Lessons
Lesson Info
Adding Light
So we've already found beautiful light, and that's the first thing that you want to do is find the beautiful light. Now a lot of you are probably going out to lunch with your friends and your taking pictures of the food that you're eating because you have these beautiful cheesecake in front of you and you just have to share it with your friends. And so we're trying to simulate that. So we're traveling back in time to my great grandmother's smorgasbord back in Sweden. And so she's got this beautiful spread of fruit on dive placed it next to this window, and that's my cross light. That light is coming in from the side, and that's what's creating shape on all the fruit. You can see that round shaped all of them because the lights coming in from the left hand side. But sometimes the amount of light that we get from one given light sources not enough. Maybe it creates too much of a shadow on the other side of the fruit. Or maybe there's not enough light coming from somewhere, or there's not...
enough sparkle on something like, say, a diamond ring. So in those cases, we want to add light to our subject. And so that's what we're gonna talk about here. First off, let's look at our composition because once we've put something in the correct light source, we found the beautiful light. Then we just need to worry about our composition. So in my phone, once I turn it on, the first thing I'm worried about is the composition. Now I can see here inside of my phone that this is more of a square type of photographs. So I'm instead of being the photo mode, I'm just gonna go over to the square mode, and that's just going to give me a better way of composing a square photograph rather than trying to crop it later. And that's great for things like Instagram. Once I have the composition down, then I'm just going to click and hold on the fruit itself. So now I know that the fruits and focus and I'm going to increase and decrease the exposure until the general overall look is perfect. Problem is, is that now I've got too much shadow on the right hand side of the frame. So this is where Aubrey is going to come in. So Audrey is going to take just a common handkerchief or your napkin. So when you're out to eat with your friends, just grab a napkin and Aubrey's gonna hold that napkin and really close and you're gonna see pull it out just a little bit. Aubrey it right there. Now you can see live what's happening to it. And if Aubrey brings it a little bit more around towards the front, see how lights the front of the fruit a little bit better too much? Maybe because now it's a little too flat, so she's gonna push it back around right there. So Aubrey is now filling in the light, and I'm gonna take a picture of this shot. Here we go. And now take it away, Aubrey. So you can see the difference between the fruit just by adding that little tiny kiss of light over here, and all it was was a handkerchief. So when you're out to eat and you're taking a picture of some beautiful food that you have in front of, you don't think that the light that's coming from the window is the only light you have available because you can also bounce like directly with inning handkerchief or napkin that you happen have around you. Now, if we want to add even mawr light to this scenario, we're going to use either another IPhone with a light on it. The flashlight mode. You could just grab a flashlight out of the counter, or I have a very specific light and it's called a cube lie. You can just pick this up anywhere. It's just a really bright led light source, and I actually have a cool little tripod mount that goes on it, and it's magnetic. So I'm just going to use this as my light source, and it's small enough and light enough that you could carry in a purse. But you can also remember your friends all have a light on their camera, so it would totally be fine to add light from all of your friends that are sitting around the table with you haven't turned on their flashlights and start adding light until you see that sparkle that you're looking for. So we're going to add a little sparkle toe all the fruit here, cause right now the light that we see on the fruit is very soft, and we want to add some little sparkles to it. So I'm gonna take my light and I'm gonna turn it on. And I'm just gonna stick it up on the window with this magnetic clip back here, and I'm gonna make sure that it's aimed at my fruit all set to go. So I've added an additional light source. Remember, I've got this really big, beautiful light here that's already happening. And then I'm taking this light and just adding some sparkle into these fruits. And then I'm gonna get back here again and I'm gonna frame up, and I'm gonna make sure that I am focused on my fruit and I'm gonna just the light so that the fruit looks perfect. And now I'm gonna ask Aubrey to come on in and fill that in. So you see how we're using all of these light sources together using the big, beautiful window. We're using a light to help sparkle on the fruit. And then we're using Aubrey's handkerchief to kind of fill in and make sure that there's not too deep a shadow anywhere on the photograph. So come on in even further armory right there That's perfect. And now we're gonna take this shot Perfect. And now I'm ready to show all of my friends on instagram the beautiful fruit that I'm about to eat.
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
This is a fast and very effective course. The teacher is excellent with his great teaching skills. Really recommended!
Vincent SMINK
Great class, with all the basics you need to take good photo's. Some interesting extra's that I wasn't aware off! Just start here and then move on!
Kris
This course was quick and full of very specific ways to use the iPhone 7 Plus and its abilities. I only own an iPhone 6 and still found this class useful. Even though I've taken thousands of images with my phone I STILL learned a couple things I didn't know. If you have questions about your iPhone camera I would absolutely recommend this course. Well worth the money.
Student Work
Related Classes
Mobile Photography