The strobist lessons: Lighting 102, Unit 1.1

Yesterday evening, before dinner, I played a bit in my flat, and tried to take a self portrait, with far from excellent results.

I finally got at last at least one shot I liked, so I finally had my pasta and my salad, and of course an ice cream!

Then, after dinner (and after a stupid movie on tv) I decided to set up a bit of gear for the first lighting 102 excersise: Lighting 102: Unit 1.1 - Position (Angle).

I looked around me to find a good subject, as I didn't have any model to shoot at (the sad point of living alone).

Thus I grabbed my nice Dahu from the library (a souvenir of 2007 Universiade), and set him on a chair, with a black background, ready for some shooting.

Set my camera @ 1/200, f/5.6, and the strobe @ 1/128 of power, manual mode as usual.
I started to play with the flash around my subject, moving it in steps of about 45 degrees each time.

I started by setting the strobe at the subject level, from the front, then started to rotate around my teddy bear... oh, sorry, my teddy Dahu!

As you can see, rotating the strobe varies a lot the result. The light from behind (centre bottom) almost gives a mystical effect, the strobe from the front (centre top) is much flat. The absence of any other light, with the flash set so near to the subject (about 30-40 cm), gives very black shadows and a very black background, as expected. You might think it's not very well enlightened, but... this is an exercise, and a sort of experiment, after all, just to see what's the effect of such a setup on a certain subject.

The best light condition to have nice details and shadows, to me, is whit light source at 45 degrees in front of the subject (top left and right). The light from the sides (center left and right) looks really nice to, for some strange effects. The light form 45 degrees behind (bottom left and right) seems to be perfect for a second light setup giving some rim light to the subject.

After this first setup, I moved the flash to a higher position, pointing downward to the subject, and repeated the loop around my poor Dahu (he was really tolerant, I have to say).

The flash positions in the frame are the same as in the first shot
Again, I'm not a fan of the light from the front, while again I prefer the light at 45 degrees front. The light on the sides leaves on of the arm in the shadow, giving the impression that he's missing one. The light from 45 degrees behind gives the impression he's missing on leg, this time. I find nice the one from behind: as a second light for hair reflection (maybe on a real subject) can be very interesting.

Now, last setup, with the light positioned below the subject, and pointing upward.

The light from the front seems to be from an horror movie, don't you think?
45 degrees front looks perfect as a second light to fill some shadows in particular cases. Side light have a strange look, but I like it after all... even if it's probably leaving the top part too dark, as it finds itself in the shadow. The lights from the back are, to me, only good for rim lights in some situations where you might need reflections from the bottom.

So, these were my (poor, I admit) results. For other's results, you can always look on flickr, by simply searching for the keyword

• strobist
• lighting102
• position
• angle

or, easily, clicking here.

Now it's time to go, breakfast time. See you next time!