When Light Dances

Combining the use of the conical snoot, strobe light and a good choice of locations, you can come up with some distinguished photos.

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I love to take photos of plants. Most plant photos are shot from the top or from the side, unlike this one (Photo 1), which was shot from the bottom. The interesting part was capturing the light passing through the leaves, which created a look a lot different from other photos of leaves. To get a photo like this, you should mark a larger aperture, so that the leaves look more “transparent”. Take a look at the reference photo, which was not shot with a larger aperture; the color is more saturated but there is no transparency in the leaves. To me, both photos are all right. The reference photo is a truer reflection of reality, while Photo 1 got my input and the photo is a result of my aesthetic judgment.

It is fun to play around with warm and cool colors, and this is especially true when shooting plants. A red flower looks nicer with green leaves around, and that is why blending warm tones and cool tones make more interesting photos. Virtually all of the photos shot in Beijing in this blog were taken with this thought in mind, playing with red bricks and green leaves, as well as the red leaves– the best subject ever. Take a closer look at Photos 2 and 3. I took them standing at the same spot. Just by turning the camera from left to right, I captured the girl in the pink wool hat photographing her friends under the red leaves in front of this beautiful art studio.

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I remember once when I showed some of my photos to a new friend he said something like “Why are your photos so dark?” This reminded me of one of my blogs titled “Leaving blank space.” One of the biggest concerns or questions beginning photographers have is “Is it bright enough?” Their words might be different, but their concern is the same; that is, they are worried whether their photos will be bright enough. With today’s technology, that should not be a problem. The problem should be “Is it dark enough?”

Shown here are some of my “dark” photos. If I had chosen to take a brighter picture, I would not have captured the real look of the scenario; in other words, I would not have reproduced the ambiance as it was. If you want to use the auto mode for this picture, it is not workable. Try to get the reading of the subjects (with the spot meter of your camera) when you want a normal exposure and mark the relevant aperture. You could probably get a photo like the ones shown here. Frankly speaking, if you happen to come across a scenario like the one in Photo 3, you simply have no choice. Just release the shutter using the largest aperture, the slowest shutter speed and the like, because it is literally too dark for a decent photo. Then you may come up with something like the photo here.

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Alex found the best package of props and backdrop in a new location and made the best use of them to enrich a series of indoor portraits.

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Again it is about “tips and techniques” of photography. The photos shown here look very familiar if you browse the Net with the above key words, because one of the related tips you’ll find is to ask your subjects to sit near windows. Some of this advice is for beginning photographers with no prior experience using off-camera flashes. So sitting near windows would help you get photos like these.

You might not be fully satisfied with photos showing your subjects lit in such a high-contrast manner. So you may as well grab something that can work like a reflector to fill in the darker side of his/her face. Of course you could bring along a real reflector, for that matter. Reflectors come in different sizes and colors, but all of them come in white, and the other options are gold and silver, which produce a warm or cool tone.

You might find it silly when I talk about this kind of product-related topic. But my point is, we should find out what color tone is best suited to our subjects when taking photos like these. Take a look at Photos 1 and 2, and then look at Photos 3 and 4. Although the light source for these photos is ambient light, the tone is different. It is rather cool in Photos 1 and 2, and it is overwhelmingly warm in Photos 3 and 4. Frankly, I took all four of these pictures in the afternoon. What explains the difference in the color tone then? I think it’s because the wood furniture and the light brown wall in the restaurant serve as natural reflectors and give out warm light. And to me, this warm tone is more pleasant compared to the cool color tone. And if you browse the Net again you might as well look at all those female portraits using window light; they are mostly warm in tone. But it is up to you to choose the tone you prefer. Anyway, before you shoot, you can try different white balance modes and pick the one you like.

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