I’ve made a headfirst plunge into David Hobby’s Strobist philosophy of lighting. I’d been reading the blog for, well, a really long time and made a move to get some gear to facilitate that a few weeks ago. About 5 weeks ago, I went to an all day workshop put on by Hobby and Joe McNally about getting maximum benefit from small photographic flashes used off-camera. Part of the benefit of this style is that it’s very portable equipment. Because of that, it’s possible to take high quality light to locations that might have been next to impossible. This philosophy was born from a photojournalistic perspective, the need to shoot editorial photographs in a variety of locations. Being that I have no real focus on what I do, the versatility interests me.
I’ve seen a lot of really amazing shots from people all over the world that have taken to the idea of applying the ideas of small-strobe photography and I decided I want in.
I’ve got some equipment, some book (or Internets, whatever) learnin’, some live demos from guys that know a hell of a lot more than I ever will…it’s time to shoot!
The first step was to think about light position. How does the direction of the light affect what the subject looks like? After that, what happens when it’s diffused? What happens when it’s reflected? These are all things we know instinctively because we deal with them every day when we look at, well, everything. Consciously thinking about how to do what we see on purpose gets tricky. I decided to set it all up and shoot at a pineapple. It’s got a lot of nooks and crannies so it has a lot of possibilities for light. Since they’re just practice, all these are direct out of camera with no processing.
Imagine this as my internal monologue as I’m shooting.
“With the flash on camera and no modifier, it’s flat. I’ve heard people that know way more than me call this DMV lighting. Now I see why.”
“With the flash on camera and some diffusion with a softbox, it’s still flat but at least it’s not as harsh.”
“Still on camera but with a Sto-Fen OmniBounce diffuser.”
“Looks similar but not identical to the softbox.
Let’s take this thing off camera and set it about 45 degrees to the pineapple on the left and see what it looks like with bare flash.”
“Harsh but getting more interesting than head on. How about with the OmniBounce?”
“Yes, it’s dark and I need to bump up the flash power but I’m on a roll and it’s looking a little more interesting. What does the softbox do?”
“It almost obliterates any shape in the rear shadow. Cool! How about raising the light up? 45 degrees left, 45 degrees above, bare flash.”
“That’s looking pretty cool! How about with a softbox?”
“Lots of different possibilities here, but the right side of the thing is a little dark. I only have one light so I have to figure something out. How about reflecting light back at the other side? Hey, I’ve got some white foamcore board here, let’s use that!”
“Ok, there’s a little difference, let’s bring it in closer.”
“Wow. That made a huge difference! I don’t need a light to light something! How about another shot without the reflector to compare?”
So, yeah, light is cool! It’s my plan to keep playing with this stuff and move (hopefully soon) to being able to trick friends into letting me play with headshots.
