LVA PHOTO SCHOOL: light

Welcome to LVA PHOTO SCHOOL! Today’s zoom lesson was all about light and its qualities and characteristics that make it our most essential photography tool. After all, light there is no photography.

Here’s a quick recap of what we learned:

• If in doubt, window it out!

• Pick where you want to meter: highlights or shadows

• 4 characteristics of light: QUALITY, INTENSITY, DIRECTION COLOR

• 2 types of light: NATURAL, ARTIFICIAL

• Always have a key light, it directs your audiences’ eye to your focal point

  • You can have multiple light sources!

• Look to shadows to determine direction

• Bracket if you’re working with difficult light

• Be weird and experimental

You can tune into our zoom class from April 3, 2020 below to listen to the lesson and see the lecture. The light photo challenge follows: try it out and tag me on instagram using #LVAphotoschool.

Tune in April 6, 2020 for a class on manual mode!

LVA PHOTO SCHOOL: light

Learn the qualities and characteristics of light so you can master the most essential photography tool.

LIGHT CHALLENGE

Rules:

1. Always have a key light!

2. Utilize your compositions!

3. Practice social distancing!

4. Tag me on insta + use #lvaphotoschool

Scavenger Hunt:

1. Take a small object (happy meal toy size) and take photos of it in 10 different types of light: practice metering in both highlights and shadows (examples below)

2. Take a portrait or still life using soft window light

3. Take a portrait or still life using hard window light

4. Silhouette with a window or sunrise/sunset

5. Take a high-key photo of fruit 

6. Take a low-key photo of a baked good

7. Take a photo of your salt + pepper shakers shooting with an experimental technique

apples | a food shoot

“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple.”

— J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Apples are in such abundance this time of year. The sweet + tangy sensation that explodes when you bite into a crisp, fresh apple is one that makes you welcome the cooler weather with open arms. Many might argue that apples are the original fruit, stemming from biblical times. It's probably one of the first fruits you remember eating + we all know we lived on apple sauce as kids. And I know I'm not the only one who woke up the day after Thanksgiving to stuff my face with leftover apple pie + vanilla ice cream.

In my quest to shoot seasonal fare + plump up my portfolio, I've also worked to experiment with different light. I worked with both hard and soft light, letting my love of the lighting of Northern Renaissance painters and the autumnal light streaming through our large oak tree + my window influence this shoot. It was difficult juggling the different light + sets throughout the two days, but the visual variety + the taste of that galette was well worth it.  

Special thanks to the men in my life who agreed to trek across a mountainous orchard with me to collect my subjects. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to have a true 'hero' apple.