Portraits of CMU students were taken for the first location lighting experience in class. With in class activities usually comes struggle, and just slight struggle was had in our team of three. We were given two speed lights to work with, one if which would not properly. So we were left with one main light, used in the photos below on the subjects right side with an umbrella. There was also a campus light directly to the subjects left which helped compensate for the loss of the light. Low shutter speed was used to attempt to lighten the background more. We took these at 1/8, when tested at 1/200 the background was completely black.
Another way to compensate for only having one light was using the main light with no umbrella angled at the subjects back, high up on the stand pointing down. Then, the reflector was placed extremely close to the subjects face pointing back at the light. It really did create very nice light for a tight photo at night with only one speed light.
The magic of reflectors, i’m telling ya.
Edwin Lloyd, a Central Michigan University Student poses on campus Monday, September 22, 2014.
Molly Slocum, a Central Michigan University Student poses on campus Monday, September 22, 2014.
Kaiti Grant 