Thank you all for making it out to portrait photography and lighting meeting with the Cosplay Club at Purdue this past Thursday! If you missed the meeting or want to review what we talked about, here is a recap of what we talked about.

To start of the meeting, Devansh spoke about outdoor portraits. First, we talked about the basics of taking portrait photographs, and few rules (but really more like guidelines) to follow. The eyes should be the point of focus because that is where people naturally tend to look and we are usually really good at telling if there is something wrong with the face. The angle from which a picture is taken can make a huge effect on the feel of the image. Usually, shooting from eye level will create the most “normal” looking shots because that is what we are used to seeing. However, taking shots from different angles can lead to interesting images. Lower angle usually makes the subject look bigger and more dominant. While, a higher angle can make the image look detached from the subject.

Usually, prime lenses (lenses that only have one focal length) are used for portraits. This is because these lenses have a wider aperture. Wider aperture is useful because of the shallow depth of field it produces a lot of bokeh, which looks good to the eye and also adds background separation making the subject stand out more. The usual focal lengths that are used to shoot portraits on is from 35-85mm, but there are also people who shoot with focal lengths like 200mm. The focal length can dramatically change how the subject looks. With a wider lens the subject will look warped and thin and the image overall will look disorienting. With a tighter lens the subject will look thicker and bolder and overall more natural. A tighter lens will also add more background separation by giving the illusion that the subject is standing much further away.

Here is a good article from Fstoppers on how different focal lengths can effect your background separation.

While shooting in outdoor conditions, usually an overcast day is best because it creates nice soft lighting which can make the subjects look more evenly exposed and avoid any hard shadows on their face. Soft lighting is usually more pleasant to look at. But, since the weather cannot be controlled you might have to shoot in hard lighting, such as under the harsh sunlight. In such situations, you can get a portable reflector and diffuser kit. The diffuser can be held between the sun and the subject to diffuse the light and make it softer overall. The reflector can be used to bounce back the sunlight to the side of the face that is in the shadows to make it more evenly lit. A lot of the times while taking portraits outside the sky is much brighter than the subject or the surroundings so it tends to get blown out. To avoid this a polarizing filter can be used, which blocks most of the unpolarized light from the brighter parts making them darker. Or you can just simply walk in a shady area. That works pretty well too.

Then we spoke about some practical tips while doing photography. Using the environment is always a good idea because it makes for an interesting image that is specific to the environment. If you can’t use the environment, you can always try using props to make the images more interesting. For example: fairy lights, glow sticks, bubbles, fancy clothes, glitter, and basically anything else. The list is essentially endless. 

Another thing that is super important is the edit. The best thing about the edit is that you get infinite tries at bringing the image to life in whatever way you see fit. So basically get wild with the edit. Try out different crops and effects and play around with the colors till it is what you had in mind. A good idea is to try to emulate some scenes from movies and/or how some kinds of film look. If an image is really good, take time with the edit and try out different things. To add an extra touch, masks can also be added, which help fine tuning the image by adding effects to a part of the image.

One of the most difficult parts about portraits is directing the model. This requires you to look at an image and be able to understand what is lacking in the pose or the framing to get exactly what you want. And then, being able to communicate that in an effective way. Make sure the model feels comfortable because then the expressions can be more “full”.

Following this, we had a special guest speaker, Michel Schweinsberg, a former photo club advisor to speak about lighting for portrait photography. To start off, the main essentials are lights (flashes) and light modifiers such as umbrellas, softboxes, reflectors and gel packs. These items create the main/mood lighting and to help sculpt the subject with the desired amount of light.

The fundamental goal behind photography is the capture of light. Without the ability to import and modify our own light, we have only the light of the environment to create our photos. The ability to create, impart, and manipulate light at will for the creation of a photograph gives one unlimited possibilities and potential for artistic freedom.

We see the world through contrast, which creates our detail. In photography, we create contrast through luminosity and color. The luminosity aspect is further created with shadow and light. To understand how external lighting is important, it is important to understand a couple simple principles.

A surface normal is a line perpendicular to a given object. At any given point in an object, there will be a surface normal. Light imparted in line with the surface normal will fill in shadow areas, often resulting in lower contrast, and less detail.

In the first photo, the light perpendicular to the surface normal tends to result in low contrast, and flat lighting. Or in other words, the light is coming from the same view as the camera. In the second photo, the light more parallel to surface normal cast shadows and throw elements into relief, adding dimension. Or in other words, the light is placed off to the side of the camera. The ability to get our light off of the camera will help us create more contrast, interest, detail, enjoy more artistic freedom than light directly from our camera.

Flashes come in various types and forms. The built-in camera flash is generally what we are all accustomed to. However, this type of flash for lighting is really unflattering, as it blasts the subject with a frontal flash, creating significant and harsh shadows as well as brightly lit areas. We are all guilty of using the on-camera flash, and it looks amateurish.

The second type of flash is the external flash, generally mounted on the hotshoe, but it can be used off camera either with a cable or triggered wirelessly with an adapter. These flashes are more versatile as it allows one to pivot the flash head to bounce the light off the ceiling, walls or other surfaces to help deflect and diffuse the light. Holding such flashes slightly off camera and positioning it at an angle to the subject will result in the subject being more side lit, creating depth and dimensionality versus the full frontal on-camera flash. You can bounce the flash off the ceiling to help diffuse the light and make the subject more natural and eliminate some of the issues with direct lighting.

The last type of flash are studio lights, which are either wired or battery operated big flashes. These monsters can be quite powerful and illuminate much larger spaces, but the downside of course is their size. They are usually require some sort of stand for mounting. Nonetheless, these flashes put out lots of light that can be altered. Which brings us to the topic of light modifiers. As the name implies, these are devices that modify the light, whether it’s the direction, intensity or color. Common light modifiers are umbrellas and softboxes, which used to create a much more diffuse and softer look.

The larger the light source the larger the transition gradient between light and shadow area. The smaller the light source, the shorter the transition gradient between light and shadow area, resulting in very harsh lines, and hard, often ugly lighting. A softbox or umbrella allows you to turn a small light source, like a speedlight flash or studio light, into a much larger light source, diffusing the light and creating much softer, more pleasing shadows in our photos. An umbrella however, is more like a light bomb. It more or less just throws out a half sphere of light with only some ability to direct it, resulting in bounce off ceilings, sometimes flat lighting, and limited artistic possibilities. It is a good start, and often a good choice for outdoor photography, but a lot of photographers prefer a softbox. 

A softbox allows you to direct the light with far greater precision by releasing it from a closed chamber through one or more layers of diffusion materials. The light released is very soft, pleasing, and far easier to control the directionality than an umbrella. They are very adaptable, and subtle moves of the softbox can create very different effects. 

The diffused light reduces harsh shadows and renders the subject more natural and gentler looking. There are subtle differences between umbrellas and softboxes, but it all depends on how they are used. One can shoot through and umbrella or bounce light off of it. Umbrellas can be black, white or reflective (silver) lined. So the best would be just experiment with them to get the look that you want. Reflectors, beauty dishes and other reflective type surfaces are also used frequently to help fill in some shadows left by the use of flashes + umbrellas/softboxes. You can have an assistant hold up the reflectors in place and illuminate some of the areas in shadow. An alternative is to have multiple flashes that light from several angles to remove these shadow areas. There are books and online tutorials that can be studied that highlights the importance of light placement and subsequent effects, we highly recommend looking at them. Finally, we discussed gel packs, which are just colored pieces of film placed over the flash. They create really cool special effects of color and can give some drama and a wow factor to the images. 

Next we discuss how we used these tools to craft the image that we want. For natural lighting, we usually stick to the use of softboxes/umbrellas where the modified light is coming from above the subject. It most simulates daytime cloudy light. This type of lighting is great for getting the “safe shot” where the subject is well lit and exposed. It is probably also the standard lighting setup for normal portraiture (think High School senior photo portrait sessions!). Now this is fine and dandy but if you want to create some drama in your photos, that’s where creative light placement will be needed. For example, rim lighting, which is achieved by putting the flash behind the subject and having it triggered using another flash, can create a nice outline of your subject. In such instances of backlighting, the use of flare (from the strong light source) is also frequently observed. Think director Michael Bay and his dramatic shots. You can also do silhouette effects in a similar fashion by underexposing the subject and hitting the background with light. 

Light placement can have a profound effect on the feel and drama of an image. Volumetric effects are a fun way to add dramatic special effects to an image. In this context, this means the diffusion, dispersion, or dramatic scattering of light behind water droplets or particulate. Dust, Fog, Smoke or Spray are 4 methods of scattering the light to create very interesting effects. A rainbow is a volumetric effect in this sense. Try putting the studio light or flash behind the particles, and the subject between you and the light. The light will be scattered by the particles, creating smoke, fog, and water clouds that add sometimes incredible effects.

There are really infinite possibilities, and we encourage you to try them out! The more flashes you have, the more options you will have with lighting situations.

After the lesson, we got to try out portrait photography with the Cosplay Club members and using our studio lights and backdrop. In addition, we had some 50mm and 85mm lenses to use to the duration of the meeting. Also, some members took some portrait photos in Krach. If you have photos to share from the meeting, we would love to feature some of them on our Instagram. Also, the Cosplay Club would like to see the photos you took of their members. Please send your photos via email to the Cosplay Club email at cosplayclubpurdue@gmail.com. You can mention your social media handle and if you give them consent to reshare them or not in the email.

And here are a few behind the scenes photos from the meeting taken by Nathaniel Young.

For all our club’s latest updates, please see our weekly announcements page here.