Light is everywhere.
By Carlos Aviles
28 June 2008
I do not have the time or money to invest in expensive lighting equipment. I try to use natural light as much as possible and hate the effect of the camera flash most of the times.
I use at times a poster board that was a leftover from my kids in last semester as a reflector of natural light. I use lamps, bulbs and a tripod indoors.
I started to experiment with a flashlight with LED bulbs.
The results were not bad at all and decided to explore a little more.
I held the flashlight over my camera, as if it were a camcorder light. I also tried the light in different angles and directions.
I chose the aperture and let the camera do the rest in auto. Most of the times f 4 to get a little more depth of field.
A couple of times I programed the white balance at incandescent, but the best results was with the setting at cloudy. The light was captured in a warm mode that made the shots more intimate and beautiful. .
Depending on the angle of light the shutter speed varied from 4" to 1/60. All the shots were made hand held. I know that tack sharp is the rule, but the tripod was cumbersome at times. The flowers were on top of a chest and the room does not offer neutral background. That is one of the advantages of shooting with digital. It's not expensive so you can experiment more.
You can also use a reading lamp as light source.
The photos were then retouched minimally with Adobe Lightroom, but just the blacks and contrasts, and to change some color shots to black and white.
It is a great way to explore new sources of light, play and have fun. What is the reason of it all?
