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Michele Rushworth · 12-31-2002, 11:53 AM

There are some ways of increasing the likelihood that you will get tonal variation and detail in highlight areas as well as shadow areas of photographs you take.

One way is to bracket your shots. This is much more easily said than done with small children since the idea is to take three or more photos at different exposures, with the same pose. Young kids often will have moved across the room before you get to your third shot. With older kids and adults, however, it's an indispensable technique.

One of your resulting bracketed photos will show good variation in the light areas and another of the shots will show good variation in the shadow areas.

A second technique to use that will help make sure your light areas are not blasted all the way to white and your dark areas are not dropped all the way down to black is to set up your lighting with a low light-to-shadow ratio. This means that the light areas should not be whole lot brighter than the shadow areas.

Film (and digital cameras, too, for that matter) simply cannot capture information in a high ratio shot. A ratio of eight-to-one, for example is beyond what cameras can capture. (An eight-to-one ratio would be a lighting set-up where the lights are very, very light and the darks are very dark.

Setting up a lighting situation where the ratio is more like two-to-one or possibly four-to-one involves making sure there is fill light in the shadows, either by using a reflector or by moving the subject farther away from the light source.

Which of the above two methods you use (bracketing or reducing the light ratio) would depend on the type of subject you want to depict and what you want to say about him or her. A low light-to-shadow ratio (soft light, soft shadow, not a great difference between them) is perfect for young children and women, if you want to enhance their softness. That's when you'd use the second method I outlined above.

A high light-to-shadow ratio is more dramatic and would be great for a photo of a subject whose strength you wanted to emphasize (perhaps a corporate executive or Tina Turner!) Then you would use the bracketing method. You could still set up your lighting with a high ratio, but bracketing would give you the information you need to get the tonal variation in the very light and very dark areas.

Hope that helps!

12-31-2002, 11:53 AM	#2
Michele Rushworth CAFE & BUSINESS MODERATOR SOG Member FT Professional Joined: Jul 2001 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 3,460	There are some ways of increasing the likelihood that you will get tonal variation and detail in highlight areas as well as shadow areas of photographs you take. One way is to bracket your shots. This is much more easily said than done with small children since the idea is to take three or more photos at different exposures, with the same pose. Young kids often will have moved across the room before you get to your third shot. With older kids and adults, however, it's an indispensable technique. One of your resulting bracketed photos will show good variation in the light areas and another of the shots will show good variation in the shadow areas. A second technique to use that will help make sure your light areas are not blasted all the way to white and your dark areas are not dropped all the way down to black is to set up your lighting with a low light-to-shadow ratio. This means that the light areas should not be whole lot brighter than the shadow areas. Film (and digital cameras, too, for that matter) simply cannot capture information in a high ratio shot. A ratio of eight-to-one, for example is beyond what cameras can capture. (An eight-to-one ratio would be a lighting set-up where the lights are very, very light and the darks are very dark. Setting up a lighting situation where the ratio is more like two-to-one or possibly four-to-one involves making sure there is fill light in the shadows, either by using a reflector or by moving the subject farther away from the light source. Which of the above two methods you use (bracketing or reducing the light ratio) would depend on the type of subject you want to depict and what you want to say about him or her. A low light-to-shadow ratio (soft light, soft shadow, not a great difference between them) is perfect for young children and women, if you want to enhance their softness. That's when you'd use the second method I outlined above. A high light-to-shadow ratio is more dramatic and would be great for a photo of a subject whose strength you wanted to emphasize (perhaps a corporate executive or Tina Turner!) Then you would use the bracketing method. You could still set up your lighting with a high ratio, but bracketing would give you the information you need to get the tonal variation in the very light and very dark areas. Hope that helps! __________________ Michele Rushworth www.michelerushworth.com [email protected]