MODIFYING LIGHTS WITH UMBRELLAS

Modifying lights are fun. It takes very little to change the mood of a scene by adding or taking away umbrella’s, reflectors, white panels or any number of things you can get your hands on.

Take this shot below. Each shot was taken f/10, 1/125 at ISO 100.



The first was taken with one light with the silver dish that came with the unit. As it should, it comes across as a wide spot; throwing dramatic shadows. This can be used to show a number of things but I mainly think about evil, sadistic, terror or meanness. This lighting technique really requires the subject not to smile because of the shadows it cuts, throws or creates. It closes down the rear lighting for that extra touch. If I were to shoot a burglar outside before he breaks into your house this is the light I would choose to cast the character.

However, this could also be a good use to outline the body. Showing the curves of women or muscles of a man highlighting the form. The light will cut in and allow you to paint with it to really create a piece of beauty and art. if your going to do this please use a solid background.

Let’s add a second light in #2 (middle). The same settings were used, just metered for the two instead of one. Now lets look at this one. It has a more friendly lightings but still hard. Notice both shadows on each side of the nose. It does though still give texture to the image by hiding the folds and the curves. The same metered light is given to this shot but even the background has picked up some light to give it a snapshot look.

For the last shot, the lights did not change an inch, not one thing on the settings. What we did is put on a 60 inch umbrella for each (2) head. Look at how much more the spread of the light is compared to the second one. We can see everything behind me easily even the photos on the mantel looked metered right. It gave me more depth and a longer range into the image. This light would be good for almost any type of portraiture and will give you a large enough spread to capture the backgrounds a make them apart of the image. It works well for the backdrop portraits because it cuts down on the shadows and delivers a good even light. It will also work on things like weddings, clubs and social events where you want to get the location in it as well.

Play around with it and see what you can get, keeping the setting the same.