Alphabet Photography

ALPHABET PHOTOGRAPHY. Photo of photos on a photo

WITHOUT the light, the photoshop, the set, the costumes, and all the other technicalities, what would a photo be? What can it make interesting?

I think, the sole importance of this activity is to train our eyes on finding the perfect composition. To find that angle that makes a photo amazing. Amidst all the clutter, and all the shapes and lines and curves, we struggled to find the perfect angle to reveal a letter which would complete our alphabet.

Without all the fanfare, just a certain angle can make a simple, uninteresting shot to a 'money shot.' It takes one good eye to find this angle.

Lighting Patterns

SPLIT LIGHTING. Model: Lenore Quibael

THERE ARE several lighting patterns that you can use to create an interesting photograph. Here are the 4 basic light patterns that are essential for every photographer to know.

1. SPLIT LIGHTING

Split Lighting -- as the name suggests -- splits the face in halves, one in the light and one in the shadow. This creates a really dramatic effect. This is applicable, but not exclusively, to men. To achieve such look, a light is placed 90 degrees to the left or right of the subject.

Other variations include SHORT and BROAD lighting.

2. LOOP LIGHTING

In Loop lighting, a shadow of the nose is cast on the subjects' cheek.

3. BUTTERFLY/GLAMOUR

BUTTERFLY LIGHTING. Model: Angelica Fandialan

Butterfly lighting is achieved by placing the light directly above and behind the camera. This creates a 'butterfly' shadow under the nose. It also creates shadows under the cheeks. This is often used for glamour shots.

4. REMBRANDT LIGHTING

Rembrandt Lighting is characterized by one thing: a triangle on the subject's cheek. This was taken from Rembrandt's various portraits, which displays the same pattern. This lighting pattern often creates a dignified look. It is also applicable for subjects with high cheekbones. 

REMBRANDT.

more about lighting patterns here 

Light Painting

POWER. Model: Angelica Fandialan

Original concept I wanted to try. Photo by Patrick Rochon

LIGHT PAINTING is done by exposing your image longer to capture the path of light you are using to draw. This is easier to do in pitch black situations/places (I mean, duh, but we really struggled with our shoot because it was afternoon so we had to find the deepest, darkest, most evil -- just kidding -- place in UPLB (where we shot). We ended up shooting in this basement area. The place looks abandoned except that, there was a choir practice happening, which made it, well, sinister.)

The photo above was shot with a Canon EOS 1000D. ISO was set to ISO 100; aperture to f/29, and; exposure time was 30 seconds. I played with a lot of concepts. The first photos we shot was in an empty space, but it had windows so it was very tricky. Another concept I wanted to try was to use different colors of light to paint, unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring a lot of colored lights. Sadly, it didn't really work for me, so I asked a friend to model for me. I used a white light and a yellow light. The yellow light proved to be a great addition because it gave a little color to the skin. I also used the yellow light to create an 'energy ball'. The white light was mainly used to light the background and my model.

It was really challenging to capture the photo above because the model had to stay in that position for 30 seconds, which may seem to be a short time, but it seemed forever. Kudos to her, she made it look so effortless.

What we did above is just one idea to try when doing light painting. There are a lot of examples you can find in the internet, here are some interesting ones:

From http://www.q8ieng.com/

Photo by Samantha Wild