Advanced techniques
Alternatively, create your own texture shots by lighting objects artiďŹ cially. A digital projector or powerful torch is ideal because you can place it next to your subject, then use the light to reveal texture. Try this with dried leaves, dead owers, seashells and anything else you can think of to create textured still-life images.
FRONTAL LIGHTING
INTO THE LIGHT
When you remove colour from an image, it becomes reliant on other elements for its appeal. Texture is one of the most important, because it helps to create the impression of a third dimension. Lighting is the key. Flat, overcast days aren’t so useful because the light is too soft – you need strong light that glances over the surface of whatever you’re shooting. Early morning and late afternoon on a sunny day are generally the best times, because the Sun is low in the sky and the light rakes across everything, casting long shadows that help to reveal the ďŹ nest of textures. But don’t discount the middle of the day either. When the light from the overhead Sun glances down walls, it has the same effect on vertical surfaces as the low Sun does on horizontal surfaces, so you can shoot textures at any time of day that you want.
Side-lit portraits look dramatic because they reveal texture in the subject’s skin – which is great for character portraits. Posing your subject next to a window works well, or in the studio a single light with a brolly or softbox attached and placed to the side will produce great results.
Add a sense of depth and realism to your black and white images
PORTRAIT POWER
3
Consider texture
FROM THE SIDE
You can see from The best way to reveal When shooting the way shadows are towards the Sun, texture in a scene is falling that this scene contrast is sky high, by lighting it from the was lit almost from side. These delicate with blown highlights the front. The effect sand ripples were and black shadows, is bold, but a sense highlighted by the low but the combined of depth is lacking effect can be fantastic evening Sun
THE NIKON CAMERA BOOK 143