P#22 Q3B: The Two and a Half Rules for Controlling Light

Number One

John Siskin: There are two and a half important things to remember in regards to controlling light. I have yet to come up with a third thing.

Audri Lanford: Two and a half, okay.

John Siskin: Two and a half. The first thing is the color of the light. If you have mixed color light (say you have fluorescents and daylight together, or you have tungsten and daylight together) you're going to have problems getting a color balance that is natural.

You want to have light that is in the same range of notes. Without that, you're going to have problems. This is one of the reasons why I like strobe so much.

Number Two

The second thing is the size of the light source. I have had many, many people come to me and they go, "I have two umbrellas and all my lighting looks bad." You discover that they have two umbrellas and each one is about 25 inches in diameter and they're using them ten feet from the subject.

The size of your light source is so critical when it comes to controlling light. If you have an overcast day you have no shadows and light seems to come from everywhere and everything is evenly lit. What's not to love? It may be a little flat, but it's nice light.

If you have a bright sunny day, you have strong hard shadows that are really going to be difficult to work with. We talked about that earlier. What do you have to do? You got to make little light sources. The sun is quite big, or so I've been told, but it's 93 million miles away so who cares? You have to make these little light sources act like big light sources. You have to turn that sunny day into that overcast day.

This is why I like the light panels. You can have a 4x6 foot diffusing panel between you and the sun. It will give you that soft, even light that's going to make it so much easier to take a portrait or a picture of anything else. The bigger your light source is, the softer and more even and easier it is to work with. That's what an umbrella is for -- to make a little light source on a strobe act like a big light source.

The same thing is true if you're trying to use a soft box. What's important with soft boxes, umbrellas, and light panels is the size. If you get 4x6 foot light panel, you've got a big light source. If you put it 20 feet from your subject, you no longer have a big light source. The object is to use it close to your subject and you will get soft, even creamy light.

The first thing that people can do is look for ways to make their light sources bigger. Bounce a strobe off of a ceiling. Then the light source is that piece of the ceiling that you lit and you have softer, more even light. If you can't bounce off of a ceiling, maybe you can bounce off of a wall.

You can also bring in a reflector and bounce the light off of that, although the problem with reflectors is that somebody needs to hold them.

Almost Three

The next thing, the one I refer to as the "half", is direction. If you're working with a hard light source, direction is going to be critical to controlling light. If the sun is right overhead, the picture is going to be lousy. But if the sun is just coming up, the picture will probably be quite good.

The reason I refer to direction as only "half" a thing to remember is that it is really kind of unimportant when you're working with a big light source. If you go back to that overcast day, there isn't a problem when you subject is pointed one way or another. It's the same. It's smooth and even. That's why it's only half as important. Direction doesn't matter on such big light sources.

In Closing

Light is one of the trickiest things to work with in the world of photography. Fortunately, it is possible to master. According to John Siskin, you only have to deal with two and a half things when controlling light -- color, size and direction.