This article appeared in the September/October 1999 issue of PT. To purchase this issue and receive this and other valuable articles in this issue, CLICK HERE: Ship within the U.S. | Ship outside the U.S.

September/October 1999

My previous articles on lighting emphasized recognizing and controlling the six fundamental qualities of light: brightness, contrast, color, direction, diffusion, and specularity. Now I’d like to examine what can be accomplished with just one studio-type light. (On-camera flash can be handy, but doesn’t have the versatility of a studio light.) Using just one light is economical and can be entirely satisfactory for a wide range of effects. One studio light, flash or tungsten, with simple modifications, can produce all the variations in the six fundamental qualities of light. However, many photographers avoid buying studio-type lighting equipment because they feel it’s just the beginning of too many added expenses. I hope this article shows that this isn’t the case.

Equipment
While a studio-type electronic flash unit has the advantage of producing a big punch of dependable, daylight-balanced light, even modest units are much more expensive than a tungsten source. Additionally, a flash meter is required and Polaroid film tests are almost unavoidable if you want to see what the lighting looks like in advance. This poses no financial problem for a pro, but it’s a sizeable investment for those with more limited means. This article will emphasize what you can do using using an economical 500–750W tungsten-halogen (quartz) mini-light. Tungsten-halogen illumination consistency is far greater than short-life photo floods you may have used years ago. Most large camera stores carry them. With their continuous-burning illumination, what you see is what you get—no Polaroid is needed; and your in-camera light meter can be used to determine the exposure.

The Lowell Tota-light is one such mini-light. Smith-Victor makes one too; they call it (odd-ly) a Broad Light. With light stand, umbrella and a few accessories, the total package costs about $300—about a third of the cost of the cheapest, entry-level studio-type electronic flash power pack, lamp unit, stand, flash meter and necessary accessories. I like the Tota-light because it accepts an umbrella directly without a separate swivel umbrella adapter.

Total light
The tiny Tota-light—with its protective gull wings open as its reflector—has an ex-tremely specular quality. Attaching an 8X12-inch reflecting panel reduces this specularity somewhat. Shining the Tota-light through, or bouncing it off, a white, translucent umbrella transforms it into an extremely versatile medium-diffuse source. And bouncing the tiny Tota-light off white walls or ceilings produces extremely diffuse illumination. With today’s sensitive films and a 750W lamp in the mini-light, you can use modestly high shutter speeds with a 35mm camera. When taking portraits, for example, there’s no need to ask the subject to “hold steady”; 1/30 to 1/125 sec. exposures are entirely feasible. Inexpensive blue gels also are available to bring the 3200K mini-light color balance very close to that of daylight. Because they are so light-weight, portable and versatile, many photographers, even pros, pack a mini-light in their kit at all times.

(Samples—The Five Extreme Direction Influences)

How can one light be so satisfactory?
Philippe Halsman produced more than 100 LIFE magazine covers during his remarkable photographic career. In 1958, he wrote a book feature for Popular Photography mag-azine called “Psychological Portraiture.” It remains one of the most insightful articles ever written about photographing people. He stated some of his views about controlling light, noting: “I started by buying one floodlight, and by making all my portraits with that alone.” He described its effects on the face when direction and specular/diffuse characteristics were altered, and then added, “I realized, however, that one light limited my photography. The shadows were often too strong and my pictures too dramatic and harsh. Nevertheless, I still use one light in many of my portraits. It has an unusual force and it translates the three-dimensional forms of my subject with an extraordinary plasticity.” Halsman’s simple instruction was an epiphany for me. I’d recently graduated, stuffed full of technical insights but mentally muscle-bound when it came to dealing with the everyday demands of the real world. His clarity was a liberating influence.

However, it should be noted that 41 years ago films were more contrasty than today, and a greater need existed for introducing a second, “active” fill-light. Today, rather than having us get bent out of shape by details of what a fill-light must do, I’ll replace that term with a different one: ambient light. Ambient light exists as stray illumination in most lighting environments; it prevents shadows from going totally black. No matter how forcefully direct a single source may be, there is almost always some scattering to illuminate the shadows. The enveloping sky, for example, scatters direct sunlight to produce lots of ambient light. Artificial light indoors bounces off ceiling and walls to generate ambient light. An exception to these common examples would be a powerful, distant spotlight in a huge, darkened theater. Thus, when using one light for photo- graphy, the technical need for controlling fill illumination depends mostly on the limits of your chosen film to fully record what your eye feels necessary. This is best learned by experience, but today’s films come much closer to recording the full range of tones our eyes readily perceive. I will note ways to increase or modify ambient light, but will not introduce technical trivia about precisely controlling a secondary, “active” fill-light—a tiresome mental exercise that saps creative energy.

One light’s effects on the human face
The examples shown here were lit by a moderately diffuse light source. In this case, light was directed through a 36-inch white translucent umbrella with very low levels of ambient light—they were made in a large, dark- walled studio. With no nearby reflecting surfaces to illuminate the shadows, these examples depict the plasticity that Halsman wrote about, and show shadow effects with maximum clarity. Since the human face is so familiar, these are good examples for predicting how light direction changes might appear on other three-dimensional subjects.

When we observe lighting’s effects, not just the object itself, we have different emotional reactions. Note that each of the five extreme direction influences on the face has its own “feel.” Both 90° downward and upward directions are disturbing. In the downward extreme, where the eyes are shaded and the skull strongly revealed, we sense a lifeless mask. In the upward extreme we sense an unnatural distortion of form that evokes provocative mystery, because natural light doesn’t come from below. The 90° from-one-side extreme cuts the face exactly in half, an explicit division that’s pictorially unsatisfying. The 0° full-front extreme produces the greatest brightness on the subject with no shadows; the only tonal changes occur because of color contrasts in eyes, hair and lips, and because light reflects back with subtly different intensities off the various planes and surfaces of the face. The full-front extreme is a flattering direction influence. Nearly all female head shots for fashion and cosmetic illustrations employ this honey-smooth illumination. The fifth extreme direction influence, a full silhouette of the head, reveals only shape and outline.

Now, if we split the five extreme directions into six points of the compass—all from 45° above the camera, and from both front and back, left and right—we get many more useful lighting situations. The three frontal direction influences typically are used in studio portraiture; the three rearward influences are extremely useful too, but only if there’s lots of ambient light filling in the shadows.

(Samples—Six Intermediate Direction Influences)

Controlling ambient light
Ambient light, by definition, has no direction influence: reflected and scattered illumination from all directions lightens shadows as air fills a vacuum. The simplest way to increase ambient light is to introduce a large, white reflector. During my career I always kept a 4X6-foot, folded, canvas-weight white sheet in my camera bag. Later, I also carried one of the ingenious, spring-actuated fabric disc reflectors that collapse into a convenient carrying size. The shadow-lightening effect such a reflector produces is not dramatic to the eye. It doesn’t have to be, because pictorial nuances like eye catchlights and the addition of a subtle extra glow to small areas in the scene are emotionally satisfying. Ambient light can also be increased by the omnidirectional influence of any additional light bouncing off ceiling and walls. One example: bouncing a mini electronic flash to create added ambient light while the camera’s exposure meter is automatically set to adjust for the existing light in a room is a nifty lighting solution that was agonizingly difficult to calculate only a few years ago.

Reflecting ambient light into a scene can be overdone. Using an aluminized reflector to blast full sunshine into shadows is grossly excessive. The direct, specular light from a flashlight functionally illuminates a shaded work area too, but its stark effect doesn’t qualify as ambient light either. These examples help explain why using a secondary, “active” fill-light tends to be emotionally unsatisfactory—its intrusion can be much too obvious.

Ambient light can be enhanced by simply exposing for the shadows and letting the narrow, directly illuminated areas get way over-exposed. This is a handy lighting technique, especially when the background is also in shadow. The result is attention-getting with lots of pictorial sparkle. Sports action—baseball, football, tennis—is often done while shooting toward the sun with the shaded side of the stadium as a backdrop. It’s essential to use an efficient lens shade. (A 300mm lens should have a tubular lens shade at least eight inches long. Stop your lens all the way down, and aim your single lens reflex camera at the bright sky. You’ll be surprised to find no vignetting in the corners of the view-finder. The built-in, slip-out 3-inch lens hood is virtually worthless. With shorter focal length lenses, use a collapsible, rectangular bellows lens shade to exactly crop out unwanted backlight lens flare.)

Copying flat art
Here’s where one light is better, even though many lighting texts routinely describe a formula for using two. One light is cleaner, more flexible, and superior when flat art has dimension. Examples: brush strokes in a painting are best seen under singular illumination; a fan of prints laid across a surface are better rendered with a unifying shadow edge; and textured paper is properly revealed under one light, but not two.

The first thing to understand in one-light-copying is that nearly all spherical light fixture reflectors cast uneven illumination. This is not the problem—it’s the solution, because the light from a spherical reflector can be “feathered.” When the reflector’s brightest core of illumination is cast toward the farthest part of the subject, the effect adjusts for the geometric fall-off in brightness. Even when the distance across a surface is small, feathering always produces more even illumination across the entire surface. To make the illumination perfectly even, place a white reflector near the far edge of the art to introduce some ambient light. The tonal subtleties I’ve noted are almost imperceptible to the casual eye, but they’re perceptible on film.

Using an umbrella source may be easier for a beginner because its greater diffuse character doesn’t fall off as quickly. Nevertheless, the best results are obtained when it is aimed at the farthest end of the art and a white reflector is positioned near that side.

It takes a little skill and experience to illuminate flat art properly, just as skipping a stone across water or banking a pool ball does. But soon you’ll find yourself able to finesse one light and reflector card with automatic ease, and wonder why you ever agonized over doing it any other way.

The one light should be positioned a good distance away—at least five times the width of the art being copied. This gives you room to work and further minimizes geometric fall-off in illumination. It’s essential that any shiny parts of the camera be invisible to any dark, shiny surfaces on the art. Do not use expensive pola-screens over the lens and light unless the art contains areas of India ink that must be rendered as opaque black (India ink dries in a crystalline manner and picks up scratchy reflections from every obscure direction); just be sure the camera, tripod, cable release—and you!—are in deep shadow. The easiest way to ensure this is to cut a lens peephole in a black card positioned between the camera lens and the art, especially if the art is small and a macro lens must be close in.

Don’t overlook the position of the white reflector! Tip it backwards so its upper edge doesn’t accidentally reflect off some shiny portion of the art. Such reflections are very hard to see through the camera’s lens when wide open for focusing. The only sure check is to lay a mirror over the art and look for possible reflections with the lens stopped down. If in doubt, move the reflector farther away, and tip it back more. Remember, the reflector has only a subtle role anyway.

(Samples—Two Flat Art Copies)

We’ll return in the next issue with further examples of using only one light. Meanwhile, especially if you’re new to lighting and don’t yet own an off-camera light, I hope I’ve convinced you that this highly economical lighting method has more versatility than you may have imagined.

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