Chapter 2. Two Lights[*]

Two LightsDoctor For many years I have photographed health care assignments: hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, insurance companies. Getting good photographs in these places is all about access. And once in operating rooms, research facilities, and nursing homes, speed is a big issue. The situations can change quickly because of vacillating health conditions, privacy issues, or patient’s whims. We used only three Speedlights for this photograph, all outfitted with softboxes: small, medium, and large. We added light gels to two of the flashes, green to the lightbox used to illuminate the CAT scans and chemical beakers in the background. I was trying to duplicate the fluorescent color it normally emitted and light blue on the flash and small softbox directly behind the foreground CT scan. We were directed to emphasize the doctor in an environmental portrait. Strategic placement of Speedlights can be very directional and increase the drama of a potentially mundane scene. (See lighting diagram on page 200.)

One Two Three... Infinity.[5] This concept from the famous book title ironically alludes to the anthropological construct that in some cultures anything over the number three becomes too many to count. It is similar in photographic lighting too. After you figure out how to coordinate two lights, more are basically academic.

 

You don’t take a photograph, you make it.

 
 --Ansel Adams

Many neophytes to photography mistakenly fantasize that as soon as you acquire the right equipment, — if you cobble together a digital camera, the software to run it, and a portable flash — you qualify for the appellation “photographer,” when indeed ...

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