- Wing It
- Ring Light
- Bring a Chainsaw
- Get There Early
- Dont Be So Darn Serious
- Tell 'em Anything
- Be the Boss of the Light
- Push the Wide Lens
- Smile and Nod
- Stand in Front of More Interesting Stuff
- Play Catch
- Stick with Your Subjects
- Always Something to Bounce Light Off Of
- Soft Window Light Equals Studio
- Beware Straight Flash
- Pray for Bad Weather
- It's Gotta Speak for Itself
- Remember: Light Picks Up Color
- Try Not to Be Too Self-Involved
- Keep Your Camera Ready
- Sometimes You Feel Bad
- Step Right Up!
Soft Window Light Equals Studio
- “There was a big window and a little window. In my photographer’s brain, that translated into Main light, Fill light.”
There is nothing like the light in an Irish bar.
On the east coast of Ireland, the soft window light makes everyplace you go a studio. Legendary Irish writer Frank McCourt was sitting there and I noticed there was a big window and a little window. In my photographer’s brain, that translated into main light, fill light.
I posed Frank against a dark wall with the windows on either side. It took about a minute to shoot at ISO 400 and we’ve made 24x30” prints of this frame.
Stuff like this happens and it convinces me all over again of two things:
- This digital stuff really works.
- Autofocus is really handy when you’ve had three pints of Guinness.