-Learning-
A Simple Ambient
Light Portrait
Here is a black
and white portrait. Let’s analyze the picture
(By -Rohinton Mehta)
Pose:
The
subject looks comfortable and the head is slightly tilted (as it should be).
The eyes are not parallel to the top of the frame. This follows an unwritten
guideline that an imaginary line running across the center of the eyes shall
not run parallel to the top of the frame. Observe the shoulders, slightly
tilted to one side. This too is a
Note:
Generally, you place the subject at a slight angle to the camera. In this case
the author has taken care that the subject’s head is slightly turned and not
directly facing the camera.
Camera Position and Lens:
Generally
we align the camera at the subject’s eye level, as done here. A higher camera
position would have shown more of his balding head, which could be considered
wrong. A lower camera position would have placed more emphasis on his clasped
hands.
It
is important to use the right focal length for the lens. The choice here is
perfect. A wider lens used closer to the subject would have made the hands
appear larger, which of course would be wrong, unless you were trying for some
special effect. The hands are slightly away from the chin and look perfectly
natural.
Lighting:
This
is an ambient light portrait (though you could replicate the lighting using
just one light in a studio, as mentioned later).
Defused
day light is from the right of the camera position and is coming down at around
45 degree to the subject. The angular light has cast a soft shadow of the nose,
and has also caused the needed highlighted triangle under the subject’s right
eye. A large white reflector was placed on the subject’s right to “fill-in” the
shadow side of the face. How close or how far you hold this reflector
determines the illumination on the shadow side.
If this was studio set-up:
If
this was a studio set-up, you would place the (key) light in a similar fashion.
With studio light you have to try and simulate the ambient lighting you see in
nature. Since you cannot physically change the position of the sun, you change
the position of the subject in relation to the sun. With studio lighting – that
is, when using artificial lights, the distance between the key light and the
subject is very important. If this light is too close, you could lose the
specular quality; if too far, the highlights could diminish. Hence, the correct
distance is achieved by trial and error while observing the lighting through
camera position. Another point to bear in mind with artificial lighting is to
try and use “feathered” lighting; that is, set the light in such a way that the
edge of the light is used rather than the central area. This is the preferred
method of portrait masters as it provides a better modelling to the face.
Printing:
The idea is to let the viewer’s eyes
concentrate on the main part of the subject- the eyes and face. To achieve
this, you can use a dark background and use a second light on the background
that would separate the subject from the background. Alternately, if you are
using only one light, you can darken the corners during printing as done here.
This forces the viewer’s eyes to gaze on the subject’s face.
Observe
also the subject is wearing white clothes. White tones draw your attention
towards them, and so to avoid that, the white clothes have also been toned down
(made to look grey) during printing.
Presentation:
The
final presentation is as important as whatever else goes into the making of a
picture. A thin white stroke, along with a thicker black border not only stops
your attention from wandering out of the frame, it also adds a touch of
elegance to the final product.
--
Rohinton Mehta
(Technical
Editor-Smart Photography)
(Article
courtesy: Smart Photography, December-2010)
