Light shapping

How important light shapping before take photo ? can some 1 explain it.

Thanks

Hi @gaconvnnguyen, I'm just an amateur photographer and I don't take many 'portaits'. For most of my 'people photos', I don't have many opportunities to 'shape light'. Professional photographers have much more experience with 'light shaping' than I do. To be honest, I wasn't familiar with the term 'light shaping' but I have some (amateur) experience with some basic techniques and tools.

From what I've read, "Light shaping" basically means adjusting (adding, subtracting, focusing, diffusing, coloring) light to come from and go to where you want it to, with the quality (intensity, focus/diffusion, color, etc.) that you want. For me, that's just part of 'Lighting' but I was interested to see that it's now a separate topic, so thanks for your question!

IMHO, the purpose of 'shaping light' is to create the (luminosity) tones in the photo that the photographer wants. In a studio or closed setting, the photographer has full control over lighting and can design his/her lighting set-up from scratch. In other settings (open locations, indoor or outdoor), the photographer chooses (where possible) the local lighting conditions and through 'light shaping' makes adjustments to these. There are various tools for light shaping. These including different kinds of artificial lights, flashes, reflectors, diffusers, blockers, shutters, filters, etc.

How important light shaping is, depends very much on the types of photos you take and where. But lighting is always important in photography and there are always ways of influencing this. The most important thing is to be aware of 'light quality' in general and how best to use/shape it.

It helps to know what kind of 'look' you (ideally) want for a photo beforehand but you can also experiment until you find 'the best look'. For one individual/group portrait photo you might want strong contrasts on the subject and/or between the subject and background. For another, you might want very soft contrasts against a light background. You might want lighting from the front or front-side (often 30-45 degrees), from 90 degrees (profile), from the back, top or bottom. You can add in light from other sources and block (or limit) your light sources to achieve this. I don't know for sure but I suspect that the more subtle and diverse you want your lighting to be, the more 'gear' (and assistance) you'll need.

I suggest first choosing your lighting conditions (location, light sources/intensities/positions, subject position, camera position, etc.) that gets you as close to your ideal 'look' as possible. For one indoor photo, you might choose a location that has plenty of natural, diffused light. For another, you might want a much darker location (background) with small or no windows, closed or shuttered curtains/blinds, etc. You can then add in any articial lighting where you want it. Outdoors, the same applies: choose a location with lighting conditions (highlights, mid-tones, shadows, contrasts) that get you close to the 'look' you want. Indoors or outdoors, you should know beforehand how you can adjust (shape) these lighting conditions with the tools that you have.

It's perhaps worth noting that there are often natural 'light shaping tools' available at locations. For example, an awning or large table umbrella at a restaurant/cafe can be used to diffuse direct sunlight on a subject. A lightly painted sunlit wall will reflect light. Choosing a location with 'natural' light-shaping tools can be useful. The amount of cloud and the time of day will of course affect the position and of the sun and the quality (direct, diffused, cool, warm) of the sunlight.

I usually move my subjects and myself to somewhere that offers the best local lighting conditons before thinking about 'light shaping' to adjust these. A simple example is asking someone to sit in a chair where natural, diffused light comes in through a window. Or to stand outdoors in half-shadow rather than in direct sunlight or in deep shadow. I might use a sun reflector to fill in some shadows. Or a diffuser to soften direct sunlight. If a subject is back-lit, I use a reflector to reflect some sunlight back onto the subject or use a fill-flash. Sometimes I use a fill-flash at indoor (low-light) events too.

Light shaping can be used to create both dramatic and subtle photos. Portraits that are taken using softboxes, a hairlight andcatchlights (with optional background lighting) usually look better and more attractive than portraits taken without any additional lighting. But it depends. For documentary photos a more natural lighting (indoor: windows+ reflector, outdoor reflector/fill-flash) often matches the subject better. For studio portraits, people usually (rightly) expect perfect, subtle and well-balanced lighting.

If you search on internet for 'light shaping tips', you'll find many articles and videos that show examples.

Mike

How important light shapping before take photo ?

It might be very important; it might be relatively unimportant.

As an example, for a Bride's Wedding Portrait I might make detailed preparation for the Lighting, using Light Modifiers and a mixture of Flash and Ambient Light.

As another example for a picture of an Hockey Player scoring the winning goal, or a Swimmer who has just broken a world record - capture the moment is paramount, lighting is much less than a secondary concern.

***

can some 1 explain it.

In broad terms I think of Light Shaping as "modifying the light so that is different to how it came from the source".

As examples

> placing a shear curtain in front of a sunlit window is "light shaping"

> holding a white sheet to bounce fill light onto a Subject is "light shaping"

> using an Umbrella on a Flash, as bounce or shoot-through is "light shaping"

***

Light Shaping is not used exclusively for Portraiture: some Macro Photographers go to extensive trouble to shape their light - that's only one example.

***

Some tutorials here which might assist:

[LINK]

[LINK]

[LINK]

[LINK]

WW

Sometimes "very(!)" / Myself? -Not really.

I warmly(!) recommend buying reading keeping and re-reading a used copy of "light science magic", a book that was good enough in older editions and is worth skipping a couple of lunches for, if you are interested in the subject.

If you want to sweep light shaping under the carpet: Shoot everything on an overcast day in the shade, learn to bounce your hotshoe flash and also get a ringlight modifier for it.

Even if you get hold of the book, you'll have to practice. In case you are on a budged: Start small, go bigger. Borrowing a Barbie doll, using a pen light and your smart phone as different light sources is cheaper than renting a studio and hiring models.

Move the penlight around a coin you want to shoot. Repeat the exercise with a cracker or waffle.

Whenever you get stuck setting a lot of lights up: Have one harsh tiny light source, switch everything else off and figure out where to place what by experimentation.