Composition and Design

Today's post comes from the book The Best of Family Portrait Photography by Bill Hurter. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

LINES AND SHAPES
As you will see, designing successful family portraits depends on your sensibility of the intangible: those implied lines and shapes in a composition.

Lines. A line is an artistic element used to create visual motion within the portrait. It may be implied by the arrangement of the family members, or inferred, by grouping various elements within the scene. The photographer must be able to recognize real and implied lines within the photograph.

A real line is one that is obvious—a horizon line, for example. An implied line is one that is not as obvious; the curve of the wrist or the bend of an arm is an implied line. Real lines should not
cut the photograph into halves. It is better to locate these at one-third points within the photograph.

Implied lines, like the arms and legs of the group, should not contradict the direction or emphasis of the composition, just modify it. These lines should provide gentle, not dramatic changes in direction, and again, they should lead to the main point of interest.

Beautiful design doesn’t happen by accident. In this wonderful portrait by Deanna Urs, you will find a statuesque pyramid shape composed of the entire group and a lovely S curve created by the mother’s pose. Deanna used rich fabrics to drape her subjects, lending a timeless atmosphere to the portrait. The beautiful flowing lines of the people offset all of the square lines and edges found in the background props.

Lines that meet the edge of the photograph—real or implied—should lead the eye into the scene and not out of it, and they should lead toward the subject. A good example of this is the country road that is widest in the foreground and narrows to a point where the subjects are walking. These lines lead the eye straight to the subjects. By the way, the point at which the road in this
example narrows to a point on the horizon is known as the vanishing point.

Shapes. Shapes are groupings of like elements: diamond shapes, circles, pyramids, etc. Usually, it is a collection of faces that forms this type of pattern. Shapes are used to produce pleasing designs within the composition that guide the eye through the picture.

Pleasing Compositional Forms. The S-shaped composition is perhaps the most pleasing of all. The center of interest will fall on either a third line or a golden mean, but the remainder of the composition forms a gently sloping S shape that leads the eye through the photograph and to the main point of interest. The Z shape is a close relative to the S-shaped design.

The pyramid is the one of the most pleasing shapes to the eye and is often used in photographing large groups. The simple shape brings order to chaos. This image by Tibor Imely displays perfect color coordination and beautiful lighting created by the twilight. When the sun has set below the horizon, its rays continue to light the overhead sky and clouds, creating the softest most beautiful light of the day. Tibor uses no fill light when working at this location, which he frequents often because of the light and pleasant sea-oats background.

Another pleasing form of composition is the L shape or inverted L shape, which is observed when the group’s form resembles the letter L or an inverted letter L. This type of composition is ideal for reclining or seated subjects. These compositional forms may encompass line alone or line and shape to accomplish the pattern.

Amidst this beautifully posed image you will find a delightful S curve meandering through the composition, almost unnoticeably. Within the posing you will find various triangles and overlapping triangles that are a result of expert group posing. This image is by Robert and Suzanne Love

Direction. Regardless of which direction the subjects are facing in the photograph, there should be slightly more room in front of the group on the side toward which they are facing.

For instance, if the family is looking to the right as you look at the scene through the viewfinder, then there should be more space to the right side of the subjects than to the left of the group in the frame. This gives the image a visual sense of direction.

Even if the composition of the image is such that you want to position the family group very close to the center of the frame, there should still be slightly more space on the side toward which the group is turned.

In this beautiful portrait by Fran Reisner, the sisters are positioned to the left of center, moving into the frame, creating a strong sense of direction. They are positioned at one of the points of interest according to the rule of thirds. The field of wheat, with its horizontal lines from foreground to horizon, contrasts the strong vertical shapes of the young girls

At first, such an arrangement may seem to be a foreign concept, but the more you learn to recognize these elements, the more they will become an integral part of your group compositions.

As in any artistic venture, the goal of the family portrait photographer is to provide visual direction and movement in the image, guiding the viewer’s eye through the composition in an interesting way. The opposite of this is a static image, where no motion or direction is found and the viewer simply “recognizes” rather than enjoys all of the elements in the photo.

SUBJECT TONE
The eye is always drawn to the lightest part of a photograph. The rule of thumb is that light tones advance visually, and dark tones retreat. Therefore, elements in the picture that are lighter in tone than the subject will be distracting. Bright areas, particularly at the edges of the photograph, should be darkened either in printing, in the computer, or in-camera (by masking or vignetting) so that the viewer’s eye is not drawn away from the subject.

This portrait by Frank Frost combines the warm tones of autumn with the stark black and red outfits of the family. The strong diagonal line runs through the composition, giving it a dynamic quality and a sense of direction. The tones throughout the image coordinate and unify the photograph.

There are some portraits where the subject is the darkest part of the scene, such as in a high-key portrait with a white background. This is the same basic principle at work; the eye travels to the region of greatest contrast. Regardless of whether the main subject is light or dark, it should dominate the rest of the photograph either by brightness or by contrast.

It’s amazing how nature sometimes cooperates with a photographer. Here, the Black-eyed Susans in the background seem to provide a well conceived frame around the family. The daughters’ ribbons match exactly the color of the flowers. The photographer, Frank Frost, carefully burned in areas of tone that might compete with the family so that your focus is drawn to them. Also notice the strong triangle shape created by the composition, offset on a rule-of-thirds line to create a dynamic composition.

Whether an area is in focus or out of focus has a lot to do with determining the amount of visual emphasis it will receive. A light-colored background that is lighter than the group, but distinctly out of focus, will not necessarily detract from the family. It may, in fact, enhance and frame the group, keeping the viewer’s eye centered on the subjects.

The same is true of foreground areas. Although it is a good idea to make them darker than your subject, sometimes you can’t. If the foreground is out of focus, however, it will detract less from the group, which, hopefully, is sharp.

This photograph by Stacy Bratton shows you why parents hire professional photographers to create portraits of their children. This is such an innovative image, made even more effective by shallow depth of field and a relatively slow shutter speed that blurs the child’s hair. And the expression is priceless. Everything about the image is original and fresh.

A technique that is becoming popular is to diffuse an area of the photograph you want to minimize or use to focus attention on your main center of interest. This is usually done in Photoshop by selecting the area and “feathering” it so that the diffusion effect diminishes the closer you get to the edge of the selection.

Tension and balance are the two most effective ways to achieve visual interest in a photograph. Here, in Jennifer Maring’s beautiful portrait of sisters, you can see both states at work. The balance and tension are derived from the same area, the forms of the two sisters, which loosely resembles the infinity sign or numeral 8, a highly symmetrical symbol. The imbalance or tension comes from the same place—all of the deviations that make the two matching forms different; for example one girl is bigger than the other, one’s dress is less perfectly shaped than the other, and so on.

Expert family portrait photographers insist on tight control over wardrobe for a big family photograph. Instead of dictating one “uniform” for the entire family, they will define complementary color schemes. For example, where multiple families are displayed, each will be in a different outfit—khaki and red, or denim and white. Other families within the group will have different coordinating outfits—khaki and yellow, or denim shirts and khaki pants. The result is uniformity and diversity.

TENSION AND BALANCE
Once you begin to recognize real and implied lines and to incorporate shapes and curves into your family portraits, you need to become aware of the concepts of tension and balance. Tension, or visual contrast, is a state of imbalance in a photograph—a big sky and a small subject, for example, is a situation having visual tension.

Although tension does not have to be “resolved” in an image, it works in tandem with the concept of balance. As you examine the photographs in this book and read the captions, you will hear these terms referred to often. For example, a group of four on one side of an image and two subjects on the other side of the frame produce visual tension. They contrast each other because they are different sizes and not necessarily symmetrical. But the photograph may be in a state of perfect visual balance by virtue of what falls between these two groups, or for some other reason. For instance, using the same example, these two different groups could be resolved visually if the larger group is wearing dark clothes and the smaller group is wearing brighter clothes. The eye then sees the two groups as more or less equal—one group demands attention by virtue of its size, the other gains attention by virtue of its brightness.

These strategies are subjective to a large extent, but there is no question that the eye/brain reacts favorably to both balance and visual tension and they are active ingredients in great photography.

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Simulated Sunlight

Today's post comes from the book Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography. This book is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

One of our jobs as successful photographers is to identify and exploit trends, which frequently make themselves known through commercial advertising. Like many advertising shooters, I have a love/hate relationship with art directors, those ad agency folks who dream up the ads in the first place.While I hate it when they make what I might think are dumb creative decisions during a shoot, I love them because they are paid to dream up attention-getting visuals for typically mundane subjects (and for paying me handsomely to produce the images). Art directors are often responsible for trends, because when they see a successful image from another agency, they tend to use it as a point of departure. When enough art directors do this, a trend is born through “trickle-down creative,” eventually making its way through the entire industry as clients begin asking for the “look.”

I’ve been seeing more and more national advertisements shot with simulated sunlight—beautiful images with clearly defined shadows and small, specular highlights. Is this a trend? Probably. I think we’ll see this style continue for quite a while. Is it cool? Absolutely.

There are several ways to simulate sunlight, and simply going outside is not a viable option because you have no control over the situation. It’s simply impractical.

HMIs were created for the motion picture and video industries. They are continuous sources like traditional hot lights and are pricey to rent (usually only from cinema supply houses) and very expensive to buy. However, they produce a very convincing “sunlight.” Larger HMIs can illuminate entire city blocks.

If you use hot lights, you should use something with a focusable fresnel spot in order to keep the shadows sharp. Pay attention to the crispness of the shadow and also to the amount of fill you might need.

Far and away, the most practical lights are studio strobes. If you simply attach a small reflector, however, you may not get an authentic look, especially when lighting someone in a larger area. Light modified with a reflector will not spread out in all directions as sunlight does, nor will it create a correct shadow shape. I think it’s a good idea to tilt the strobe head to the 11:00 position, relative to the subject, so that the subject receives the full blast of the tube without any additional reflection from the strobe unit itself.


Deeper shadows can be achieved by adding a subtractive fill device, like a black bookend, to the shadow side of the image. There is a slight loss of bounced light against the background, which would not be as noticeable if the background were a darker color.

The next shot (left) would have appeared flat without the addition of a narrow strip light between the subject and the background. The strip light was angled carefully to avoid any spill onto the model or the towels. It was powered at 1/2 stop over the main light, as measured at the top of the frame, and allowed to fall off to give the image vertical depth, perhaps like a skylight. If I’d wished to keep it even, I’d have set the strip light vertically at camera left and feathered it evenly across the background.



The barebulb strobe, placed above and just slightly to camera right, threw beautiful, even light on the model. The crisp shadow shows plenty of detail because the bulb sprayed light in all directions and it bounced around the room. The texture of the towels looks great because the small source created a small, sharp shadow on each fabric loop (image above and diagram below).



If you need to give the illusion of sunlight as an accent, take advantage of the barebulb’s ability to produce distinct shadows and mimic the shape of a window and direct light through it. I used a pair of black bookends to create this shape. The black absorbed a lot of the extra light before it could bounce around the room and possibly affect the exposure of the main light. The window light was powered to 1 stop over the main light, a medium softbox. Even though that light was so much brighter than the main light, it brightened the dark wall, just not enough to overexpose it.



I wanted to give the image above a look of stage light, which is often perceived as a little hot, so I powered both the hair light and the background accent light to 2/3 stop brighter than the main light (image above and diagram below).



Creating a window with panes is really easy. The image shown on the facing page, shot for a magazine cover, uses an additional technique that you might find interesting. The basic window shape was made as before, by sectioning off a piece of the studio with black bookends. After moving two light stands into position behind the bookends (so their shadows wouldn’t show), I used clamps to attach a small wooden plank between them. Leaning a wider plank vertically against the crossbeam completed the illusion.


The main light, a 3x4-foot medium softbox, was aimed at the model at the same angle as the simulated sun. Another softbox was placed at camera left, very close and powered 2 stops less than the main light—just enough to open up the shadows. The modeling lamps for the main light and the window light were turned off, but the modeling lamp for the side light was left on. My shutter speed was 1.5 seconds. The strobes fired at the start of the handheld exposure, and the additional open shutter time created the warm fill and slight motion blur (diagram above and image below).


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Making the Most Out of One Light

Today's post comes from the book Portrait Lighting for Digital Photographers: The Basics and Beyond by Stephen Dantzig. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

We are going to turn one strobe into a hair/rim, main, and fill light in this lesson. We know that light falls off quickly but that the exposure stays more consistent when the light is farther away from your subject. We are going to exploit these facts to make this lighting scheme work.

The first thing we are going to do is place our model about eight feet from the backdrop and position a strobe with a 40 degree grid right by the backdrop, pointed toward the model. The 40 degree grid will narrow the beam of light to keep it within a controlled area—we don’t want a lot of uncontrolled light blasting back toward the camera, but we do want enough spread to effectively bounce light off of the reflector.

The highlights from the reflectors were brighter than I expected, so I used the Brush tool in Photoshop to tone down some of the hot spots. I set my brush opacity to about 20% and the brush flow to about 40%and set the blending mode to Darken. I used a sample of the darker tones around the hot spots to select my paint color (use the Eyedropper tool and alt/click the spot that you want to sample). The image shown on the left is a screen capture of the photograph after the hot spots were toned down, but it shows the brush settings and an approximate place that I would sample for one paint color. I then simply make as many passes with the Brush tool as I want, with each stroke adding a little more paint

Next, we are going to place a large silver card 2 feet in front of our model. The light from the gridspot travels 2 feet past the model to strike the reflector (traveling a total of 10 feet), then bounces off the reflector and travels 2 feet more. The falloff from that point won’t be too great because the light hitting the reflector is only traveling 2 feet to reach Flora. The spotlight is now the hair light, and the reflector is the main light. We actually want the light to fall off somewhat because we want the hair/rim light to be a bit “hotter” than our main light. The exposure at the back of Flora’s hood was f/11 and 7/10. The exposure at her cheek (from the reflected light) was f/8 and 3/10.

Here are a diagram of the setup used to create the shot and the image after some basic retouching and a simple Curves adjustment layer for color correction.

We completed the setup by adding a second reflector opposite the main light (the first reflector) to catch and bounce any light that passed our model. Here’s how it worked: The light from the gridspot directly lit Flora’s hair and acted as a hair light. The light that passed her hit the first large reflector, which was positioned to catch the overflow and light her face. The angle of the reflector ensured that some light would pass Flora and hit a second reflector. The light off of the second reflector provided a soft fill.

Flora’s arms and hood were still a little too bright for me, so I added a second Curves adjustment layer to darken the image.

I simply added a new Curves adjustment layer and pulled the center point of the curve down a little. The screen capture shows that the adjustment layer comes with a mask. I selected black paint and painted over the mask to let the original tones of Flora’s face and hair show through.

The second Curves adjustment layer darkens the areas around Flora’s face and draws your eye to her pretty smile.

I wanted Flora’s skin to glow in this image, and I discovered a really cool skin softening technique! It comes to us from Dave Cross at www.photoshopuser.com. He got it from David Ziser—so from David, to Dave, to me, to you! The best part is that this effect is adjustable. I wrote an action for this because I might be using it a lot from now on! Here it is:

1. Duplicate your main retouched layer.
2. Change the blending mode to Overlay.
3. Apply the High Pass filter (hidden in the “Other” filter section). I kept the default of 10 pixels.
4. Inverse the effect by hitting ctrl/cmd + I.
5. Lower the opacity of this layer to what you like (I use 40% as a starting point); you can always adjust it later.
6. Apply a layer mask.
7. Select the Brush tool and set the foreground color to black.
8. Stop recording if you are recording an action.
9. Paint in the details in the eyes, eyelids, mouth, and hair.
10. Check/adjust the opacity of the filtered layer.

We are almost finished with the image, but I want to add a little more emphasis to Flora’s face. A third Curves adjustment layer will do the trick!

The screen capture shows the layers after running the softening action. Notice that I set the opacity of the softened layer to 50%.

The softening effect produces a nice smooth finish to Flora’s skin that helps create a more glamorous feel to the image.

I added a final Curves adjustment layer, this time pulling up on the center dot to lighten the overall image. I used the Paint Bucket tool with black paint and clicked on the layer mask. This filled the mask with black and hid the effect I had just created. I then switched the foreground color to white, selected the Brush tool, and painted over Flora’s face at a low opacity to slowly lighten the area until I had what I wanted.

We created a fun and glamorous look for Flora with one light, two reflectors, and some basic Photoshop techniques. You can too!

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Top 5 Poses for High School Seniors

Today's post comes from the book Master Guide for Photographing High School Seniors by Dave Wacker, Jean Wacker and J.D. Wacker. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

Top-Five Senior Girl Poses

The Ski Slope. The ski-slope pose is an easy, sitting-on-the-ground pose with excellent balance. It provides a wide triangular base and long, dynamic diagonal lines.



The Standing S. With clear alternating posing lines, this classic female pose is slimming, yet it helps to define body curves.



The Lean. The lean is a very graphic and dynamic pose that will not work for every subject and every outfit. It exaggerates the feminine S curve and is very effective for posing a series of images: full-length, three-quarter-length, and even tight head-and-shoulders portraits.



Head and Shoulders. Depending upon the subject’s build, hair, and facial shape, several poses can be used for girls’ head-and-shoulders portraits. However, tipping the shoulders and tilting the head toward the higher shoulder is always the most feminine look.



Hands. In this crossed-arm pose, known as “The Butterfly,” the wrists are bent, the hands are shown at the edge, and the fingers are long and beautiful.



Top-Five Senior Boy Poses

The Mountain. The mountain pose is a very easy, ground-level pose for senior boys—especially if you show them how to position their legs. Tipping the head toward the raised knee forces all of the posing lines to converge, creating a very masculine C pose. This is a very comfortable pose and can yield several good images when photographed for different crops, at different angles, etc.



The Standing C. Start by turning the subject to the side and having him shift his weight to his back leg. This will tip most of the posing lines in one direction. Tip his head toward his lower shoulder to complete construction of an elongated C.



The Lean. This is probably our favorite, multifunctional pose for senior boys, because it works for almost everyone. Provide a three-foot wooden ladder for the boy to put his foot on, have him lean his arm on his leg, tip his head to his lower shoulder, and that’s about it. You can do several images with this pose, including an excellent head-and-shoulders portrait. Give your subject a ball and the same pose works great for sports portraits, as well.



Head and Shoulders. Depending upon the subject’s build, hair, and facial shape, several poses can be used for guys’ head-and-shoulders portraits.Just be sure to keep the head tipped toward the lower shoulder, which is masculine, not the higher shoulder, which is very feminine.



Hands. As when posing girls’ hands, try to show the edge of the hand and avoid too many prominent knuckles. A closed hand is good for boys, as long as they don’t close it too tightly, straining the knuckles and shortening the fingers.


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Posing Elements

Today's post comes from the book The Best of Portrait Photography, 2nd Edition by Bill Hurter. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

Tilting the Head. Your subject’s head should be sightly tilted in every portrait. By doing this, you slant the natural line of the person’s eyes. When the face is not tilted, the implied line of the eyes is straight and parallel to the bottom edge of the photograph, leading to a static composition. By tilting the person’s face, the implied line becomes diagonal and the pose appears more dynamic.

Masculine and Feminine Poses. While there is considerable debate over the relevance of the terms “masculine” and “feminine,” they are generally understood by portrait photographers to refer to a pose containing certain basic elements—much of it relating to the direction the subject’s head is tilted. In the masculine pose, the head and body are turned in the same direction and the head is tipped toward the low (far) shoulder. In the feminine pose, the head is turned and tipped toward the high (near) shoulder; the body is leaned forward at the waist, then tilted slightly in the opposite direction from the way the face is turned. For example, if the subject is looking to the left shoulder, the body should lean slightly to the right.

This portrait is casual, but it still adheres to the basics of good posing. The shoulders are turned at an angle and the head tipped toward the far shoulder in a traditional masculine pose. The camera viewpoint is high, providing a unique perspective, and the hands are treated casually. Teenage boys should be posed naturally to relieve self-consciousness. Photograph by Deborah Lynn Ferro.

The Eyes. The area of primary visual interest in the human face is the eyes. The eyes are the most expressive part of the face and if the subject is bored or uncomfortable, you will see it in
their eyes.

Engaging the Eyes. The best way to keep the subject’s eyes active and alive is to engage the person in conversation. Look at the person while you are setting up and try to find a common frame of interest. Ask your subject about himself; it’s the one subject everyone is interested in talking about. If the person does not look at you when you are talking, he or she is either uncomfortable or shy. In either case, you have to work to relax your subject and encourage trust. Try a variety of conversational topics until you find one the person warms to and then pursue it. As you gain your subject’s interest, you will take his or her mind off of the portrait session.

This album page by Heidi Mauracher exemplifies the feminine pose. The bride’s head is tipped toward the near shoulder and the beautiful sloping line of the shoulders. Also, notice the beautiful hand posing; the edges of the hand are photographed and the graceful fingers are separated by a small amount of space. Notice, too, that the bride is not really resting her chin on her hand; it is an effective illusion of the pose.

Direction. The direction the person is looking is important. Start the portrait session by having the person look at you. Using a cable release or wireless remote with the camera tripod- mounted forces you to become the host and allows you to physically hold the subject’s attention. It is a good idea to shoot a few frames of the person looking directly into the camera, but most people will appreciate some variety. Looking into the lens for too long a time will bore your subject, as there is no personal interaction when looking into the camera. Many photographers don’t want to stray too far from the viewfinder and so they will “come up” from
the viewfinder to engage the subject just prior to the moment of exposure.

Iris Position. The colored part of the eye, the iris, should border the eyelids. In other words, there should not be much white space between the top or bottom of the iris and the eyelid. If there is a space, it should be intentional—as when creating a wide-eyed, innocent look, for example.

Di Fingleton is a magistrate in Australia. For his book, The Faces of Queensland, Marcus Bell chose to isolate only one eye as the basis for his portrait of her. You can see the compassion and intelligence in this portrait as effectively as if the entire face were pictured

Pupil Size. Pupil size is also important. If working under bright lights, the pupil will be very small and the subject’s eyes will look “beady.” A way to correct this is to have your subject close their eyes for a moment just prior to the exposure. This allows the pupils to return to a normal size for the exposure.

Just the opposite can happen if you are working in subdued light; the pupil will appear too large, giving the subject a vacant look. In that case, have the subject stare momentarily at the brightest nearby light source to contract the pupil.

The Mouth. Generally, it is a good idea to shoot a variety of portraits—some smiling and some serious (or at least not smiling). People are often self-conscious about their teeth and mouths, but if you see that your subject has an attractive smile, get plenty of exposures of it.

One of the best ways to produce a natural smile is to praise your subject. Tell him or her how good they look and how much you like a certain feature of theirs. Simply saying “Smile!” will produce a lifeless, “say cheese” type of portrait.With sincerity and flattery you will get the person to smile naturally and their eyes will be engaged.

A natural smile is often the key to a successful portrait. Pictured is professor Ian Frazier, who heads up the Queensland Center for Immunology and Cancer Research in Australia. Marcus Bell chose to picture him in a closed mouth smile that seemed to be indicative of his character. This portrait reminds us that the mouth is as expressive as the eyes.

It may also be necessary to remind the subject to moisten his or her lips periodically. This makes the lips sparkle in the finished portrait, as the moisture produces tiny specular highlights on the lips.

Also, pay close attention to be sure there is no tension in the muscles around the mouth, since this will give the portrait an unnatural, posed look. Again, creating a relaxed environment is the best way to relieve tension, so talk to the person to take his or her mind off the session. Some people have a slight gap between their lips when they are relaxed. If you observe this, let them know about it in a friendly, non-critical way. If they forget, simply remind them. Although this gap is not disconcerting when casually observing the person in repose, when frozen in a portrait it will look unnatural to see the subject’s teeth showing through the gap.

One of the most engaging smiles can be seen when both the mouth and the eyes smile simultaneously. The best photographers are well paid to find and isolate just such moments of pure joy. Photograph by Alisha and Brook Todd.

Laugh Lines. An area of the face where problems occasionally arise is the frontal most part of the cheek—the part of the face that creases when a person smiles. Some people have pronounced furrows that look unnaturally deep when they are photographed smiling. You should take note of this area of the face. If necessary, you may have to increase the fill-light intensity to lighten these deep shadows, or adjust your key light to be more frontal in nature. If the lines are severe, avoid a “big smile” type of pose altogether. (Note: In some cases, these smile creases define character. If so, the remedial lighting should be avoided in order to showcase this trait.)

Chin Height. The height of the subject’s chin will have an impact on the viewer. If the person’s chin is too high, he or she will look haughty; if it is too low, the subject will look timid or lacking in confidence.

You would not think that chin height would be a crucial element in a good portrait, but it definitely is. In this appealing senior portrait by Ira Ellis, the chin height of this young man makes him appear confident but fun loving. A higher or lower chin height would not necessarily have been as appropriate with this pose.

Beyond these psychological implications, a person’s neck will look stretched and elongated if the chin is too high. The opposite is true if the chin is held too low; the person may appear to have a double chin or no neck at all.

The solution is a medium chin height. When in doubt, ask the sitter if the pose feels natural. This is usually a good indicator of what looks natural.

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Feathering Light

Today's post comes from the book Christopher Grey's Studio Lighting Techniques for Photography. It is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

Some time ago, I was involved in a conversation between photographers who believed that digital cameras simply could not record an adequate contrast range. Horror stories flew about the difficulties of shooting blacksuited executives with white shirts, tuxedoed groomsmen and whitegowned brides, and interracial couples. The problem, as they saw it, was that one side of the contrast range had to be slighted in favor of the other. The ultimate dilemma, of course, was deciding which side would take the hit. Most decided it would be best to shoot for the bright side and fix the rest in Photoshop.

Though that approach works in theory, it’s misguided in reality by assuming that exposure deficiencies can always be adjusted to “normal” by using Levels or Curves adjustments. They cannot. After a certain point (1/3 stop of overexposure or 2/3 stop of underexposure), straight Photoshop adjustments will not look the same as a perfectly exposed counterpart. The second flaw in the argument is the tremendous amount of extra work a photographer would have to do just to make the proofs presentable. In other words, one would have to do major, time-consuming retouching on each and every image before making a single dime on prints. Such an investment of time is simply not acceptable in a successful digital workflow environment, even if you go through the trouble of shooting RAW files.

In truth, a little more planning on the front end would mean no work at all on the back end—no masking, no adjustments, no RAW processing—just a quick trip to the printer for terrific proofs (cosmetic retouching optional). We can accomplish this task in the studio by controlling the
strength and direction of the light.

The models for this chapter are friends of mine, Sandra and Keith, who are very much in love and engaged to be married. He is African American, she is Latina. To make this exercise more difficult (and to prove how easy this actually is), I requested that Keith wear white clothing and Sandra wear black. Because I want substantial modeling of the planes of their faces, I will use only one light for my main light, plus two kickers and a background light.

Given enough distance and a large enough light source, such as a large softbox or umbrella, it’s quite possible that you could keep your source far enough away from the subjects so that the light spread will be constant over both (or more) of them.

But what if you don’t have that option? Many photographers work in relatively small spaces and have to make the most of them. Also, many, if not most, do not have the luxury of working with large (4x6-foot) softboxes or umbrellas with a diameter larger than 36 inches.
After my friends arrived, I placed two tape marks on the floor to indicate their positions and began to tweak my previously roughed-in lighting scenario. My main light was a strobe in a 3x4-foot softbox, set at the optimum distance (in my opinion) of 7 feet from the two subjects. At that distance, when the main light is aimed to the center of the two people (which is the logical place to aim it), the difference in exposure from his right shoulder to her left shoulder was 4/10 of a stop, 2/10 on each side of my target aperture of f/5.6 and too wide a range to properly expose everything. I decided I’d fix it after the other lights were set (diagram above).

To separate the subjects from the background and add visual interest, I added two strobes in strip light softboxes, one on each side behind the couple and camera-blocked with black bookends. As a twist to what’s usually done, I powered the two lights down to 1/3 stop less than the main light. I knew I would still have a highlight along the edges because the angle of incidence of those two lights bounced light straight back to the camera along the lens axis, which, by itself, looked like this (image below).



To add depth, I mounted a strobe with a beauty bowl and a 25 degree grid (a favorite combo) on a boom arm. From directly above the couple the light was aimed behind and below shoulder height. This background light was powered 1/3 stop less than the target value for the main light, as measured at the hot spot (image below).


Once the secondary lights were in place, I angled the main light softbox significantly to the left, actually aiming it past her left shoulder. At first blush this doesn’t make sense because logic dictates that he will not get enough light. In truth, however, that’s exactly what we want.

Good softboxes are designed to spray light evenly, but not necessarily with the same intensity, in all directions at it exits the box. What I did was feather the light, by angling the box, until the strength of the light on the right side equaled the strength on the left. From there it was a simple matter to power up the generator to get my target f-stop of f/5.6. I know it looks and sounds odd, but if you try it, I guarantee you it will work (diagram below).


The shoot began with Keith. If he would be overexposed, it would most likely be from this side, as it’s closest to the light. Note that there is detail in even the brightest parts of his shirt as well as in her black outfit. Note also that both faces are represented perfectly, even though no other lights are in play (image below, top). (By the way, all of these images are JPEGs straight out of the camera. A little cropping, but no Curves or Levels adjustments at all [image below, bottom].)




When all lights are up, the true beauty of feathered light becomes obvious. The exposure is even across the board, the kicker lights add contour and visually separate the couple from the background, and the background light provides dimension. The feathered light is so constant and perfectly controlled that their positions make no difference at all, as long as they stay on their marks (image below).



A Bonus
As we were wrapping up this shoot, it occurred to me that this scenario would be very romantic without the main light. I turned it off but maintained the camera’s aperture at f/5.6. The background light does wonderful things, adding a sense of mystery to the image, while the side lights contour my friends and give them some dimension (image below). The ability of light to feather itself across a large area is something that you’ll be able to use in dozens of situations. You only need to play with this once to get the concept, and each additional time you use it, it will become easier to estimate just how much angle you’ll need. The first time I tried it, years ago, I spent ten minutes getting it right. These days, it takes only a minute or two. The best part? You can feather light from much shorter light-to-subject distances.



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Light and Color

Today's post comes from the book Lighting Techniques for Photographing Model Portfolios by Billy Pegram. This book is available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

Color Temperature. When we look at a visible light source, it appears to be white, but it’s actually a mixture of colors that our eyes are designed to perceive as white. In fact, few light sources are actually neutral in their color. Most have some some color cast. This color is measured in degrees Kelvin (K). As a result, it is known as the color temperature. The higher the temperature, the more bluish the light is; the lower the temperature, the more reddish the light is. As shown in the table below, light sources have many different color temperatures.

Overcast daylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6500–7200K
Midday sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5400–5700K
Sunrise or sunset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2000–3000K
Fluorescent (daylight-balanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . .6500K
Electronic flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5600–6200K
Fluorescent (cool white) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4300K
Tungsten-halogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3200K
Household lamps (40–150W) . . . . . . . . . .2500–2900K
Candle flame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2000K

Color temperature has a direct bearing on how colors will be recorded in your images. In many cases, getting the desired image colors requires compensating for the color of the light source. This is most commonly accomplished through film selection, filtration, or white-balance selection.

Without changing the lighting, notice the huge change that adjusting the white-balance setting makes in the way all of the colors on this chart are recorded.

Daylight films render colors accurately, as your eye sees them, when used under light with a color temperature of 5500K (the light found in the middle of the day). Later in the day, the color temperature is lower. Shooting with daylight film, this will result in colors that are warmer than they appeared to your eye. To correct for this, you would need to add a color-compensating filter to your camera. In the digital world, however, things are simpler. To control how your camera “sees” color, you adjust its white-balance setting to match the color temperature of the light. Digital SLRs have white-balance presets (like daylight, incandescent, and fluorescent) or you can create a custom white-balance settings by taking a reading off a white card illuminated by the light source you’ll be using.

Practical Example: Adding Variety with White Balance. The three images below, all photographs of Brigitte, were shot to illustrate how a simple change in white balance or exposure will drastically change the effects of your photographs. The lighting for this series was a very simple: a small soft box was pointed directly at the model from about six feet away and angled down to cover the mask of her face (the forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, lips, and chin). Two White Lightning strobes were aimed at the model’s garment and goboed to prevent lens flare. With these lights, the correct white balance (normal representation of colors) should be either a daylight or flash setting on your camera’s menu. Setting the camera to a tungsten white balance produces a blue tonality that can lead to spectacularly beautiful images.

Changes in white balance and exposure are a simple way to add variety. Here, the white-balance and exposure were set to match the flash.

Here, the exposure remained the same, but the white-balance setting was changed to tungsten.

In this image, the white-balance setting was left on tungsten, but the image was overexposed by one stop.

This is not a situation of right or wrong, good or bad; the only question is whether or not the results meet your expectations—and the expectations of the client who is paying you. For example, this would not be an appropriate technique to try if you knew that the client required accurate color to show a garment or product packaging. (Note: When you take a job from a commercial client, there will normally be an art department or, at minimum, a graphic designer with whom you will work. Be creative. Give them a variety of options—maybe even something you try in postproduction, as seen in the image below. Demonstrate to the client that you are proficient and possess creative ability. By doing so, you will gain their trust and respect, which usually opens them to allowing you more creative control.)

Further variations can be explored using postproduction enhancements.

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