Photographer's Corner Tip #1

LIGHTING There are tons of ways to light a subject.  My favorite will always be natural light but I'm in the midst of trying to better my skills at studio lighting.  Annie O'Neill is a Pittsburgh wedding photographer as well as a good friend of mine and she was kind enough to help me brush up my skills on lighting techniques.  Below is the result of some of the fun we had! :)

In the top 3 with the whiter background we used 2 lights: one to light me from the front and to light the back. The rest were taken with a video light placed behind me, which is a constant source and has a moodier glow to it.  We also used black foil (kind of a thicker aluminum foil that is black that is used for stage productions to manipulate light) held over the light in different areas so that we could concentrate the light where we wanted it.

Here's what I learned: You just have to experiment. There were 4 of us there (Annie, Joanne Bartone, Joanne's partner Karen, and me!) playing around with this and we had a blast.  We moved the light here, we moved it there, we moved the stool we were all sitting on, we sillouetted (light the subject from behind but not the front), we high-keyed (total white and bright), we moodied us out (low, sexy lighting)....we just kept playing around seeing what we could do.

I still say natural light is always best but even Mother Nature needs a little help sometimes. :)

All photos above courtesy of the great and talented Annie O'Neill.