Exercise 3: Experimenting with light

Different lighting can provide a different mood or effect for the images you create.  Although I don't have studio lighting I have experimented with the flash I have and natural daylight to try and get a different type of shot.

I haven't tried this much with people, so this exercise was pretty much a first for me.  

I used a combination of flash and natural daylight for these shots. 

With tight framing the distraction of the background is limited and therefore the shapes of the face are more apparent.  

This picture was taken in natural daylight that was coming into a lookout hut at the top of a cliff.  The day was overcast so I had a diffused light source to work with.  

This light on one side of the subject's face gives shape and character to the subject and defines the facial characteristics. 

This shot was taken inside with the subject sitting near a window.  I chose to underexpose the shot to remove as much as the background as possible and to focus more on the light that is actually hitting the left side of his face.  This type of low key lighting adds mood to the shot.  

Again taken indoors near a window with natural light.  I placed a piece of white card to the right of the subject to bring out some of the detail in the shaded part of the face.  

Natural light with a homemade reflector used to bounce some light back into the shaded part of the subject's face. 

Taken using flash and a piece of white card to open up the shaded area of the face. 

Perhaps a little adventurous - but I used a snoot to illuminate only the eyes in this shot.  It makes for a different style of portrait and adds a little mystery to this image.