The Three "Ls" of photography

Thanks for sharing; I downloaded it to my Kindle for easier reading (meaning it will soak into my head better)

You missed your vocation, Clive. You should have been a tutor.
I think your article was very well written. Even I understood it.

For me, here you are discussing flash lighting which is different to natural lighting. Perhaps introduce another chapter dealing with flash lighting since it can be used as a key light or fill light.

As you are most probably aware, when using flash lighting you have two exposures - the natural ambient exposure and the flash exposure.

There are a couple of easy options for fixing harsh flash lighting (as in your example) depending on whether you are using ETTL or Manual mode for the flash, both of which give far greater control than just adding a soft cover. In manual mode you can simply adjust the flash power up or down (down in this case) without touching the ambient exposure. If in ETTL mode, you can simply adjust the flash exposure compensation up or down just like you can adjust the ambient exposure up or down.

Ambient and flash exposures are separate and can be adjusted individually without affecting the other to get the lighting/look/effect you want from the scene being photographed.

Anyway, just some food for thought if you add to or update your document.

Thanks for your comments. 

Bailey, thanks for the comments. I am unlikely to update this in the near future.

" ..you are discussing flash lighting which is different to natural lighting." Yes, obviously, but the four sample photos showed a very "every day" situation and in this case mentioning fill flash was important. 

Thanks all. 

Clive

Helen

Thanks for asking.
It is a nice photo, as you posted, for the reasons stated. You could try different lighting and compositions and see if you like anything better. One supposes that most photos could be "improved" a small but by changing one or two things. The dark in photo does add to the mystique.

I made two minor changes in the bottom image: lightened the shadows and the lights a tiny bit. Maybe an improvement ... or not. It would be very easy to blow out the white of the baseballs. If these were shot on a table near a window (is that natural window light?) you might try holding a white board on the left side and filling the back of the balls a tiny amount...not sure. (You could still maintain the overall dark background.) But lightening the left sides of the balls might take away from the high contrast effect. 

BTW, Coroplast sign board makes a great lightweight white reflector...you want the white versus the translucent milky board. A 4' by 8' sheet is too large for most, but some shop sell part sheets. Cuts with a utility knife and weighs nothing. 

Hard to make other suggestions..major changes would make it a different photo. And if you are happy with the original that is all that counts. I like it. 

What do others think? 

Clive
  

Thanks Hellen. You are welcome..just an old guy's opinion. 

" I wondered if I should have used a flash" Not for this affect..even with a soft box cover. BUT you might try shooting these in the dark using a tripod, small aperture, low ISO and 1 or 2 second speed...and paint the balls with a small LED flashlight. Trial and error. The baseballs will have to be a few feet in front of background so the back remains dark. They could be set on a piece of black cloth. Painting with LEDs can be effective. I have a sample image on one of my many hard drives ...  will look.

Clive 

Using 1 or multiple flash lights can give you many more options to create artistic effects, especially if you can also fire your flash while it is off camera (preferably wireless).

You could use natural light as the key light and the flash for fill light. You could darken the room and use the flash as the key light and experiment with different locations for the flash.

If you have high speed sync available on the flash, then you could use a faster shutter speed than the 1/200s sync speed on most cameras to finely control the ambient exposure and play with the flash exposure to create a stunning effect.

The bottom line here is to try/experiment with different shooting angles and lighting combinations.

But the most important part is to have fun doing it