Category Archives: Lighting

Stephanie & Aaron

I had the privilege a couple of  weeks ago to do an e-session for Stephanie and Aaron. They chose a beautiful location which was Osaka Gardens on the south side of Chicago. I’ve never been there, but was glad I went! They were very laid back and humbly obeyed all our different requests along with being creative themselves! Very happy and honored to have worked with them. I’m definitely looking forward to taking pictures at their wedding!

When taking a picture, what’s the most important thing you need to look for? It’s light. Only when your subject reflects light you are able to see it in the camera. The three types of exposure(focal length, aperture, and shutter speed) are all ways to control the amount of light the camera is exposed to. When it’s bright and sunny outside, you want to control the amount of light or else you get an overexposed picture. When it’s dark, you want as much as you can get so you can see the subject.

Along with light being important to show the subject, I’ve also started to realize two other attributes of light.

1) Light has the ability to separate
As I took the pictures, I really started enjoying the look of them. The light not only brightened up the subject, but it separated them from the darkness or the background. Like I mentioned before, our eyes get drawn to the light or warm colors and darkness and cold colors repel. My eyes had no problem finding the subject because they were separated by being lighter than the background.

2) Light reveals details
Light reveals what might’ve been insignificant otherwise. After looking at these pictures, I find my eyes wondering and looking at the details of the jewelry, the dress, or even the persons eyelashes. If lit properly, there are endless details the viewer begins to look at. The darkness hides information from the viewer so the detail that is given at times gets scrutinized.

Take notice of how you can leverage light. Whether it is in capturing the absence of light such as shadows or silhouettes, or making a person turn toward a window to capture the reflection of the sun on their face. Identify where your light source is and use it. Maybe you might just have to create one, like a flash.

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Inspiration:
Being a light does mean that you are separated. But being separated should not make the gap between you and someone else greater, rather it draws people closer. Just like how light in a picture draws your eyes, who you are should draw others toward you and ultimately to Whom you’ve put your trust in. Because not too long ago, the Light was shown in your life and it revealed the details in your life that you would’ve rather kept hidden. It revealed things that you are not proud of, things that you wouldn’t want others to know about. It’s not there to make you feel bad, but to acknowledge these details and move past them. Be humble with the responsibility you’ve been given.

Mathew 5:16 – Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.