Challenge 1: One Light Portraits

[David Tong]

Hi there Kamrades,

Our first challenge for the year is ONE LIGHT PORTRAITS.

Utilize a single light source to create your best portrait. You can use window light, direct sunlight, strobe, flash gun, flash light, etc.

Feel free to use reflectors, gobos, and other auxiliary modifiers to your advantage as long as you only use one light generating source.

Post process as required, but only for global adjustment and blemish removals.

Post your final outputs here.

You're can post as many as 3 portraits.

[David Tong]

Submitted by: David Tong

Photo 1: Split Light - Personally, I really love split lighting for male subjects, even for kids as it shows both clarity of the character on the lit side and a mysterious entity on the shadow side. When I do split light, I try to keep the shadow side as dark as possible. In this case, I asked my wife to hold a black shawl as negative fill.

In this photo, I positioned the flash directly to the side of Yokes (camera left).
Flash set at 1/128 power as it's positioned quite close to him. No flash modifier, just straight-on, hard light.

EXIF: ISO 100, 1/200 @ f/6.3. @ 24mm

I chose f/6.3 as I wanted to keep his whole head sharp. In hindsight, I should've used f/8 or smaller to totally kill the ambient, as you can see, the bed rail is visible.

B&W converted in Lightroom 2.2 then sharpened in PhotoShop. No other adjustments were made.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Click image to see much larger size.

[nicolodeon]

Submitted by: Nic

Took this candid photo of a good friend while we were attending a telecon meeting. I liked the way how the warm rays of the morning sun was falling and the gap between the chairs made an interesting frame (for me). Took the photo using the Canon SX10 IS. EXIF data: ISO-40, 1/80 @ f/5.7 @ 100mm.

Not my best probably but I like this portrait very much.

[David Tong]

Photo Submitted By: David Tong

Photo 2: High Key - Bugged my wife to pose for this as she got out of the shower. Shot inside our bathroom.

EXIF 1/25 @ f/4, ISO 1000 - 45mm - Exposure chosen to blow-out the background

Flash fired through the inflatable softbox, at 1/64 power. Bounced towards the wall in front of the subject's shoulder so the light is pretty direct-forward.

The bathroom is white-tiled so light was bouncing all over for fill.

Basic blemish fixed in Photoshop, converted in Photoshop as well.

[David Tong]

Photo Submitted by David
Photo 3: Hard Light.



EXIF 1/200 f/6.3 ISO 500, 28mm

I lit this from the 45deg side, while closing the curtains to leave a 3" gap to let the sunlight through, which caused the thin strip of brightness in the background while the flash held close sends a hard light onto the subject.

In hindsight, I wish I hard-lit the whole set instead of bouncing the light as this pic was the best of the bunch in the [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] set.

[mazdamazda]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

ISO800 f5.0 1/50 45mm

Tooks some quick snapshots at PNKY Bed & Breakfast's garden (overlooking Leonard Wood Road) before leaving Baguio. It was quite cloudy back and there was a tree shading the area.

Used a silver reflector to bring in more light. It's quite hard to hold a 60" reflector and a camera at the same time - hehe.

Processed in LightRoom & Portrait Professional.

[engrmariano]

window lit

taken around 10am, sunlight from the window as the only light source.

DI: me
MUA/PP: she



400D & 50/1.8 II

[chieffy]

taken inside our home....used DPP and PP for post processing...flash bounced to the left 45 degrees...off white painted wall as background

[bluntman]

taken during a recent bridal photography workshop

converted to B&W (with some level adjustments) and cropped in LR

lighting was supplied by the hotel's overhead light (single) in the niche where the model sat