Here’s a dispatch from the Don’t Try This at Home Department: I’m a sucker for people in wild costumes doing crazy things. Hence, this photo. This is Michelle Yeager, and awesome fire breather – performing at a Krampuslauf event in North Philadelphia, a few years back. It is one of my favorites because of the work it took getting the right balance and detail of the fire without it being too bright and therefore blowing out the details. It started as big white blob of fire, but with the magic of lightroom and RAW file, rather than a JPG, I was able to coax detail out of flames that look, to me, like an angry universe, or maybe the interior of a sunspot. Yes, I like to shoot film, but there are certain things that are best done with digital, and shooting fire breathers is one of them. And also – use a long lens. No sense singing your eyebrows, even if it is for a good photo.
Tag: low light
Boost Drama with Rim Lighting
Rim Lighting creates drama in a photo – more so than with most lighting techniques – and in the right situation it can be just the creativity you need. This shot turned a photo a session from typical and blah into something that really pops.
To do rim lighting you really need off-camera lighting.
It’s The Dead of Winter and Even the Flowers are Blue
This photo uses a north-facing window for a flattering, diffuse light source, a wide aperture for a narrow, dramatic field of focus, and high ISO for a textured grainy effect.
Still, the photo wasn’t quite depressing enough to match the weather, so I used Lightroom sliders to increase the shadows and clarity.