Photography

Painting-with-light2

Lizbeth Zamora’s picture of Brianna Aguirre swaying as she doodles shows what might happen if exposure builds up from repeated flashes. Notice her grey top and her torso. Had she had a white top on, her top would be over-exposed to the point where there wouldn’t be any detail.

After adding color to the plain black background by introducing the Christmas lights, I thought adding multiple images of my subject would make it even more interesting.

This is where I have to stress I had intentionally asked my students not come dressed in light shades especially not white.

For reasons far too scientific for us to ponder here, suffice to say, white reflects too much light in contrasty situations, so it’s best for your subjects to avoid wearing that color.

Also, since repeated flashes tend to build up cumulatively, over time there will be loss of detail in light colored clothing.

Movement is key

Kyle Gonering’s picture shows why I suggested Brianna, our model, exaggerate her body’s leaning so she would occupy different part of space when the flash painted or froze her.

Improving on what we already have, I thought repeated pops of the flash would give me multiple images of my subject and make things more interesting.

I suggested that the subject move so they don’t occupy the same space in the viewfinder.

That way, they don’t get over-exposed through repeated exposure to the flash.

The Setup–on the left behind my 3 subjects out of view, I draped a long black backdrop and hung it against the wall. This was necessary to prevent light from the flash spilling and then causing ghosting from buildup of exposure. We turned off the room lights. I counted 1, 2 & 3. Everyone opened their shutter. My subjects wrote their names or doodled with their LED lights, I popped the flash 3 times before the shutter closed.

Read Part 1

Peter Phun Photography

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