Experimenting with natural light sources

[DanOstergren]

The point of this shoot was simply to try out something new with using a window as my light source with a friend posing on gray construction paper [my cheap ass don't have time for real backdrops!]. My friend Mackenzie was more than happy to help me out by posing for my camera while gossiping about boys. Overall a fun and very productive experiment. Forgive the watermark on the last image.

 

[jaypix]

I'd say that these pictures are underexposed, too dark ... a reflector opposite the window would fill in the shadows ...

 

[DanOstergren]

I'd say that these pictures are underexposed, too dark ... a reflector opposite the window would fill in the shadows ...

Thanks for the feedback!
It was a personal choice to underexpose. I was going through a dark chapter, and feel that these reflect a bit of that.

 

[weepete]

I'd agree with jaypix. I'm fine with dark backgrounds and the shadows but the bits where the light falls on your model still look a bit underexposed to me too.

 

[jowensphoto]

I like theses, and the "wrong" exposure doesn't bother me; I think it works.

 

[jowensphoto]

Theses? Really? lol

 

[DanOstergren]

I like theses, and the "wrong" exposure doesn't bother me; I think it works.

Thanks! I feel it works too. Only a little detail was lost in the shadows, and none in the highlights, and the moody dark feeling I was going through translated well I think.

 

[runnah]

You could bring these all up a smidge in post and have a decent set.

I could see that by the end you had lost some of the light so they are all slightly different.

 

[Vtec44]

I don't know, but the model is beautiful. I love #4.

 

[amolitor]

I like theses, and the "wrong" exposure doesn't bother me; I think it works.

I like theses too. I like them so much I wrote one, once upon a time!

 

[amolitor]

These are very nice. Rembrandt would be pleased! For the proper Rembrandt effect, place some accessory, something small and bright in the shadows, possibly positioned to also pick up the light.

I wrote a little thing a while back about getting lighting patterns from windows, somewhere in Beyond the Basics, I think. Anyways, my main epiphany was to get a hand mirror and stand around in from of and beside a window, looking at your own face. You can quickly learn what is and is not available, and how it all works together, just by walking back and forth and sideways.

With some tape and a towel, you can block parts of the window off and "move" the light around a bit. With a dark towel or blanket, and a light one, you can fill or deepen the shadows.