Mastering Light: Part 3
Frontal Lighting Continued
REFLECTIVITY
Brightly colored surfaces, such as the white feathers of a great egret, reflect more light than darkly colored surfaces such as a black bear's fur. Since surfaces that are black absorb all wavelengths (read: colors of light) and surfaces that are white reflect all wavelengths of light, white and other brightly colored surfaces create a significantly greater dynamic range between highlights and shadows. Meaning, you have to deal with a lot more light bouncing off of those white feathers of an egret than you would off of the black feathers of a raven.
So, the more brightly colored the subject, the more reflective the subject will be. Which in turn means that you will most likely find yourself dealing with greater amounts of contrast in a composition when photographing these subjects.
This is important to understand.
Because brighter subjects, again like the white feathers of a great egret, reflect so much light, you are going to find yourself battling the intensity of light reflecting from these feathers right off the bat. This can be both good and bad, depending upon the type of photograph you are trying to create.
If, for instance, you want to create a photograph that includes anything in the environment around that bird, then you will need everything to be as evenly illuminated as possible - if you want to try to capture detail in anything other than just the white feathers.
In contrast to this though, the intensity of light reflecting off those feathers, and the subsequent contrast, can also be used to your advantage to create a beautiful portrait that looks as though it was created in a studio like the one above. This example is what we call chiaroscuro, for which I will elaborate on in the next chapter.
Remember that first and foremost, frontal lighting reduces contrast by casting shadows in directions that cannot be seen by the camera.
Secondly, frontal lighting helps to intensify and saturate colors. Given that bird’s feathers are so highly reflective BECAUSE they have evolved to be so colorful, frontal lighting offers us a great way of both overcoming one obstacle while exploiting the attribute that creates that obstacle.
ACTION
Color is just one of two key reasons to consider the use of frontal lighting. Given the fact that this lighting scenario eliminates contrast and simplifies exposures, frontal lighting also gives us the ideal tool to use when photographing fast paced action.
There are certain scenarios that you will find in the field where the elimination of as much contrast as possible will be hugely beneficial to you. Since we are on the theme of birds, let’s stick to that and discuss birds in flight.
Photographing birds in flight is not the easiest of photographic pursuits. Many consider this to be one of the more technically advanced skills in wildlife photography. Basically, you have a smallish bird erratically hurtling itself through the sky and you have to keep up with it. Sometimes this can be like trying to photograph a football spiraling through the air at 60mph with a telephoto lens.
When it comes to this sort of fast paced scenario, where the subject is somewhat unpredictable and you have multiple dimensions (bird and background) to contend with, utilizing frontal lighting will significantly help your cause in a variety of ways. Most important of these however, is the fact that frontal lighting will balance those two dimensions by creating even light across both your subject and your background.
Backgrounds are absolutely critical when it comes to birds in flight (just say no to blue sky). So, a properly lit, and properly interesting background, will significantly improve your bird in flight photographs.
Of course, this same concept could be applied to a cheetah running across an African savanna, a pack of wolves chasing down and elk, or really any other high speed situation where you are forced to think fast and keep up. When there is absolutely not time to be worrying about exposure adjustments, when you need to put 100% of your focus on the action that is unfolding right here right now, frontal lighting is the way to go.
When it comes to action photography, all those reasons I stated at the beginning of the chapter which make frontal lighting the simplest type of light to work with also makes it ideal for the chase. When everything is changing quickly, simplify what you can actually control. Whether this is positioning yourself so as to take advantage of frontal lighting, or simplifying your exposure by switching to manual metering – in the words of Henry David Thoreau, “simplify, simplify, simplify.”
I have focused primarily on birds with the topic of frontal lighting. However, all of this is applicable to any species to one degree or another. The idea is that when it comes to color, high speed action photography, or any situation where it is imperative that you simplify the light and eliminate contrast or dynamic range, frontal lighting cannot be beat. Even though frontal lighting has its drawbacks, those same characteristics also make this lighting scenario beneficial in the right situations.
With time you will begin to recognize those situations and understand exactly when and where this type of lighting has its place
I am making my entire book, Mastering Light, free to read for everyone here on PhotoWILD Magazine as a series of articles in preparation for the new and updated version we are currently working on.
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