playing with light

Playing With Light is a 2-session presentation. The first session explains the properties of light and the second session covers basic portrait portrait lighting.

Session 1 – Light

presentation: 90 minutes

This session is presented as a series of live demonstrations using my camera directly connected to a digital projector.

It discusses the basic principles of light and how it behaves and is designed as a lead-in to the second session on lighting. This session is aimed at photographers who are comfortable with photographic concepts but do not have experience in manipulating light when taking photos.

Topics covered:

  • light is invisible
  • direction of light to create shape and texture
  • diffuse reflections
  • direct reflections
  • how diffuse reflection becomes direct reflection
  • multiple ways of lighting a black office stapler
  • light and inverse square law
  • lighting a room of people using reflection and inverse square law

This session avoids discussion of the details of lighting equipment and lighting gear as those are mostly irrelevant when talking about how light behaves. While basic flash equipment is used, the specific principles of flash lighting are not discussed.

I’ve done this presentation at:

  • Melbourne Camera Club (2008)
  • Melbourne Camera Club (2010)
  • Pakenham Camera Club (September 2010)
  • Frankston Photographic Club (February 2011)
  • Victorian Association of Photographic Societies annual muster (May 2011)
  • Caulfield Photographic Society (February 2012)
  • Eastern Suburbs Photographic Society (February 2012)
  • Rosanna Photographic Club (May 2012)
  • Essendon Camera Club (August 2012)
  • Knox Photographic Society (November 2012)
  • Melbourne Camera Club (May 2013)
  • Casey Camera Club (March 2014)

Session 2 – Lighting

presentation: 2 hours

This session is presented as a series of live demonstrations using my camera directly connected to a digital projector.

This is designed to follow the session on light: it takes the basic concepts introduced there and starts to apply them to practical situations. As manipulating light is most frequently done in order to light people, this session serves as an introduction to portrait lighting techniques.

Topics covered:

  • brief recap of session 1 (“Light”)
  • using pop-up flash
  • using an external flash unit on camera
  • lighting someone with one light
  • lighting someone with two lights
  • using umbrellas and reflectors to soften light
  • techniques for using coloured light
  • colour-correcting to create unusual effects

This session avoids any significant discussion of the lighting source but it does talk about how to modify that light using grids, reflectors and gels.

I’ve done this presentation at:

  • Melbourne Camera Club (2008)
  • Melbourne Camera Club (2010)
  • Pakenham Camera Club (October 2010)
  • Frankston Photographic Club (March 2011)
  • Caulfield Photographic Society (March 2012)
  • Eastern Suburbs Photographic Society (May 2012)
  • Essendon Camera Club (September 2012)
  • Melbourne Camera Club (June 2013)
  • Casey Camera Club (April 2014)

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