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Stuart Wood - Lighting Masterclass - part 2 of 1 2 3

by Stuart Wood Published 10/04/2015

While this can be amazingly and accurately predicted to all of us with the simple use of modern apps on our mobile phones, most of which are completely free, nothing beats a basic understanding of the nature of sunlight and the simple to remember fact that wherever you are on the earth, the sun travels in a clockwise direction across the sky and that for obvious reasons, shadows will always move in the opposite direction to the sun.

So we can now safely assume that whatever the sunlight is illuminating and the resulting shadows that this direct and specular light source causes, will not look the same for very long!

Bearing this firmly in mind, I had previously noticed that at a certain time if the day, a quality of light and its resulting shadows created a fabulous shape and area in a part of the hotel, in which to place one of my models. Unfortunately, this particular image would only present itself to one of the three classes that I had to take during the practical day.

Buy hey, we're all photographers here, so you'll understand that we had to get the picture when the light was perfect and the result was definitely worth the effort!

And this was taken purely with the resulting sunlight...ok with a little help from Mike Sapiecha with a reflector just kicking in a little fill!

As I like to do in my workshops, we explored both exterior and interior and how to control the lighting of each of these different disciplines. During my location finding, I had noticed in the bar area that as part of the interior decor, there was as series of large white curtains that separated the large bar area into smaller and more intimate spaces and best of all, there was enough room to place a model between the curtains.

That famous bell starting ringing in my head heralding another image coming together nicely.

I would use the translucency and colour of the curtains to my advantage. First I would place my studio flash to evenly light the first side of the curtains knowing full well it would pass through the curtain and light our model on the other side with a beautiful soft light. I also knew that the unlit white curtain on the other side would make the perfect reflector.

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1st Published 10/04/2015
last update 09/12/2022 14:59:24

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