PHOTOGRAPHY -18

 PHOTOGRAPHY -18

SLAVE POSITIONING

Often people require some guideline for employimg slave lighting. Slave is an intended secondary lighting though at times it may be given priority as a lateral lighting source. It is important to stress that frontal and lateral are not the lone positions of lighting; in fact any placement of light-well conceived can drastically improve the impact from lighting. Any serious worker ought to develop his/ her own signature styles and be ready to deviate for any special requirement.

Some uncommon lighting presentations can be attempted by imaginative use of light, which hinges on our perception of light and its inevitable consequence –the shadow ; the two together are spoken of as Light and Shadow effect. A shadowless picture can be flat and unimpessive. Instead if segnents of the picture area differ in light intensity that shows a gentle shift – from an imaginative lighting giving a moulding effect by paling off the harsh shadow., the picture turns appealing.  There is a range of options in using the slave light to make images free of flash shadows.

BOUNCE LIGHTING

Bounce lighting is a way of illuminating , by an indirect delivery of light on to the object. How? The flaslight ‘on camera’ can be removed from slot [but still electrically linked ] and the flashing face tilted up to make the light hit the roof approximately at 45^o angle with respect to Camera-object relationship. The light hits the roof and spreads over the object as a pleasant diffuse light. Because the light is now weak in itensity, no shadow shows up, but compensation for exposure by a wider aperture is required.

CAUTION : Bounce surface [roof] should not be in any colour, lest it should deliver coloured light and spoil all high lights. 2 The  roof –object gap should be comfortable to deliver light. [Roof away by over 12 feet may not deliver enough light on the object. So, extra effort would help achieve the efect by using reflectors. [Please do not get frightened ; any white object can be a reflector ; a spotless white towel held spread out and at an angle, does real magic of diffusing the light].  

In using a towel , some advantages exist ; these relate to using a thin layer or a thicker layer minimizing the light out put to cause mellowed filling-in. Of late , I find a pair of umbrellas mounted on a holder each placed a few feet apart , providing a diffuse light as a fill-in. If it is meant to be a fill-in arrangement,  I am afraid it is a mundane fixed less imaginative rather ‘formatted’ one just avoiding the scope of improper filling-in. Still, my preference would be to change the positions just to break monotony in lighting at least across a few frames.

The whole game OF LIGHTING  can be easily experimented with a couple of fairly tall boys [preferably photo enthusiasts] who can orient different flash guns hand-held as slaves and give a new dimension to the process of lighting. Lighting is an inexhaustive domain for our learning the varied manipulations in placing lights.  In this context, I RECALL MY LATE FRIEND  Shri David Christopher – a noted Photo expert of Madurai , [Popular as Pandiyan Hotel photographer] who had completely revolutionized Wedding Photography through his imaginative placements of slave flashes.  Thus, lighting is a fertile area for  enthusiasts.

MORE TO FOLLOW           Prof. K.RAMAN