Week 7: Video 101

Photography> Video> Composition

Professional Video Composition

With this post I'm exceeding the scope of the usual photography blog. This is for two reasons: 

• I'll need to create both photo and video assets in any instructional design position. I'm anxious to become familiar with professional standards and current practices
• My experience in this area has been limited. Practicing the skills I've recorded in this blog will increase my ability to serve as an instructional designer. 

According to my favorite sources, the basics of professional video start with three-point lighting

Three-point Lighting for Video

The three lights include 

• key light: The strongest light on the subject, or the primary light. The key and the fill light are usually the same power lights, but the key is closer to the subject. The key should be set at a 45 degree angle from the camera. This allows the light to wrap around the face to create depth as opposed to a "flat" look when the light is directly in front of the subject.
• fill light: Fills in any shadows left by the key
• rim light: This creates a rim of light on the subject's head and shoulders to distinguish them from the background, and provide visual depth to the shot. Be careful not to aim the light directly into the camera.

Check out my video lighting learning activity.

Week 6: More Lighting Tips

Photography> Art> Light & Shadow

Light is a photographers tool. Professional photographers minimize or maximize lights at certain positions to create their art. Today I'm outlining five textbook lighting strategies for portraits.

1. Rembrandt

The light is at 45 degrees on either side of the subject with the subject turned slightly so that the light behind the nose creates a triangle on the subject's cheek.
















2. Split

  
Light is far to the subject's left or right. The light on the subject is dramatically split down the subject's nose. May add fill lights to this to reduce dramatic contrast.















3. Butterfly
The light (softened with a screen or softbox) is in line with the camera, but above it.  The light creates a shadow just beneath the nose with a slight chin and cheek shadow. May add a white fill directly below the subject's face to light the chin area. This is beauty shot lighting.














4. Broad

The light is placed just to the subject's left or right. Subject faces away from light. The front side of the face is broadly lit with a shadow on the far side.

5. Loop

The light is above but to the subject's left or right. The light creates a small loop of light on the cheek opposite the light. The effect is to highlight one side with a slight shadow on the other. 

Week 5: Concept Map & Portrait Photography

Photography> Photos> Genre> Portrait

Photography Concept map

Photography>

Camera, hardware components> flash, lens, power, maintenance

Camera, software components> mode, file size, shutter speed, ISO, aperture, effects

Video> settings, frame rate, size, audio, output requirements, formats, composition
Photos, still> action, genre (food, sports, portrait, landscape, etc.)

Tools> lights, fills, flags

Art> Framing, Light, shadow, color, tone,  retouching and Photoshop

Portrait Photography

This week I've become interested in learning about light as a photographer's tool. I'm just starting out and don't have any equipment. But apparently there are some pretty neat tricks that can be done with only one light for portrait photography.

Trick 1: Cinematic headshot lighting

Tools: one light, three "modifiers"Trick: 

• "Key" light placed 45 degrees to the right of the subject.
• Flag: Black light blocker placed directly to the right of the subject. This blocks any key light from the background. The reason for doing this is to separate the subject from the background.
• Fill: White hard surface panel placed directly to the left of subject. This reflects the light from the key source onto the subject's left side.
• Flag: one final black flag placed directly over the subject's head to cut down the influence of the room lighting.

Trick 2: Finding a person's "best side"

Think about your subject in terms of how they will be framed. Study their features to get the best look.

The left eye is slightly larger than the right. There are two methods for addressing this, and which one you use depends on what you see in the moment.

1. Compensation: Choose to frame the smaller eye closer to the camera to give the illusion that the eyes are the same size.
2. Perspective: Choose to frame the smaller eye further away from the camera since our brains are used to seeing things further away appear smaller.