The Light of the Household

A considerable number of people tell me (often without provocation) that I take after my mother. As far as I can tell, that would be a fair observation to make as I haven’t been told that I was adopted (well, not yet anyway) or I fell from the sky during a meteor shower. Seriously though, I must admit that I do share more than a few similarities with the old gray dame far beyond the semi-permanent scowl on our faces — We both despise dislike having to sit for a photograph, especially if we are its only subject.

So, how did I manage to make this unconventional portrait of my mother?
 
Well, I simply waited for her to tire out from her Holy Week duties to the point that she could no longer protest my sticking a flash or two in her direction. I also took the opportunity to experiment with a lighting technique where I would create my own fill light instead of relying on the existing ambient conditions.

Another picture and a poorly-drawn diagram after the jump…

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What are the advantages of ‘creating’ fill light instead of making do with ambient?

• The obvious perk is to be able to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/125 s instead of blur-inducing speeds of 1/10 s or slower (as it was close to six in the evening when these photos were made). Since I can increase the power of the fill flash to bring up the shadows, I can get away with the fast shutter.
• The manufactured fill also allows me to control the level of shadow detail, which I wanted to preserve in this picture to show some detail in the subject’s hands.

Here’s a wider shot that shows the room with the created fill light (area around the hands and legs) and the key light (on her face).

I dared to do something new in this portrait, eschewing my preference for deep contrast and detail-less blacks. The result is something of an acquired taste and I wouldn’t even say that it represents the best of my capabilities. But having tried it out, the lessons I gleaned from the exercise made it more than worthwhile.

If you’re interested in trying this sort of lighting out for yourself, I’m posting a diagram of my setup below. I could’ve just written the details down as always, but it was pointed out to me recently that a lot more people process visual information better than the written word (as an educator for 10 years, I should’ve known better). Hence, the diagram, which although poorly-illustrated does lend a certain je ne sais quio appeal to this post.

More to come…