Chapter 1. One Light[*]

One LightRubber ducky The idea for this photograph came to me while I was brushing my teeth. Years ago I had commissioned a model maker to fabricate a plastic water ripple for a photograph. He had done such a good job that I put it away for future use. It took years to find the perfect client. Even though it was tight quarters, we shot the job in the new studio sink. Since the plexiglas ripple was only a quarter of a circle we had to crop the composition tightly. To add contrast to the white-on-white shot we tinted the water with food coloring. My assistant took great care to suspend the model on top of the water surface. We added a couple of large black “show cards” along the walls to reflect contrast in one side of the ripple and then bounced one SPEEDLIGHT into a white “show card” which was the only light source in the image. Shooting from the top of a ladder we moved all the elements around until we got something we liked. A fair amount of postproduction was done to smooth out sharp edges in the water but nothing else was modified (see lighting diagram on page 197).

During the Hollywood heyday of black and white movies, the stereotypical tabloid newspaper photographer was played by a man dressed in a loud sport jacket and tie wearing a fedora with his press card stuffed into the hatband. Garrulous and unctuous, he has changed only sartorially. His ubiquitous camera was always an oversized Speed Graphic 4 × 5. And perched on top was a huge outrigger flash gun with protruding magnesium flash bulbs. This technique defined lighting for several generations.

 

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.

 
 --Ansel Adams

One blinding light. Red Eye. ...

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