greater in intensity than the fill light. In a 4:1 ratio, the main light is 11/2 stops greater in intensity than the fill light. In a 5:1 ratio, the main light is two stops greater than the fill light.
the illustration is that you must be able to react to the lighting situation with the tools at your disposal. The challenges of working with outdoor and mixed lighting will be the subject of our next chapter.
OVERLIGHTING
When setting the lights, it is important that you position the lights gradually, studying their effect as you use more and more light on the subject. If you merely point the light directly at the subject, you will probably overlight the person, producing pasty highlights with no detail. The highlights, when properly brilliant, will have minute specular (pure white) highlights within the main highlight. This further enhances the illusion of depth in a portrait. Adjust the lights carefully, and observe the effects from the camera position. Instead of aiming the light so that the core of light strikes the subject, feather the light so that you employ the edge of the light on the subject. Sometimes feathering alone won’t make the skin “pop” (show highlight brilliance) and you’ll have to make a lateral adjustment to the light or move it back from its current position. A good starting position for your main light is eight to twelve feet from the subject. STUDIO LIGHTING ON LOCATION
One of the great advantages of working in a studio, as opposed to working on location, is that you can adjust the ambient light level of the studio to a low level, thus making the studio lighting dominant. On location, you must deal with the location lighting, which occurs at much higher levels than you would prescribe for the studio. For example, imagine a courtyard where the main light is diffused daylight coming in through an archway or doorway. Your ambient fill level would be very low, as there may be no auxiliary light sources nearby. Unless your goal was to produce high-contrast lighting (not great for brides), you would need to raise the level of the ambient or fill light. This might be accomplished locally (i.e., on the subject via a silver reflector), or it might be accomplished more universally by raising the overall interior light level by using ceiling-bounce strobes. This solution would allow you to shoot in a number of areas within the location, not just the one closest to the archway. The point of
A strong backlight rims the bride and the gentlemen hoisting her chair in the air. Bruce Dorn used the light to best advantage and increased his exposure level to capture the shadow side of the event. The net effect blew out the highlights, but this shot is still a huge success because of its spontaneity. It’s a good example of reacting quickly to what light you have to work with. Dorn also softened the background in Photoshop, making it look almost misty.
LIGHTING PRINCIPLES 69