Video 101

Lighting

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Lighting Lesson
Introduction
Light Characteristics
Instruments
Light Control
3-light Setup
Common Problems



Light > Control > Bounce Card


ABOVE: Here's what you do: Move the bounce card so that you reflect the light source (usually the sun) to fill in shadow areas.

BELOW: Here's what it does--watch the left side of her face (your right). It is deep in shadow, until the bounce card fills in.

 

BOUNCE CARD:
You are shooting outdoors on a bright day and the sun is creating horrible hard shadows on your subject. The easiest way to solve this problem is with a "bounce card."

Any piece of white cardboard will do--or you can use specially designed bouncecards that fold up like those things people put in their car windows. Either way, the bounce card is positioned below the subject to bounce light into the shadow areas. It's amazing how much improvement a bounce card can add.

To see the effect of the bounce card, move it back and forth--to get precisely the effect you want. It's useless unless you are angling it into the sun just right. This may take some practice. But it's worth the effort. A bounce card can improve the quality of your image immensely.

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Michael Trinklein