mastering
natural light indoors 1
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m a s t e r i n g n at u r a l light indoors This workshop empowers photographers who have a solid grasp of working with their cameras in manual mode to learn how to see and utilize indoor light. It gives the participants the ability to become comfortable working with available light indoors and enable them to make lighting choices that best support their artistic vision. Instructor: Megan Cieloha Assistants: Megan Dill, Lacey Meyers, and Elle Walker Date: January - February 2013
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Types and Attributes of Light
Considerations of Subject Placement
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Controlling Light
Identifying “Good” Light
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W E E K 01
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Hard Light ISO 6400, SS 1/200, f2.2
Valerie Rice
Oh my goodness, I am loving this expression, and great choice for hard light here to compliment her emotion, You’ve also got perfect split light too. You’ve done an incredible job with the split going right down the center of her face with her left side completely blacked out, so good!!! I do feel like you can bump exposure globally, or (if you’r e using LR) use the adjustment brush to concentrate lifting the highlights on her right side. I think you have a lot of room to bring the lights up, for sure. The composition is nice, and I really enjoy those little ruffles, the lighting plays really well with adding dimension and texture to her shirt. Great job capturing such emotion!!!!
Megan Dill
That expression is killer in the first one -- love it! I think it’s a good example of split lighting with the line down her nose and chin, though there is some light spilling across her forehead. But I really like this detail since we get the full effect of her furrowed brow, instead of half of it The ruffles in her shirt are accentuated with the side lighting, and the shirt is perfectly exposed as we can still make out the texture. I do find myself wanting the illuminated part of her skin to be just a little brighter, which is my only CC. Your decision to convert this to b&w absolutely fits the mood and the contrast is great. Love it!
Megan Cieloha
Love this!! Fantastic light use. I really enjoy the way that the hard-ish, split light is giving us a wonderful demonstration of the textures and curves of her face. Split light can be tough to fit, mood-wise, with the 4 and under crowd, but I think you’ve done it beautifully with a touch of humor, which I personally love to see in images. Exposure is wonderful, there aren’t any blown highlights, yet you’ve retained a beautiful range of tones from almost white to black, in order to support a very dynamic black and white conversion. You could possibly raise the midtones on her face a little... but I’m kind of liking the slight deepness in tone, for the way that it accentuates the mood of the image. Focus is also lovely; I think you’ve placed your focal plane wonderfully in order to keep everything important in focus, while letting the edges of her body to fall into softness. Composition is also well handled with the subject’s illuminated eye approximately on the upper right ROT, with no awkward chops or crops. This is a really well executed image!
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Side/Split Light ISO 800, SS1/320, f3.5
Valerie Rice
I think I would classify this as one of those in between 45 degree & 90/split light. You’ve got a little spill on the left side of her face (forehead & cheek), which is leaning me more towards 45, yet... it’s still not a full 45 angle either. But, the shadows and dimension you’ve created are very lovely and accent her cute little features so well. You even managed to get catch lights in both eyes, I love to see that! Your exposure & WB seems perfect to me! I like that you kept this in color, because her skin and hair are so pretty and really pop out of this image. Your choice in f/stop is a good one, as all parts of her face are in focus, something you wouldn’t get if you opened it up more. I’m going back in forth on whether I might have chosen a different lighting condition for this particular image though, as the megaphone adds a playful feel to the image, but the lighting choice makes it more serious.... perhaps flat light would fit the mood better, or just removing the toy from the shot to keep the mood consistent. I’ll be interested what the others think about it too, I could be completely off base with my interpretation, which would not be a first. Also, I’d like to see her whole arm in the shot.
Megan Dill
So adorable! Great clarity and catch lights in her eyes. I think the combination of the darkness and the bright, cheerful toy make this a curious image indeed. In regard to the light, I’m not convinced about split lighting with the light spilling across the larger part of her forehead, but I do see the line down her nose. Her skin is beautifully exposed but looks just a tad yellow; adding a little blue should neutralize this effect. I’m really digging your square crop in this one as you have a pretty strong diagonal between her head and the edge of the toy; I am curious to know your reasoning for this crop choice since it really works!
Megan Cieloha
Too cute. The way the light is functioning almost as a spotlight in this image is fantastic. I wouldn’t say that this is split light... the line down his/her nose is slightly off centered and I can’t spot a clear line down the forehead (which is often difficult to spot in babies, anyway... the planes of their faces are generally flatter than an adult’s so it’s more difficult to achieve some of these lighting situations) so I’d say this is directional light... somewhere between 45 and 90 degrees. Beautiful exposure on this image, I wouldn’t change a thing. Focus is also lovely. My only suggestion for change is to revisit the crop/comp, if possible. I think I would either like to see more negative space on the top and left, or possibly a switch back to 4x6 in portrait orientation, allowing for a bit ore of the subject’s arm to be in the bottom of the frame. The comp/crop at the bottom of the frame, as is, just feels slightly tight or squished, to me. Again, you have the little bit of humor in this image, which I always find to be so fantastic. Perhaps, because as a rather moody shooter myself, I love to see in others’ work what I don’t normally capture But, I do think that humor and wit in photography appeals to more people than just me. 25
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W E E K 02
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INVERSE SQUARE LAW | SHORT LIGHT ISO800, SS 1/200, f2.5
Lisa Benemelis
Stacey, I love this!! I really adore the light and your processing. It grabs me and leaves me wondering what the light source is and what he’s thinking about. (prior to reading your set up and seeing the pullback). You have beautiful shadows wrapping around him, showing his age and form. I appreciate that I can see a tad of light behind him - keeping him from blending into his background which would lose some of the dimension you’ve created with the shadowing. I would clone out the window and I would probably extend the canvas (content aware) to give him a little bit more room to rest his gaze.
Lacey Meyers
Stacey, I literally sucked in my breath when I saw your first image ... it is SO stunning. The curve of his body, the curves of the shadows, his position in the frame ... I love it. And your pullback and second image shows you understand this concept very well. I am with you ... the terms escape me, but the concept is there. Yes, this is short light as his face is turned toward the light and we see only a bit of his face ‘lit’.  I always think “short=little=little light on little face”. It helps me remember. I see you posted a square crop of this ... I personally am drawn to the original, though minus the tiny bit of door showing. I like this composition because his stance is sooo little boy, contemplative and a bit squirmy ... his harm position tells me he likes to stand still about as much as my little guy does. The composition you chose compliments that by making him appear smaller in the frame with this perspective (tucking him in the corner of the frame). I really love this shot and how your choice of light position accentuates all of his little details (right down to the belly button!). Wonderful job here, Stacey!
Megan Cieloha
The light wraps around his body in such a gorgeous, soft, but dynamic way. Your exposure is lovely. You could perhaps bump it up slightly- as you have no highlights that are close to blown, but I think the silvery tones in his body are beautiful and fit the mood of this image really well. Focus looks good, it’s a bit hard to tell at this size, but I think that your focal plane includes both of his eyes, and lets the edges of his body fade slightly into softness. Personally, I would like to see you burn out the window/door. If you had changed your perspective slightly, to include more of the door than is included in the sooc, I think that you could have processed this image slightly more brightly and created an image with an entirely different, but still just as successful, mood. As is, there isn’t enough door for me to want to keep it in the frame. It will be really simple to clone/burn it out. I prefer the composition that you showed in your original post. It seems to emphasize his small stature more, and for some reason... that adorable little belly button is a more important part of the story at this crop ratio/orientation. Finally, I’d do a light amount of dodging along the top of his head, mostly towards camera right. I like how the tones are defined on the left side of the frame, and would like to see a little more distinction on the mid/right side (adjacent to the subject) of the frame. I love the concept of the second shot and it definitely does a very strong job of demonstrating how to use the same lighting situation in a very different way by paying attention to the ISL.
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W E E K 03
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lessened the light ISO 800, SS 1/250, f3.2
Parikha Mehta
You obviously understood and internalized the lesson, which is an accomplishment in its own right. One possible way to modify this image is to just lift the midtones and shadows on your daughter a bit, and darken the dapples on her sleeve. That way, the pattern of light through the blinds on the floor remains your main subject, but we can see more of your daughter, since the way she looks back at it gives it more of a story. If you don’t mind my asking, what method are you using to convert to black and white? I find that using a gradient map, sometimes with a subtle S-curve added after, is more effective than saturation for maintaining a good dynamic range. Alternatively, you can re-execute the pullback shot by just pulling the blinds on the left (the ones right behind her) up altogether, and leaving the other blinds totally closed, and then you’d have a lovely backlighting/silhouette setup.
Elle Walker
I absolutely love the mystery you’ve created with the first image! at first glance I thought the highlights from the blinds was some sort of chair, but the I saw the shadows on your little one’s arms and it was obvious what they were. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of ambiguity! Most of my suggestions in relation to this image have to do with PP. The brightest parts of this image (which is where my eye is immediately drawn), are the highlights and shadows from the blinds - both on the floor, and on your girls arm. I would love to see you apply some selective burning to these, just enough so that they don’t steal the show from your subject. As Parikha mentioned, bumping the midtones on your subject (making her one of the brighter elements within the frame), would help to guide the viewers attention to her. I love that she is looking over her shoulder, drawing the viewers eye back through the frame, and your descision to convert to black and white here is very well suited to both light and mood.
Megan Cieloha On the first image. This is really interesting! I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at until I read your writ-
ten description of the scene, and the pull back definitely made it all come together. I think that the light use is really unique and I enjoy the soft glow of light that the subject is receiving indirectly from the window. I’m not sure that shooting from this perspective will result in an image that feels completely cohesive and intuitively make sense to an uninformed viewer. MaybeP if you were able to use a super wide angle to include some of the window within the frame, it would be more obvious where the stripes on the floor are originating from? Having seen the pull back, I agree with the other girls that there is a lot of potential for shooting this scene from the pullback perspective. I can imagine your daughter sitting right within the light on the floor, facing the window, looking up at the light source. You could lay on your belly and capture her as a very small within the frame, surrounded by very textural, unique light. Focus in the image that you submitted is fantastic and I think that your B&W conversion really takes advantage of the dynamic range of tones, from white to black, that you have available within the frame. Please don’t feel discouraged, Stacey! The second image is gorgeous and you have a really wonderful lighting situation to play with in the first image. I’d count the week as a success, for sure.
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W E E K 04
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Portrait ISO 800, SS 1/250, f3.2
Allison McSorley
I love that you set strict parameters for yourself, Stacey! That’s a really fantastic way to tackle a skill. I’ve really enjoyed watching your progress these past four weeks. Your second paragraph really resonates with me! I was where you are coming out of this workshop almost a year ago. I guess my point is, give it 6 or 9 months of practice (maybe less or more depending upon your situation) and you’ll absolutely be producing work that you very proud to stand behind. I can’t wait to see where you go from here!
Megan Dill
Stacey! What a lovely portrait of your doe-eyed son. Exposure looks great throughout, and you got some gorgeous catch lights. Your crop looks intentional, though I’d like to see just a tad more of his shirt collar in the frame. There is a very pleasing simplicity to this: the stark background paired with an intense yet kind gaze makes my eyes lock in on his face. He looks like such a “big boy” in this photograph, as he’s looking slightly downward at you. An emotive capture that his mother will treasure for years. You definitely succeeded with eye contact here! You produced such fantastic work in this class, and it was such a pleasure witnessing your transformation.
Megan Cieloha I love how you set up parameters for yourself and set out to capture something so specific, utilizing the information from class to enhance your images.
I think that you did a fantastic job of achieving your goal in your son’s portrait. Exposure is wonderful, no blown highlights on his face or distracting clipped shadows, yet you have a wonderful range of tones to create depth across his features and support a dynamic B&W conversion. The one exposure issue I might attempt to adjust is the darkness of his eyes. I know dark eyes can be incredibly difficult to achieve separation between pupil and iris on, but I’d see if you could dodge the iris slightly to create a little distinction. You do have some very nice catchlights! Did you do a little burning on his shirt? I see a little shadowing around his camera right shoulder that doesn’t look entirely natural. If you burned that shoulder I’d go back in and lightly erase the darkening that fell of of his shoulder. Focus and clarity are beautiful, with his entire face in focus and his ears blurring slightly on a different focal plane. Compositionally, your head chop is very comfortable and I like that you included the upper line that his color creates. I do wish that you had stepped back just a bit in order to include all of the bottom circular line as well. This portrait definitely does have an emotional connection. His strong eye contact, the fact that you shot from a slightly lower perspective than a child (interesting to a viewer due to it’s slightly unexpected nature) and the way you used light to create depth all add up to a beautiful capture of a bit of your sweet boy’s personality. I’ve really enjoyed having you in class, Stacey! You’ve done a fantastic job of internalizing and applying the concepts we’ve discussed and I’m looking forward to seeing your work going forward out on the main forums. 73
A special thanks to my instructors, assistants, helpers and students. It was an amazing experience to have and I learned a tremendous amount about how to take advantage of light in my home. It used to be a difficult place to shoot...and now it is where I feel most comfortable documenting my family.
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