Karim Parris PhotoBlog

A few points about photographic lighting-

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One light, Two Light…,  

 A lot of the lighting I may do when shooting people stems from knowledge gained while shooting food, jewelry and floral photography. For each of my clients, their brand or product is the most important part of the shoot I may be doing. I have to do everything to make sure their product looks it’s best while still being creative with the style of the finished image. When I first started shooting products and especially jewelry, I had the silly idea that I could light it the same way I do people but quickly learned that something like jewelry photography could be challenging at times because of the small scale you are working on and the multiple surfaces and textures a piece may have. Though I have been practicing photography since age 11 and first started freelancing at age 16, I feel that comprehending lighting is an ongoing thing for me as I find new ways to modify it with each new shoot that  I do.

When shooting food, I have at times used reflector sheets as small as just a few inches to get the right light on a piece of fruit or use sheets of wax paper to help further diffuse light on certain areas of an image. At other times, by looking at the way light may hit the many facets of a gemstone or making sure I flag the light in just the right way as to not overexpose a silver band of a ring allows me to later apply similar techniques to a larger scaled shoot where a model may be wearing something in front of or near a reflective surface or allow me to pay closer attention to the accessories they may be wearing.  When shooting smaller objects, you are basically getting a chance to see a mini version of a studio set up. Another great benefit of shooting things on a smaller scale is a better understanding of how different textures respond to light. This is mainly because the texture you are seeing will be greatly magnified in the final image when doing macro photography and smaller still life.  There is plenty to learn from even photographing a box or piece of fruit from various angles just to see how the light changes the mood of an image.

  With all that being said, a majority of what I have learned about studio lighting has come from spending time observing how natural light cast shadows and seeing how artificial light sources illuminates a subject in relation to  distance. The best opportunities for me to do this has been when I shoot still life with continuous light. I bounce back and forth between using strobe and continuous light. One big mistake I see new photographers make is jumping into comprehending a multiple light set up before even grasping natural light and light angles for single light set ups. When we walk outside during the day and see a wonderful landscape or a person perfectly posed against a wall, as a photographer you may say to yourself, ” That would make a great photo.” Some people would overlook the fact that the scene has one main light source…, the sun. Yes there are many things for the sun to reflect its light off of to add a glow to scenery or a face but it is still a singular main light for natural light photography. Spending time seeing how you can manipulate a single light source to create various looks will ultimately make you better at studio lighting with multiple lights as well. There are many light modifiers to use  when photographing a person or thing. For me, learning how to properly use a reflector when I started out proved the most helpful. I won’t turn this into a lengthy explanation about how you should light and the differences between hard light or soft but instead wanted to share a bit about how I learned to light.

-The images on this page are photos I took on various assignments and personal portfolio additions.

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