Oh man! We’ve gotten so spoiled! I mean honestly – how many of us even own a light meter, much less use one? (I won’t even ask you about color meters). And why should you use these tools? Today’s digital cameras display a histogram and an image as soon as you’ve pushed the shutter button. If you’re over 30, you’ll remember it wasn’t always like this – zone system, E6, fixer, polaroid, enlarger and fiber print are all words young photographers will have to look up.
I began to learn how to light by reading Ansel Adam’s trilogy: “The Camera”, “The Negative”, “The Positive”; by processing my own black and white film; by assisting legendary photographers like Richard Avedon in the 90’s; by experimenting, failing and trying again.
Want to learn – really learn – to light? Go find that old film camera. If you don’t own one, you can pick one up for cheap on eBay. Get some black and white film – oh, never mind – I know you’re not gonna do that (you’d need to learn how to develop b/w film) – so here’s the second best way to learn about light: go turn your fancy digital camera color profile to black and white, because to really understand light you need to ignore color. Don’t worry you get to throw it into the mix that in later. Go out and take some pictures – watch the light – nail the exposure – no messing with it in your image processing software – that’s not gonna help you learn to light. Download the shots and look at them. Did you capture the light you saw?
It really doesn’t matter what light you use (tungsten, flash, daylight, …). What’s important is that you learn to see it. In the end, light is light. If you don’t think you can light for motion, go take your next still job and light it with a continuous light source (tungsten, fluorescent, HMI it doesn’t matter) – you’re ready to light motion. If neither you nor your client can tell that you used hot lights to light your still photo. Just don’t forget to adjust your color temp. In RAW, you can do that in post. In video, it’s baked in (look up color meter on Wikipedia, to see why that comes in real handy).
Can you tell if this image was created with strobes of with hot lights?
© Pascal Depuhl
Digital photography allows you to try it out (still or motion) different setups without costing you a dime in film, processing, prints, polaroids. Experiment, play, mix light sources, learn about gels and filters (they have a lot to do with lighting) – you’d be surprised what a red filter does to a black and white image – or go shadow a more experienced photographer.
Learning to light takes time. (That’s one reason I’m not that afraid of amateurs taking away our jobs.) To be great with light takes years of experience. But remember light is your paint brush. (You know that photo comes from the word light and graphy comes from to write or paint.) Mastering this one tool will set you apart as a photographer and cinematographer. Ignoring it will just confirm that you’re not a light-painter.
Pascal Depuhl loves to surprise his client, by creating light in studio and on location that rivals natural sunlight. He mixes light sources, color temperatures and lighting instruments to mimic reality in still and motion projects. Feel free to ask him questions about lighting @photosbydepuhl.
P.S.: If you said hot lights were used to light the image of the bottles, sorry – but you’re correct. Now can you find the place on my website, where this same shot is used in a video? Extra points if you can tell me what’s all moving in the shot.