Exercise: Experimenting with light

Outline: Take between four and six head and shoulders portraits that are very different in lighting effect.

For this exercise I have chosen to use a completely unenthusiastic two year old as my subject and have taken a number of shots taken with natural lighting to attempt to show the differences in the shadows created.

Rear lighting

I took this picture indoors with a big window directly behind the subject. All detail in the face is difficult to see due to the vast shadow cast over the face.

Rear lighting with on camera flash

So here is the same shot, seconds later, but here I have used the on camera flash as well.  I think this works quite well and hasn't over exposed the face at all or created any unwanted shadows.

Sunlight to the left of subject

 This is the first of the outdoor shots. The bright sun is off to the left of the image, casting the right side of the face into shadow and the left side of the face really bright and over exposed, with shadows created to the right of the left eye and to the left side of the nose from the cheek.

Sunlight to the left of subject with face turned away from light

This the same shot as the previous one, with a slightly further right camera angle with the subject turning away from the sunlight. The face is in shadow and the face complexion  looks good however the sun doesn't really add anything to the image here. 

sunlight to subjects left with face in shade including flash

This is the same image as above but with the on camera flash as well. The flash doesn't really make this any better. The face is still in shade but is now brighter.

Sunlight to right side of face

Finally, the sun is now off to the right of the subject high in the sky, creating shadows in the eye sockets as the subject is looking up.


Conclusion:
The lighting is always going to be important in a portrait shoot. I much prefer natural lighting where possible and will only use my on camera flash if absolutely necessary as it is not the most flattering lighting to the subject. But it can give positive results, as shown above in the indoor shots. Images in sunlight are always bright and vivid but we can see how it can create unwanted shadows and possible overexposure.