes and hair, I posed her so that her face was in the lighting but the
background disappeared into dark shadows.
200mm, 1/160 of a second at f/5.6 and ISO 100, hand held
5
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Contents
8 Introduction 86 Working with Shutter 178 Creating Transparent
Speed Effects
10 Seeing the Light 92 ISO 182 Working with Shadows
12 Quality of Light 94 Causes of Noise 186 Refl ections
12 Understanding Light 98 Using Exposure Controls 190 Refractions
with Lighting
16 Characteristics of Light 192 Metal
102 White Balance and Color
18 The Golden Hour 196 Strobe Lighting
108 Pre-Visualizing the Equipment
22 Intensity of Light
Impact of Lighting
200 Lighting People in the
28 Direction of Light
Studio
34 Color of Light 112 Working with Ambient
206 Studio High-Key and
Light
40 Diffusion Low-Key Lighting
114 Understanding Ambient
44 Backlighting
Light
210 Lighting in the Digital
46 High-Key and Low-Key
120 Sunshine on a Cloudy Darkroom
Lighting
Day
212 Multi-RAW Processing
50 Chiaroscuro
122 Landscapes
215 Controlling Exposure
52 Understanding
126 City Light with Multi-RAW
Refl ectivity
132 Close-Ups and Macros 220 Creative Effects using
56 Transparency versus
Multi-RAW
136 Using a Fill Lighting
Opacity
224 HDR and Lighting
142 Using Flash as
60 Lure of Shadows
Supplemental Lighting 234 Enhancing Lighting with
64 Light and the Adjustment Layers
146 Using Window Light
Monochromatic Vision
238 Light Quality and
150 Night Photography
Blending Modes
68 Exposure and Lighting
158 Light Painting
242 Using the Lighting
70 Understanding Exposure
Effects Filter
162 Lighting in the Studio
74 Overexposure and
246 Third-Party Plugins that
Underexposure 164 Continuous Lighting Enhance Lighting
78 Using a Histogram 170 Setting the Stage
250 Notes and Resources
82 Aperture 174 Using Natural Light
252 Glossary
84 Aperture, Depth-of-Field, 176 Integrating Natural Light
and Focus with your Still Life 254 Index
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Introduction
Without light there is no photography. By lighting. If you cannot deeply feel and see
using the gerund—“lighting” rather than the impact of lighting, you can’t effectively
light—an active role is implied: to some use or modify lighting in your work—and
extent the photographer is involved in you will not be the best photographer you
creating, manipulating or engineering the can be.
light used to create the photo.
With this in mind, Creative Lighting: Digital
In fact, active intervention by a photog- Photography Tips & Techniques starts with
rapher who manipulates or creates some ideas about how to nurture your
light varies on a spectrum from none to talent for observing light. Note that this
complete. For example, a photographer who concern is pragmatic: I care about the
creates a landscape may leave the lighting impact of light on a photo, not light as
up to weather and chance circumstance. a wave or light from the viewpoint of a
In this passive scenario, the photographer physicist.
chooses moment, position, lens and camera
Lighting in a photo involves not only the
setting—but the rest is left to nature.
illumination cast upon a scene but also
At the other extreme, in the context of the exposure settings used to capture
studio photography, the photographer that scene. I’ll explain the variables in
completely creates an environment and set, this exposure equation so that you’ll
as well as the lighting that will be used to understand how to use your camera to best
illuminate it. respond to the light you observe.
In between these extremes is the photog- Next, I’ll show you how to best use lighting
rapher who takes advantage of ambient in the natural world. How can you take
lighting but adds some light of their advantage of—and possibly modify and
own—or who improvises a combination improve—ambient and directional lighting?
of natural sunlight and artifi cial light to And, how can you modify or manipulate
create a masterful still life or portrait. existing lighting to get great creative
images?
It’s a strange thing, but no matter how
active the photographer is in creating In the studio, the lights used for still life
light used in an image, the most crucial compositions generally give out continuous
skill for the photographer is the ability to light. I’ll show you how to master creative
accurately and creatively observe light. still life effects that involve transparency,
Without encouraging and training this refl ectivity, shadow play, and more.
talent, all types of photographers—whether
In contrast to the continuous lights used in
they shoot in the natural landscape using
still life work, the strobes used to capture
ambient light or in the studio with artifi cial
people and motion produce short bursts
illumination—will not be able to master
of extremely intense light. I’ll explain the
8 Creative Lighting
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