When we understand ligt and the complexities of it we have to put the right light in the right place and in the right quality and quantity so lets review composition and Lighting.

COMPOSITION:

There is a natural symmetry to things that can make us feel visually comfortable. It takes placement and the properties of light to make things work. The Chinese have carried this a step further in their life symmetry called "Feng Shui". The term literally translates as "wind-water".  Note: Not to be "Confusioned" with the other Chinese proverb that says "drinking the wrong water can create an ill wind".

From Wikipedia, we learn historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings – often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures – in an auspicious manner. Depending on the particular style of feng shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass. 

Feng shui was suppressed in China along with thinking, intelligence, freedom and expression during the cultural revolution in the 1960s, but has since seen an increase in popularity, particularly in the United States. If It comes from China it has to be good.  So far no lead has been found in feng shui. And we love and embrace culture so it's a natural here like TV religion. Beats driving in all that traffic to meet God.

Like good composition, the balance, the harmony of things makes the good positive life. Good composition is the beginning of a good picture.  The reason we start our journey with composition is because every artist has to place objects and create a total image somewhere. This placement is called composition.  Then we illuminate the subject and we have the beginning of a masterpiece.

Whether a fine art painter pre-sketches with pencil the approximate grouping, or a tile artist drafts a rough plan on the floor, we have this placement thing to work with. At our local park the bricklayers at the fountain being restored are laying out the symmetries of the bricks to make the project pleasing.  It will not however please some of the skateboarders who destroyed the previous fountain area. 

There are a couple of simple rules to guide the placement with. When it is not in array we call it bad composition.  Think of it this way. The word "composition" minus a few letters, spells "compost". 

What direction is the subject looking at and does it lead us to what they see.  If the subjects attention is not evident because we cannot see what he/she is looking at, it makes us uncomfortable. Our eyes wander off the page and don't return. We understand better when we see their surroundings. We want to know what they were interested in. 

"Periscoping" or making the subject dead center.  This only produces good results if you are a U Boat Captain. We can improve the picture by moving the subject off center, or framing the scene and using some of the natural props and surroundings to eliminate dull areas.  

"S" Curves.  Therefore, we add a feeling of depth to the picture.  Moving two feet to the left or two feet to the right and using "s" curves would really make any shot for the better. The S curve keeps the viewer longer as he "travels" your path, grasshopper.  When you see someone going through your prints like a deck of cards, thats a clue they were not interested in what your pictures had to say. 

Social change. Something I see a lot of is what I term "a 95% shot. If we spend the time to shoot 95% of the subject "why do we cut her feet off"?  Another 5% would not hurt things. Six years ago feet were not allowed in pictures nor elbows, nor large amounts of avoirdupois tissue.  But these taboos change with the style today, bare feet and nothing shoes are the tops sellers in summer wear.  Exception: Ankles are still forbidden to be seen in some eastern countries. In radical Muslim countries it could get you killed. 

"THE RULE OF THIRDS" Is based on a compositional formula dating back to the Greeks. 

Now I'm sure the Greeks were very smart with mathematics and formulas.  And that is apparent in their architecture, arts and science. 

They didn't have Harley's or Nikons but they sure had Chariots and Harley may have copped a few ideas off them. The three wheel Harley is a pleasure to drive and a lot more comfortable for the co-pilot. They are commonly called Chariots.

The rule of thirds are important, as the third point sets the stage for the composition. It starts the 'S" path for our eyes to follow and again our Greek friends had two wheel Chariots with the horse being the third apex.  Chop one wheel off and you have an accident.  Because the rule of Two's sticks your subject dead center. Greeks who paid no attention to the Rule of Thirds are dead too.

See, the "Rule of Thirds" works at night.

The Rule of thirds is an easy rule to remember. Simply place visually a tic-tac-toe grid in your viewfinder and place the most important part of the picture in the intersections. 

Here we centered the action to the lower left grid as you see the wheel first.  Then we are naturally drawn and follow the image to the Harley Davidson sign. 

Now you can see the relation ship of three things in this shot.  The primary subject leads you to the secondary subject keeping you interested in the picture. It also is dead on the thirds rule and utilizes the "s "curve.

Use the props to add action to the scene and to uphold the story line. Good pictures tell stories without the use of words. The prop imparts action and motion to pictures.  Someone once said "A good picture is worth a thousand words"! Some pictures I have seen took a thousand words to explain. And even then I gave the student a C- for wasting words. Watch the backgrounds, they can work for and against you.  Now we switch to illumination, taking the light and painting the picture we have just sketched out with composition.

The accomplished photographer understands his bread and butter is light, an acute awareness of the prevalent light. And his second attribute is knowing how to manipulate that light. The definition of PHOTO-graphy involves the understanding and manipulation of light.  The key words here are awareness, understanding and manipulation.

In the beginning all we had was our natural primary light source, the Sun. Sunlight is also referred to as natural or ambient light.  It is usually not perfect when you need it, so we have learned to create it artificially.  So man had to come up with light when there simply wasn't enough. Man came out with artificial light and all was well again....not really. 

With early film plates flash powder (similar to gunpowder) was the first artificial flash.  Maybe it answers the question why we "shoot" pictures? Many great pictures exist from those days, many buildings don't. Especially those who used flash powder around gas-filled mines. Methane, recently caused the Tennessee mine accidents and the Gulf spill. 

You can't just buy lighting equipment and become a photographer overnight. You have to understand the lighting, know your equipment, and manipulate it to change the outcome of the picture. In fact, man-made light for the new photographer can be the hardest part of the learning curve because he was promised so much by the manufacturer.  Who controls the lighting in your picture, you do. 

WHITE LIGHT IS NOT ALWAYS WHITE: 

So we talk about light in terms of it's temperature color. (for simplicity, lets just think of these temperatures as flavors, or tones)  Even to the unaided eye light can appear very white as in halogen or dull yellow as in mercury or with a green tinge as in fluorescents. When you shot with film under varying lights, the type of film "indoor, sunlight" filtered out the light you didn't want but with "digital seeing all" you can get varying results amplified more than the unaided eye can see.  

In the corner of the mall shot above, one can see just a small selection of the light hues in this small an area. Thus what appeared as a nice shot in the viewfinder might come back totally different. 

So we could say the color we have is Bright Green or Dull Blue. This is called The Brightness measurement. If we wish to describe a color or brightness, we can say that it is dull, or brilliant, many terms may be used here. Now if we took a little white or black and added it to the same color we would be changing The Saturation of the color. The color departs from neutral gray of the same brightness.  In other words, saturation is a measure of the alteration of the color's purity.

Daylight is measure at a whopping  5000-5700 Kelvin and usually is the desired realm you wish to be in. Most flash units duplicate this range.  It generates a specula overhead sharp light with dark shadows. This is not the right place for that fun in the sun shots where the Portrait is the objective. Your eyes have a greater range of contrast than film does. What looks good to your eyes will blow out on film and the shadows will kill your masterpiece.

 But basically, a studio once set up, is automatic, you flip a switch and it's the same all day or all week.  You can easily spend more on lighting equipment than you spent on your camera.  It's a good idea to plan well and leave some of the forum suggestions to the commentators and brand idiots   before you plunk down the currency to find out you ordered too much or too little or the wrong thing altogether and the only friend you have is your sleeping bag.

I feel Portraiture is the most difficult art form with a camera for it has the most amounts of elements. The artist is the one who can differentiate the personality in the portrait or emphasize a particular personality of a person. This basic book deals in composition and positioning of lights which allows a change in the perception of the individual. That is the first element.  The book contains many diagrams that are do-it-yourself and they include samples from a variety of photographers.  It's all about technique. 

Everybody has a face. I'll say it again.  Photography relating to faces is generally called portraiture.  Photography used to prove or document a face is called evidence.  Taking pictures to prove you are right is called "saving face". Cougars who get their faces redone without photoshop is call "face -lifting". Photography used in tasteless exploitation of the human form is called pornography. If done correctly, it is called an art form except in certain religious circles.

The second element is the use of light and good use of face. We need good light. That's the first part. We also need to emphasize the good parts of a persons face. That’s a little trickier. We have to put that light and the amount of light or intensity in the right place.

Our light source must have the right light color or temperature; the angles must be set right; the ratios of one light to another taken into consideration. We have color, intensity and relationship.

After you have absorbed all this there is Bud Light and Miller Light. Oh, lest I forget a chilled COOR's. After the cold one, the next step is to analyze the subject’s face to bring out the best, or the mood or the personality of the subject.   We look at the subject from three views:

      1)  Full-face view - Simply put, dead-on from the front, the full front shot is unbecoming. It is the one on your driver’s license, gun permit, wanted poster and hopefully not the ones the Forensic people take. It can also be printed on a beer mug, hence the term "MUG Shots". Those mugs are used at AA meetings to discourage drinking.

      2)  Side view – Obviously this view is from the side, the best side.

      3)  2/3 view - Here is the most appealing and pleasing shot to most people because you using part of the front and the side in one picture. The 2/3 or 3/4 shot.

GEAR TALK - PRODUCT RECOMMENDATION - CONTROL

You need light stands and umbrella adapters for studio lights. My favorite brand is Bogen/ Manfrotto and some of their gear I have had for thirty years and looks like new. Today it's called Manfrotto distributed by Bogen. 

In a studio you have a choice of going with either "strobe units" or hot lights such as halogen. Now there are LEDS but it takes a lot of LED to get you strong light and generally the cheaper ones produce short unflattering light. These "studio strobes" are bigger units plug into AC outlets and are more powerful than flash units using battery power. They are mounted on light stands and may be used with reflectors and or "softboxes".  Sometimes, digital changed a few rules.

The hot lights are usually found in amateur setups as they are less expensive.  Till one falls over, and then, they are found in the garage, eBay or in the for sale ads on forums along with the idiot who burned that nice hole in momma's carpet.  I am an idiot, I burned a hole in the carpet and it cost me thirty dollars to re-splice the burn. I hired a "carpet mechanic" to repair it.

We want to soften the light  and rarely do you ever see just a bare bulb out there. Lighting modifiers are just as important as the lights themselves.  Studio lights have mounting rings (always an option) that can accept the various softboxes available on the market. Most studio lights have a provision for a reflector. In addition there are light controllers or modifiers like snoots, barn doors, and gels.  We soften the light because flash whether studio or on camera is harsh and direct, can cause red-eye, blow outs or in a failure, no light at all. 

We can manipulate ( there's that word again) on camera flashes with;  Add- on diffusers such as Lumi-Quist, Sto-fen and Fong’s Light Sphere, or use; bounce technique's such as walls and ceilings, bounce cards or a simple white piece of cardboard and a rubber band; Or the built in bounce and wide angle adapters from the manufacturers found in the flash.

Some flashes pre-flash a small light to assist in checking the distance and in some low-light conditions turn on a small flashlight to help ascertain distance and focus. We teach in class how to do a simple experiment to tune your thinking to the flash in your camera. We will also introduce you to the flash card, the primary bounce teaching tool.

In the past Polaroid film was the test bed for the serious amateur or professional to "check the lighting".   Unfortunately for the consumer a dollar per picture for a Polaroid in addition the the prints wasted makes Polaroid an expensive luxury. Film-based photography takes an hour or two these days for processing.  That's a long time if you didn't take notes and can't remember the settings. 

When we tune our lighting, it is wise to take notes and sketches. Also many of the labs today, especially with the wide latitude of film, correct most mistakes before you see them. So we have to tell the lab to process and NOT correct the exposures. We learn from our mistakes only if we can see them. Another alternative is to use slides which record many mistakes as they have a much narrower latitude than print film. We'll use slides to fine tune things.

SUNNY SIXTEEN RULE:

You are out shooting film or digital and your cameras internal meter dies. It happens I had two D2H's die shooting the President (King George the Second) and went to a backup F100, this was the famous D2H problem. Possibly do to a lack of planning, the batteries go low and the meter in the camera is TKO and giving you the wrong numbers.  

What do you do now, outdoors is easy. There is a formula but still the consummate professional uses the meter as a guide and then formulates the rest of the adjustments. He always questions what the camera thinks it sees and knows when to make changes or override the system.

  •  To do this we must understand "Sunny f 16" rule. Simply put, the rule tells us on a bright sunny day to set your aperture at f 16 and convert the ASA or ISO film rating to the closest shutter speed.  it's simple and generally works. If it does why do we need meters?  Accuracy, Dr. Watson.

EXAMPLE:  

Lets say are shooting at ISO 100 - 200 on a real bright sunny day. Simply set the manual shutter speed for 125 sec as it is the closest speed to the ISO.  Again use the closest speed that matches the ISO and with the automated cameras of today BRACKET. Just set the aperture for F16 if you have the subject as the predominate object in the picture.