My recent involvement in a number of model & portraiture shoots has served to clarify a long standing complaint of mine. I have been struck by the persistence in over-lighting a shoot and controlling light poorly. Although I have observed this for a long time I believe I am finally beginning to understand what is going on.
The challenge in much of what I shoot, as a natural/available light fanatic, is in working within the limitations of the given conditions. I can try to modify what I’m given but in the end am at the mercy of whatever the environment gives me. Shooting in this manner forces you to appreciate what light does and how to work with it, otherwise you will only use the available light but not see it. It also forces creative solutions when you want to change the light somehow. Many people I know seem to have jumped straight in to creating complex lighting setups with light modifiers and other expensive accessories. Unfortunately they don’t always seem to understand what is appropriate, when to use something or why. Some are even apprehensive about using natural lighting – their portable flashes act almost like safety blankets!
Many of the photographers that fall in to this trap have learned how to make light, but they don’t understand how to create it. Making light is easy, either through trial and error or reading Strobist you can concoct fascinatingly complex lighting systems. The hard part, and the part that I believe is always most difficult for a resource like Strobist to get people to realize, is that lighting solutions aren’t universal. There’s no sledgehammer lighting setup that you can beat each and every photo situation with and expect consistently great results.
I have never liked the cult-of-Strobist. Strobist itself is an influential and useful resource; I don’t really blame its creator when a reader fails to appreciate the importance of appropriate lighting. To create light I think one first needs to understand how to work with natural light and how to shoot with just one light before they jump to two or more sources. If you haven’t mastered those scenarios yet then working with more sources & modifiers will not help. Try shooting with a minimum of light modification tools, learn how just a single reflector can make a big difference in the lighting. Take some time to learn just how simple it is to create light baffles, reflectors and diffusers on the fly when you don’t have the “proper” tools. A white bedsheet can diffuse or reflect and you can hang or clip it on all sorts of things.
Once lighting a scene becomes a matter of creating the right look and not making enough light then the photos will become a lot more interesting. Learning how to see and create light are universally important whether you’re in a studio or shooting with available light outside. You’ll be much more in touch with the process of creating the photograph and not just making it.
It wasn’t until I got to your final paragraph that I understood what you were saying here. I agree entirely with that last paragraph and I wouldn’t blame David Hobby for the faults you mention. I’ve seen them too. One particular one that irks me is the idea there must be no shadows. Another I’ve seen a lot on various boards on places like Flickr is the critique that talks about harsh light when all they mean is bright light and even then quite often they don’t even mean blown out whites.
These all stem from an inability to study as far as I can see. It seems that someone can write a blog post outlining what you would do in order to learn a technique. Then the reader reads the post and figures that is all he needs to do.
Perhaps I can find a better way to phrase a lot of that… maybe some day I’ll try
Either way, thanks for your comments and I do agree that I think a lot of people read tutorials at face value and don’t take the time necessary to try for themselves and experiment with different things beyond what the tutorial shows. It’s part of why so many people ask silly questions about what something will do when it only would take them five minutes to test it for themselves!