Strobist Photo Trade Secrets, Volume 2: Portrait Lighting Techniques

INTRODUCTION

PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE STORYTELLERS.

Some photographers are great storytellers, some...not so much. But love it or lump it, every time we trigger the shutter we tell a story. Controlling the light in our images can help us tell the story better—much better. We can use light to tell the viewer what to look at or what to ignore. We can use light to make the image seem funny, scary, mysterious, sexy, or exciting. The same image lit three ways could tell three completely different stories. If you aren’t thinking about light when you shoot, you’re letting someone else decide, at least in part, what your story is about. Personally, I like to be the one who decides what my story is about.

Still, lighting is a tool, a means to an end, not the ...