Lesson in Light

Yesterday a couple of friends and I went to a photography seminar in Miami. It was a really interesting event for several different reasons. While I has heard or read about most of the techniques Joe McNally talked about. I had never seen them put into motion. Watching a guy like that will kind of put you in your place as far as where you are as a photographer.

 After the awe had worn off I think the most interesting thing I learned is that a subject is not really that important. What is important is how you light it.

 During the show he would take several people from the crowd and take their pictures. While a couple of people did have slightly interesting features none were walking out of there with a modeling contract. What he was able to do was use various lighting styles to give each person a unique photo. Each face or form required a different style of lighting and each came out amazing due strictly to the lighting.

 Today I (as I'm sure most from that show are doing) tried a couple of tricks from the show. I didn't have any people around and decided to use really boring subjects to see if I could light them interestingly, but also do it quickly. (The other thing that impressed me so much was his operational tempo.)

 These are the two I took today. The smelly pot thing was my first shot of the day and was my favorite from that shoot. The second was some green chives in a drinking glass. both are kind of boring when you think about it. I also wanted to use something really reflective to see how much trouble it would be. For someone who uses off camera flash for hours at a time underwater I still have a lot to learn about using flash above water. Here are my two..

Also, on a side note. Neither one of these were put into photoshop. I tried some pictures with the intent of photoshopping, but these were still my favorites at the end of the day. I realized it is a lot easier shooting on land, because I know now that I can just go and reshoot it the exact way I want instead of trying to manipulate in photoshop.

 All in all including setup this took about 5 minutes of my day. Took longer writing this article than it did making the pictures.