Lighting 201 Part 3: Outdoor Lighting
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While the subject looks good, the light on the background and sky is way too intense and blown out. It would help if we could lower the intensity of the background while still keeping the full light on the subject.
Enter the Net. The net is as the name states a net of black fabric stretched over the frame. The tighter the weaving, the more light is knocked out of the shot. In this case, I am using a full stop net attached to a second Scrim Jim and placed directly behind the subject. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
The net should be as close to the subject as possible without them casting a shadow and to prevent the actual weave pattern from showing up. In this example the net was placed approximately three feet behind the subject.
The result is quite dramatic. The exposure for the background has dropped dramatically, and because of the black net, has actually diffused and softened the background as well.
By no means is this the only way to light your subject on a bright sunny day, but you can take this basic method and apply it to a variety of situations. Experiment with this setup at different times of the day when the Sun is at various positions in the sky. Also see how you can modify this setup with the Sun acting as the Rim Light.
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| In this image, the Sun is the Rim Light. All other sources of illumination are from reflectors and bounce cards. |
When not working deep in the labs of the DMN Central Division testing the latest and greatest software/hardware products Stephen Schleicher can be found at the local university teaching a few courses on video and web production. He can be reached at schleicher@mindspring.com. You can also visit him on the web at www.mindspring.com/~schleicherSource: Digital Media Online, Inc.
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