I have some catching up to do. I’ve begun a new project this year, and we are now six weeks in and I am only just beginning. I’ve missed the circle for the first five challenges just because life has been so busy with getting back into the groove of school and we are celebrating our 4th birthday of the year in this house this weekend! As an aside, how are we already into the 6th week of the new year?! Time is going by so crazily fast.
I’ve made it my goal this year to really push myself to learn more. Learning to understand light and how to use it, especially indoors, is my first goal. So I was excited to find that this week’s assignment was to photograph side light. The other day, Sean got home from work early (around 4 pm, rather than his typical 7 pm). Since he spends his work day doing physical labour out in the elements, he likes to jump in the shower right away. This is always hard on Alex, who can’t get enough of his daddy. Knowing that his dad is home, and still having to wait, is like torture for this kid. He will sit right outside of the bathroom door, calling for him and knocking, until Sean comes out to get him.
On this particular day, the sun was low in the sky and shining directly in our living room window. Typically, I get a soft, diffused light through the living room window during the day because this winter has been so overcast, but on this day the light was hard, creating deep shadows and one hard, illuminated strip that lit Alex up as he waited at the bathroom door.
This is hard (roughly) 45 degree light to camera left, with some light bouncing from the white door and creating a faint rim light. He was standing approximately 5 or 6 metres from the light source window. There is an additional white door to camera right, which might have lessened some of the shadow on his face.
I think that I did overexpose and lose some detail here. It does show some definition of his features (I love that you can see his little distinguished cleft chin), but I am disappointed that I lost so much by overexposing. I was only shooting jpeg, and I wasn’t able to recover much. I’m not in love with the composition, and I don’t think it really tells the viewer a whole lot, but I will keep working on it. I’m open to some CC from my fellow P52 participants, if you have any!
Settings
f/3.5
1/250
ISO 160
I will be playing more with light over the next while, and hopefully have some more to share. In the meantime, please follow the link to Twinflower Photography to see her take on this week’s challenge. 🙂
Samantha King Photography 
Oh I love this – the shadow makes it great! Great contrast here!
I looove the shadow! It’s so cute! In situations like this where there’s harsh lighting, I always expose for the highlights so nothing gets blown. Even if that means the rest of the photo is underexposed. It’s so much harder to recover blown highlights than to increase the exposure later. I always have my highlight warning (“blinkies”) turned on on my LCD so anything that’s blown will immediately start flashing on my LCD and I can adjust my exposure accordingly right then and there. I think you did a great job! Playing with inside light can really be fun and it can become addicting! lol
Thanks for the tip, Christina! I’ve got my highlight warning on as well, but I still blow him out a lot. Darn pale kids haha. I adjusted the exposure after this photo, but all of the following photos were of the back of his head. I will try to remember to expose for the highlights in harsh light like this. I’m learning so much from all of you!
I love the shadows in your photo. I’m In the same boat as you. I always over expose, there is so much to think about especially when the little ones are moving so fast! I’m hoping by the end of the year all this practice will pay off! X
Me too, Rachel! 🙂
I love the shadows in this a lot And it’s such a great photo. The only advice I have is to try spot metering next time? But it’s better to overexpose than under! You can always bring it down.
I love shadows! I agree with LaShawn above, maybe try spot metering next time.
Great contrast! It so hard to get everything right when moving children are involved! Lol.
Such a sweet moment to record! Another idea is putting up some sheer fabric over the window to soften the light.
Good idea Michele. That window actually has sheer curtains, but they weren’t drawn at the time.