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Large Depth of Field Examples:

A large depth of field is key when you want to share a crisp, sharp and well-focused view of the entire scene with your viewers.

This can be particularly useful in landscapes. Example:

In this photograph, the use of a large depth of field ensures that both the small rock in the foreground and the mountains in the background are well focused and sharp. This helps to convey the natural depth of the landscape.

Here is another example of how the use of a large depth of field can serve landscape photography:

Sometimes it can actually be useful to emphasize how busy a scene is. The use of a large depth of field allows us to do that in this photograph:

More often than not, large depth of field is the way to go with architecture photography, so that everything is sharp and well focused. Example:

Traditionally, portrait photography is known for using shallow depth of field to blur out the background and give the photograph a soft feeling. However there are exceptions to this rule as the following photograph shows:

Occasionally it can be helpful to use a large depth of field in street photography to better convey the context in which the photograph was taken. Example:

In macro photography, it can at times be desirable to have everything in focus if we want to emphasize detail and texture.
Example:

So as you have seen, both shallow and large depth of field can be useful in a wide variety of situations. Once again, there are no set rules as to when to use which, but hopefully after having seen these examples, you will be able to choose wisely.

Notes on Large depth of field:
Using a small aperture like f/16 or even f/22 (if your lens offers it) results in a large depth of field. However, you should not always use the smallest aperture available when you want a large depth of field. This is because at very small apertures, an optical phenomenon called ‘diffraction’ can cause a loss in quality.
Always choose the smallest aperture that will give you the depth of field that you need. For example, even if f/22 is available, f/16 might give you enough depth of field. Choosing the right aperture is something you will learn through practice and experimentation.
Also keep in mind that the smaller aperture you use, the longer the shutter time will be. Therefore when working with small apertures, a tripod is often required to avoid camera shake.

Notes on Shallow depth of field:
On a similar note, when trying to achieve a shallow depth of field, it is not necessarily a good idea to use the largest aperture available.
Let’s say you are taking a portrait of a person infront of a busy street, and you want to use a large aperture to create a shallow depth of field and blur out the busy background.
If you use too large an aperture, even your subject will be partly blurred. Once again, use the aperture that gives you just the right depth of field, where the background is blurred but your subject is still well visible.

A tip for maximum depth of field:
An interesting and useful fact to know is that the depth of field in a photo will always roughly extend 1/3 in front of the subject and 2/3 behind it. What this means is that the area in “acceptable focus” will be larger behind your subject than in front of it.
What this means is that if you focus on the infinite, you are wasting the depth of field behind it. Instead, when you want to try and achieve maximum depth of field, focus on something at 1/3 of the distance to the furthest element in the scene.
This tip will help you get close to the maximum depth of field possible.

When using shallow depth of field, it is very important to make sure you focus on your subject. Most cameras autofocus by focusing on the center of the frame. This can be a problem if the subject is not in the center, as it will not be properly focused.
Fortunately, all models of autofocus cameras offer a way to solve this problem:
You can press the shutter release button halfway down and hold it with the subject in the center. Then you recompose with the subject off center and take the photograph by pressing the button all the way down.

When you first press the shutter release button halfway, the camera focuses on the distance the subject is at. Then you are able to recompose and finally take the photo.

Some cameras offer a selective focus mode that allows you to choose which part of the frame to focus on.

Applications of depth of field:

Understanding and using the concept of depth of field lets you add an entirely new dimension to your work as a photographer.

While there are no set rules as to when to utilize either shallow or large depth of field, we will try and share with you some of the most common situations in which you may find each to be useful.

In other words, it’s time for pretty pictures!

Shallow depth of field examples:

Shallow depth of field is very useful in any situation where you want to concentrate the viewers’ attention on your subject, by blurring out the surroundings.

I will now show you some examples of different styles of photographs that use a shallow depth of field effectively.

I will start off with portrait photography, which quite often benefits from using a shallow depth of field for a softer and more intimate feel.

The use of a shallow depth of field in this portrait creates a blurred background which helps focus the attention on the model and contributes to the dreamy atmosphere.

Now I will show you an example of a very shallow depth of field in a portrait, with both a blurred background and foreground which creates an interesting effect to enhance the composition:

A complication we often face in street photography is that the background is very busy and distracting. Once again a shallow depth of field can help us isolate our subject. Example:

The shallow DOF helps emphasize the subject, while still allowing to appreciate the context in which it was taken.

In macro photography the combination of short distance and long focal length can be used to create a very shallow depth of field which helps isolate small subjects from their busy background.
Examples:

Nature photography too can benefit from the use of shallow depth of field. In the following example, the colour of the subject and the background is the same, a situation in which it can be tricky taking an effective photograph. However, the use of a shallow depth of field still allows us to isolate the subject by blurring out the background:

Isolating the subject with shallow depth of field can also be effective in conceptual photography, to convey your message effectively. Example:

In the photograph below called “a leader”, the choice of depth of field is such that it emphasizes the foremost dog in accordance with the concept; without blurring out the other dogs too much.

Wildlife photography too, can make good use of a shallow depth of field to isolate the subject.

Example:

Go to Depth Of Field – Part 2

In the previous DOF Tutorial I was telling you that Depth of field is influenced by three main factors: 1) Aperture, 2) Focal length, and 3) the distance to the subject. Now I will show you details about each of these factors.

1) Aperture:

The relationship between aperture and depth of field is quite simple:
A large aperture like f/2 gives a shallow depth of field.
A small aperture like f/16 will give you a large depth of field.
Let’s review the examples shown before:

F/1.4

F/5.6

F/16

So if you only want a small part of your image to be in focus, you should use a larger aperture like f/2 or f/4.
To have more of the image in focus, use a smaller aperture like f/16.

For the purpose of achieving depth of field, you will need to be able to control the aperture, and therefore I recommend shooting in Aperture Priority mode. In this mode, you can choose the aperture and the camera does the rest for you and chooses the appropriate shutter speed. If you are comfortable with choosing both shutter speed and aperture yourself, please feel free to shoot in Manual mode.

2) Focal length:

The second parameter that has an influence on the depth of field of a photo is the focal length of the lens you are using. The focal length of a lens gives an indication of the field of view that the lens covers.

A lens with a 28mm focal length for example, is called a wide angle lens and covers a big field of view. It allows to capture a whole landscape in a photo for example. 28mm is a short focal length.

On the other hand, a 300mm lens is a super telephoto lens and only covers a very small field of view. It allows you to zoom in and isolate your subject, like a flying bird for example. 300mm is a long focal length.

If you stand at a given distance from your subject and take a photo with a 28mm wide angle lens, the depth of field will be relatively large and many things around it will be in focus.

Now, if you take a photo of the same subject, from the same distance, but “zoom in” using for example a 300mm telephoto lens, then the the depth of field will be a lot thinner and the background behind your subject is more likely to be heavily blurred.

With a 28mm wide angle lens at F/4 both the bottle and the surroundings are sharp.

With a 200mm zoom lens at F/4 the bottle is sharp but the background is blurred.

What this means in practice is, that in order to get a shallow depth you should zoom in closer to your subject. To get a larger depth of field, zoom out.

3) Distance to the subject:

The third factor that will have an effect on the depth of field, is the distance to your subject – also called focusing distance – that we discussed earlier.

The rule is quite simple:
The closer you are to your subject, the smaller the DOF will be.
The farther you are from your subject, the greater the DOF will be.

From 3 meters away with a 28mm lens, everything is in focus.

With the same lens, but from only 20cm away the depth of field is shallow.

So in order to get a shallow depth of field, you should move closer to your subject. Moving away will help obtain a larger depth of field.

This is the reason why the depth of field is usually so thin in macro photography. Macro lenses have a specific mechanism that allow them to focus at only a few inches from the camera. This effectively creates very small depths of field.

On the contrary when shooting landscape photography, you’ll notice that if you focus on the infinite, the depth of field will be very very big, usually ranging from a few meters away to the infinite.

Summary: How to achieve the desired depth of field.

For shallow depth of field:
a) use a large aperture like f/2,
b) move closer to your subject,
c) zoom in and use a longer focal length.
For large depth of field:
a) use a small aperture like f/16,
b) move further away from your subject,
c) zoom out and use a shorter focal length.

Please do remember that you can, if necessary, use all three together. In other words, if you want to achieve a shallow depth of field, you can try using a large aperture. However, if that doesn’t give a shallow enough depth of field, you can in addition move closer to your subject and zoom in.

Passioned about underwater photography? You want to take spectacular underwater photos with a gear that is worth less than $500 US?
Here’s what tp do: look at the underwater photo gallery from the Caribbean and plan a trip to this cristal clear see. Then, while packing your stuff (snorkel and mask in the first place), read the tips given by The Digital Story.
Images from the gallery are taken with Canon PowerShot SD700 IS camera packed into Canon WP-DC5 waterproof case.
Tip 1:
If you don’t want to use the flash, shoot in shallow depths and use image stabilization.
Tip 2:
Use the camera’s Underwater scene mode if it has one.
Special Tip:
Don’t touch the coral or harass the fish.

Read about these tips here

Underwater photography is a terrific way to spice up your image library. I like the exercise I get with a good swim, and then you can celebrate your “catch” with a cold rum drink or two while relaxing on the beach afterward. – Derrick Story

Another very good article on this mater (with more technical tips): Underwater photographer Mark Snyder shows how to shed extraordinary light on the world below the waves. However, this is for those who afford a more expensive gear.

This winter take your gear (and don’t forget your gloves with free fingers) and go hunt for winter sports! Make a reservation near a mountain sky-way and make sure you have everything you need to stay warm. The fact is you can not concentrate at shooting if you freeze. Also, remember that at very low temperatures, the battery gets consumed faster and the camera may present some malfunctions.
You will need a 18-55mm lens for landscapes and a telephoto lens for zooming the people in action.

For winter sports, midday shooting is ok (the main reason is the fact that in winter the sun is not very high and will always cast enough shadows to skip the thoughts of having plane images).
1. TIP: Early morning shots and sunsets over the shiny snow are very spectacular but don’t stay outside too long at those temperatures.

Do you have any friends who practice winter sports? Invite them to go with you and promises them to print some cool photos showing the best action moments of this vacation.
2. TIP: Use your friends as models for your action shots and make sure they have a great time. This way, it will be fun and spontaneous.

If you know something about the sports you are going to capture in your pictures, then you can anticipate the moves and shoot at the exact right moment.
3. TIP: Know what to shoot by learning about winter sports.

Another fact about shooting winter sports is how to correctly expose and white balance the pictures. Most of the images will have a large amount of show (white surface) in the composition.
4. TIP: Little overexpose the image and use custom white balance. This way you can make sure that the white is not too bluish or too yellowish, and either grey.

If it is a sunny day, the shadows will have a blue tone but that is cool. Also, at this weather, blow the snow and it will look great under natural light (sometimes like some kind of fog, but even greater).
5. TIP: Capture your subjects as they raise the snow in the air. For all action shots use short exposure time (the minimum you have – like 1/2000).

However, like all rules that can be broken, shooting short is not a requirement. For example, while at sky in low light conditions (very cloudy or evening/morning), the model will leave behind him a sinuous trace if you use longer exposure.
6. TIP: For best results, keep the ISO low and use a tripod.

During summer and autumn you got used to take beautiful images of water reflections. Now it’s time to use the same principles for ice reflections.
7. TIP: Get down close the ice surface and capture a skater with his/hers reflection.

At the end of such exhausting action day, you and your friends can gather around a fireplace.
8. TIP: Capture this moment too without using a flash – the fire light will cast silhouettes and creates a story-telling environment.

9. TIP: Hot chocolate in the hands can make the subject of some photos with narrow DOF.

You can even step outside for a minute and take advantage of winter nights.
10. TIP: Capture the lights of the houses over the blue snow and also capture the amazing clear sky full of stars. There is no better night sky than in the winter nights over the mountains.

Note: Some of the above pictures were taken by me last winter in Baisoara Mountains, Romania.

Tags: photography tutorial, photo tutorial, photo tips, photography tips, winter photos, winter photography, winter photo tips, snow photo tips, snow, winter sports, photography how to

In this beautiful landscape photograph, the depth of field is huge. From the flowers in the foreground to the clouds in the background, everything appears very sharp.
Here, the perceived depth of field is very large, probably several kilometers (or miles).
If that doesn’t help you visualize and understand the idea of a large depth of field well enough, don’t worry, we have an illustration that should help:

At first thought you might think large depth of field is always the way to go so you have as much of the photograph in focus as possible, but this is not true. Shallow depth of field can be very useful in a lot of situations and in certain styles of photography.

Shallow depth of field for example, can be used to focus more attention on a foreground subject, by blurring out the background. (This can be useful in portraits amongst other things.)

In this very successful photograph, the only area that is in focus is immediately close to the inside of the watch. Both the model in the background and the cover of the watch in front are very blurry.

In this photo the depth of field is very shallow, just a few centimeters long (less than an inch).
Here is an illustration for you that explains the concept of a shallow depth of field:

At the end of this article, I’m posting a series of photographs of the same subject that were taken with different apertures. This will show you the difference in depth of field that happens as a result of using different apertures, as opposed to just reading about it.

F/1.4

F/5.6

F/16
However, don’t forget that Depth of field is influenced by three main factors: 1) Aperture, 2) Focal length, and 3) the distance to the subject.

Tags: depth of field, dof, dof tutorial, photo tutorial, photography tutorial photography tutorials

A good understanding of ‘Depth of field’ is essential to being able to take good photographs. However, this is a topic that often confuses a lot of photographers and while one can find many tutorials out there, the explanations are often very technical and make for daunting reading.

We will take a more practical approach to this subject. We will try to explain what depth of field is, how you can achieve it, and how and when to use it in your photographs; and we will try to do all of this while keeping things as non-technical as possible.

Before we proceed we are quickly going to remind you of some very basic terms in photography, that are essential to being able to understand ‘Depth of Field’.

Exposure: This is the amount of light received by the film or sensor, when you take a photograph.
The amount of light entering the camera is controlled by two things: the shutter speed, and the aperture.

Shutter speed: This determines how long the shutter remains open, and therefore how long the film or sensor is exposed to light.
Shutterspeeds are usually expressed either as:
1) fractions of a second, eg: 1/2s, 1/4s, 1/8s or even 1/4000s or
2) for longer exposures, in seconds. eg: 30s, 15s, 4s, 2s, 1s.
A longer shutter speed, like 1/2s, lets more light enter the camera than a shorter one, like 1/8s.

Aperture: The aperture is the size of the hole in the lens, that allows light to enter the camera. The bigger the hole, the more light enters the camera, and vice versa.
Aperture sizes are expressed in f-stops, which are denominators of a fraction. So f/8 is actually 1/8, and f/4 is 1/4. And since these are fractions, f/4 is larger than f/8, and therefore f/4 lets more light enter the camera than f/8.
Each next f/stop (aperture) setting reduces the amount of light entering the camera by half. We can use the terms f/stop and aperture interchangeably as for our purposes they mean the same thing. The larger the number, the smaller the aperture, the smaller the number, the larger the aperture, and, the larger the aperture, the more light enters the camera.

Depth of Field and is one of the most important concepts of modern photography. It originates from the very fabric of a camera and its optics. When you take a photograph, the optical system on your camera has to focus on a subject. This is either done automatically (with Auto Focus) or manually (with Manual Focus) but always consists in selecting a specific distance for the lens to adjust to.

The effect of focusing is that all the objects located at exactly the focus distance away from the camera, will appear perfectly sharp in the final picture.

On the other hand objects that are located in front of and behind the focus distance, will gradually appear out of focus.

It is also important to understand that focusing works according to the distance from the camera to the subject.

You cannot focus on the left part of a scene and leave the right part blurry, but you can focus on something at a certain distance from the camera and leave everything else blurry. For example, you can focus on the foreground and leave the background blurry.

The distance in front of and behind the focusing point, in which everything appears to be “acceptably sharp”, is referred to as the depth of field.

Let’s take a look at a look at an illustration that will help you visualize this:

Tags: dof, depth of field, photography tutorial, photo tutorial, photography tutorials, dof tutorial

This is a part where those of you who cannot afford / do not own a strobe package should pay attention.
If you want to include exterior light with a homemade lighting system, you will have a massive disparity between the exterior and interior color temperatures. You’re probably intimately aware of this if you’ve tried to get your interior lighting setups to include exterior light.

In a “million-dollar-a-year” studio system, you’d balance to the sun with your already perfectly temp accurate broncolor strobe system and use a specific gel to match the strobe to your metered readings of the ambient light, but usually we don’t have that luxury. So first, let’s talk about mixing source light on the cheap.

If you want to mix daylight and your incandescent household light bulb system, you can purchase CTB photofloods for about $3 USD a piece from any online photo store.

The downside is that they only last for about three hours at their rated color temperature, and then they begin to shift severely (change their color) or just die completely. These won’t give you a perfect match, but they’ll get you in the ball park. The filaments are also very weak and fracture easily. But at three dollars a piece, they’re tough to pass up. You’d need to buy a lot of photofloods before you’d get close to the cost of a single strobe head, let alone a full system.

In order to get us a little closer to the “blue” of the exterior sunlight, we’ll need some gels. Most of us live near a city, at least within driving range on a monthly basis. Get out your phone directory and find all of the printing shops in your nearest city. Call those shops and ask if they have “used acetate approval sheets” and tell them that you’ll take them before they throw them out, for free!

The most common type is the Kodak Color Approval System. In the printing process, four sheets of acetate with each color dyed on its own sheet are used to make color proofs for the client. After a single usage, they’re discarded, leaving LOTS of color left on the acetate.

All of the colors can be used creatively (and the Cyan is often pretty close to CTB) but beware, they are not fire/melt proof… use them too close to your lights for too long and you’ll have a goopy mess on your hands.

Another note about saving money with gels. Instead of buying 1/4, 1/2 and Full CTB gels, just buy four sheets of “Full CTB” and cut them into strips of varying widths. This way you can mix the natural temperature of the light source (be it incandescent or otherwise) with some of the gel. You’ll find that you save money this way, and end up with a more accurate color in the end. I rarely ever use a full gel sheet, unless it’s for creative purposes.

When it comes to color temp matching, using three, four, five strips of a Full CTB gel often works better than using a full sheet of 1/2 CTB. The same holds true for CTO, etc.

Regarding Fluorescent lighting: avoid it like the plague. Gas lights bring forth a myriad of color problems. Personally, I enjoy lighting with fluorescents, but do so only with a color-accurate flicker free systems, like the Kino-flo.

If you HAVE to shoot in a situation with fluorescents, like in a warehouse, or a corporate location where the lights cannot be switched off, purchase some plus-green or minus-green gels from your photo store and use them over your own lights to match to the fluorescents.

If you must show the fluorescent lighting in the frame, I would also recommend you keep your shutter open longer than 1/125 (in the US) or 1/90 (in the UK) as this will allow all the bulbs to complete one cycle (60/50 Hz) during exposure.

Tags: photography tutorial, photography tutorials, photo tips, lighting, photography lighting, studio lighting, one light photography, bulb, table light, illumination

After learning the basics of photography studio lighting for objects, we can apply the same rules to portrait photography. However, there is one part of the equation that changes, and that is falloff. Falloff describes how quickly the center spot of the light (or area of equal illumination) changes into the ambient illumination of the subject (light cast from the room, or other lights, etc.)

Here’s how it works: we’ll look at equal camera exposures of an identical object, but change the distance of the light from the subject.

You’ll see that the “falloff” is different in each image even though the exposure is the same. The way this was achieved is by changing the distance between the subject and the light while maintaining the strength of the light at the subject’s surface. This is somewhat difficult to do with your household lamp.

Here strobes were used because in order to change the “power” of the light. In the right image, the strobe is bare bulb and about four feet from the subject’s head at 1/8th power. In the left image, the strobe is about eight feet from the subject’s head at 1/4 power.

Notice something familiar? The “halves and doubles” of your camera work the same way as “distance of the light to subject” as well. In order to prevent the change of the “power” of the light when you double the distance, you can also (roughly) double the power of the strobe.

Now look at circles B and B2. A great way to determine the distance of a strobe from the subject is to look at the specular highlight, seen here on the eye.

You can plainly see that when the strobe was closer to the subject it created a larger specular highlight on the eye. When the strobe was moved away from the subject, even though the exposure did not change, nor did the values of uniform areas, the specular highlight became smaller.

Look at the background. You’ll see that the exposure on the grey background has not changed at all. Since there is only one strobe, this was not achieved by a trick of the light, only by changing the distance between the background and the subject.

When the strobe’s distance from the subject was doubled, the distance between the strobe and the background must be maintained in order to maintain an equal value on both exposures (if you were to keep the power of the strobe constant, which was not).

A visual perspective on all this information:

Again, you should be able to see easily that while the distance between the subject and the light source has changed, the distance between the background and the light source has not changed.

If all things remain equal (the power of the strobe) then the wall’s exposure relevant to the camera will not perceptively change but the values on the subject will.

This is an important concept because if you are using a model on location, in an alleyway perhaps, and the values of the wall behind her are too low or too high, you can move the model and the strobes together towards the wall and maintain everything about the exposure (stop, shutter) but change the relevant values of the wall.

A Key Concept to Remember: the “hardness” or edge quality of a shadow is directly relevant to the distance between two objects and the light source.
If you have a strobe four feet from a model, and four feet behind her is a wall, when you decrease the distance between the model and the light source (and move only the light, not the model) you will soften the edge on her cast shadow.

If you increase the distance between the model and the light source, you will harden the edge on her cast shadow.

The same is conversely true, increase the distance between the wall and the model, while maintaining the distance between the model and the light source and you will soften the cast shadow edges. Decrease the distance from the model to the wall (while maintaining the distance between the model and the light source) and you will harden the cast shadow edge.

Why does shadow falloff matter? When you use multiple source lighting, it is harder to “hide” a shadow inside another if the edge quality of the shadow is hard. When the edge quality is smooth, you can light from two directions and by using a close ratio, hide one shadow within the light from the other source. This is how bilateral lighting can be achieved without having that hideously amateur “multiple shadow” result.

One more note: You MUST gray-balance your images. For the studio photographer, or aspiring studio photographer, I HIGHLY recommend your first purchase be a Gretagmacbeth color chart.

One side of this chart is 18% Gray (or, “mid-grey”) and the other side is a swatch chart with multiple colors and a gray-scale. They cost around $100 for the full paper size chart, but come in multiple sizes.

If you are on set, and have a chart that you can shoot (after you have set up your lights) then you will save yourself a world of pain later in the process. This isn’t as critical for closed system work (meaning from capture to print, you control the process) but if you plan to deliver your images to a client that will print them on their own, or deliver them to the printer, you want to make sure your images are color correct.
Some of this process is done in post with the posting facility (matching color “true” items, like products, or fabrics in the image, to the “real life” counter-parts).
Color temperature is described in the Kelvin scale, and is basically (in photography) a sliding scale between “orangish” (or commonly, CTO “Color Temp Orange) and “bluish” (or CTB or “Color Temp Blue”). More about this here.

You must also consider different types of light source, like gas-electric lights (that have a flicker, and a PlusGreen / MinusGreen cast to them).
One of the most common and most hideous examples of color issues is the indoor portrait with a window in frame, looking outside.
When you use a digital camera with the “AWB” balance function on, you end up with hideously orange people inside, and a Smurf blue outside world in the window. It looks like garbage, so pay attention when you choose the location of your portraits.

Go see part II

Tags: photography tutorial, photography tutorials, photo tips, lighting, photography lighting, studio lighting, one light photography, bulb, table light, illumination

There are lots of ways to introduce studio lighting and it seems like every book I’ve ever read has a different way of going about it.
I think that studio lighting is like telling a story, you can be a master of grammar but without a good idea, the story will be lackluster. The same goes for image making.
This is where one should begin: with an idea and the desire to achieve it.

For as many introductions there are to studio lighting, there are also as many types of studio lighting. If you wish to some day work as a professional, it is in your best interest to be able to light any situation from products to models, table top to cloth swatches. There are two major principles to beginning any studio project.
The first is the location of the “key” light. The second is the object to be photographed and the material of which it is made.

The materials we’re photographing are important indicators to what is “normal” in a proper exposure. If we want to photograph a young woman in a black velvet jacket, we do not want the jacket to be grey on our exposure, we want it to be black, particularly when shooting chromes.
However, with digital offering us more and more tools, we could probably fix most minor exposure problems in post-processing. Nonetheless, the studio allows for total creative control. The better each step is, the better the final product.

The first rule of thumb with studio work is to think about the image before you even begin to set up the shot. The second rule of thumb is “Don’t Panic!” I have yet to do a single project professionally or otherwise that goes perfectly to plan. If the idea begins to undergo metamorphosis, go with it. If you try to force a shoot to specifics, you’ll get frustrated and it still won’t be correct.

Let’s say we’ve got one light (bare bulb, meaning that the light is not confined or controlled with modifiers) and 2 different objects: a cell phone and a stuffed animal.
There is a lot of technical knowledge that you can use in studio work but most will benefit far more from achieving an understanding of how light “looks” rather than all the tools of a million-dollar-a-year studio. The cell phone, made of metallic surface, will cause reflexion of the light, while the stuffed animal is rather in danger of loosing details if shot with a flash. That being said, let’s look at the one light studio applied on the stuffed animal.

When using just one light, youu have to make your subject have shape and motivation from a single direction. One light photography can provide beautiful results for creative portrait work. In the earlier periods of cinema photography, a single source was commonly used for illumination in tight quarters, to provide extremely dynamic and moodily lit images.

When using multiple source lighting, the location becomes less of a contributor to the subject: the ratios of the light to the reflectance and resulting “reflectors” (like walls, the ceiling, the floor) become moot.

Three strobes directed at a single subject will outweigh most of the “reflected” light in the room. When using single source lighting, the objects in close proximity to the subject become a factor, because they will “cast” light onto the subject, sometimes to your benefit, sometimes not so much.

If you do not have a studio at school, or some other connection, you might be using lamps, or flashlights or whatever other sources of illumination you can concoct. That’s fine.

The example above it’s photographed on two surfaces, a light wood and a black velvet. Black velvet reflects very little light (for you geeks, it’s rated usually at 2% reflectance) and the light wood has a nice finish that makes it quite amber.

The differences between the two images should be immediately visible but perhaps a little misleading. Because the exposure and distances between all objects has not changed, the change in “feel” is a result of A) contrast edges and B) surface reflectivity.

One surface reflects more light than the other, which does many things.
Firstly, the owl on black velvet looks more dynamic because it is! Black velvet acts as “negative fill” or creates areas on your subject that have a lesser value due to a lack of receiving light because of an object placed in the way of its light receiving surfaces.
In other words: you added something to the set to get in the way of the light. Even though the black velvet is not in the direct way of the light source (between the light source and the subject), it still affects the object, compared to the same setup with a different surface.
The second cause for the change in “feel” is the “contrast edge” or lack thereof. In the black velvet owl image, shadow areas on the subject are adjacent to a low-reflective material and the human eye lumps them together.

The owl on wood has more light being reflected into shadow areas, providing a greater value, but also has a “high contrast edge” which provides a distinct difference for the eye to perceive. It essentially prevents us from being lazy, but also contributes to the motivation of the image: the “darker” image pushes you into the areas of highlights, while the “lighter” image causes you to look at the entire object.
Again, I caution that the camera exposure has not changed…

Now you can recognize that elements in the scene and around us contribute to the subject, even if we don’t directly intend them to do so. You can use this to our advantage however.
Let’s say that you want the black velvet surface in the image, but we want the reflected values in the shadowed areas of the owl to be more like it is with the lighter surface… you can still use just one light, but by using a “fill card” we can “fill in” the shadow areas of the owl, without changing the key light or altering the surface in frame.
I use fill cards regularly, with one or two lights, as you can see in this example, to reveal details about the object:

As you can see in this comparative diptych, the owl on the left has the same moody feel, as the owl on the left in the first example. The surprise is, there is no difference between the values on the surface of the owl on the left in the second example, and the owl on the right of the first example: the only change is that of the “contrast edge” and adjacent areas of “light” and “dark”.

The image of the owl on the right has even MORE light in the shadows than the owl on the right in the first image, and is still on black velvet. No source of light has been added, but the distance between the light, fill card, and owl has been altered.

In the second example, the left owl has a fill card at an equal distance to the subject as the light source, on the same plane as the other two objects (in other words, if you held a string from the fill card to the table lamp, it would pass through the middle of the owl, and the light and the fill card would be equidistant).

The wonderful thing about the Newtonian mechanics of light is that it is extremely predictable and we can use ratios for it easily. The same values of light at the surface of a subject will be achieved (basically) if the subject is 5’6″ high and the light source and fill boards are nine feet away.

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