On some images I really feel I did well. I love bright sidelighting and backlighting (to expose for the subject), but I really struggled with using the flash indoors (I also only have my on camera flash so it was difficult to direct the flash in a precise manner). I know I pretty much failed to get real silhouettes with backlighting, I got pretty frustrated. Was the backlighting not direct enough or strong enough? Different angle? Or were my manual settings wrong?
I had success with using shadows created by side lighting for dramatic effect (my dog looking stoically out over the mountains is my favorite of course), and it was interesting to do the reflected light images. I used our front room which is all white walls and a mirror, and experimented moving objects around and changed their angle in relation to the wall to brighten the subject.
I kept realizing that there's all these UNWANTED shadows that light creates. Like on the buddha picture with flash as a primary light source, I got the cool reflection and shadows on the subject that I was wanting, but kept getting a shadow against the wall that I couldn't totally eliminate. With light, angles are everything.
I need to figure out using flash as the primary light source in a way that doesn't blow out the whites/shiny things but that also illuminates the darkest parts. Also, I need to learn how to make a true silhouette and not just a kind of darkened backlit image.
I had success with using shadows created by side lighting for dramatic effect (my dog looking stoically out over the mountains is my favorite of course), and it was interesting to do the reflected light images. I used our front room which is all white walls and a mirror, and experimented moving objects around and changed their angle in relation to the wall to brighten the subject.
I kept realizing that there's all these UNWANTED shadows that light creates. Like on the buddha picture with flash as a primary light source, I got the cool reflection and shadows on the subject that I was wanting, but kept getting a shadow against the wall that I couldn't totally eliminate. With light, angles are everything.
I need to figure out using flash as the primary light source in a way that doesn't blow out the whites/shiny things but that also illuminates the darkest parts. Also, I need to learn how to make a true silhouette and not just a kind of darkened backlit image.