If you look up “photography” on Wikipedia, you will learn that the word photography comes from the Greek words “photos” (light) and “graphê” (drawing), literally meaning “drawing with light”.
I previously mentioned on this blog that I took a number of online photography classes to improve my craft, and one of my instructors, Joe Baraban, would often say, “if you find the light, you find the shot”. Needless to say that lighting is particularly important to the look of your images.
Another revelation came from a CreativeLive online workshop given by Don Giannatti on the topic of “subject centric lighting”. As a physicist, I was aware that different kinds materials interact with light differently. The point Don Giannatti drove home was that it should be the first thing to take into account when thinking about lighting a subject. In particular, shiny objects can be tricky to light. The common mistake is to shine the light directly at them. The objects then typically hurl back a sea of photons directly into your lens, creating a horrible mess of overblown reflections. The photographic equivalent of urinating against the wind, if you will. In his workshop, Don Giannatti showed how to light shiny objects. Give them something to reflect and light the thing they reflect. The pictures in this post illustrate the point nicely. I gave the shiny cutlery some gift wrapping paper to reflect, and I simply lit the wrapping paper with my electronic flash.
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