463- Lauren Ellis

I immediately loved this picture for numerous reasons.  The fact that the only light source is the sun outside of the car draws your eye deeper into the image and background. Also, because the sun is at an angle above the car, it does not shine into it, and it creates a silhoutted subject. The dark subject and inside of the car make for an interesting composition because it frames the image with darkness and pulls you into the light. Her loose strands of hair blowing in the wind along with her arm extended out of the window also pull your eye into the light/background.

This image, which is actually from the movie "Almost Famous," provides another example of a subject lit inside a car. Once again, the light comes from outside of the car. However, you can tell the sun is at a lower angle due to the fact that Kate Hudson's face is not completely silhoutted. In my opinion, it's actually coming from the right of the image because of the way that her hair and rim of her face are lit.

The Beginnings of My Lighting Experience

One of my assignments for a class I took a long time ago was to take environmental portraits. I took this one of my friend who lived next to me and I used 3 60-Watt bulbs to get this picture. I wanted to capture the essence of a guitar player and to make sure I lit him well. Luckily we were in a small room and the tungsten bulbs I was using created a very warm effect on him. However, I did not know I could rent a lighting kit or anything from either the J-School or the Media Arts school, but I was able to get this picture really well, flooding his face but not the background and really getting the catch lights in his eyes, which makes the picture much better. The funny thing is that I had another assignment during the same semester to take environmental portraits. I took a similar picture of this same person but was unable to get the catch lights on his eyes. That picture was not as good as this one. Although this picture has a lot of flooded light, I really like the fact that I was able to create what I think as a well-crafted image using a three-bulb lamp and a small dark room. And not using the built-in flash on the camera.

I really like the contrast in this photo.  The details in his face are really nice as well.  It looks like the light is only coming from one source on the left side and you can see some really small catch lights in his eyes.  Images with low lighting like this one are definitely my favorite.

Your work on the web

Here's a link to the short film Wade made using your lighting! Please hit the funny meter if you like it.
Thanks!
heidi