Accent

The current trend is that we have multiple lectures, then multiple studio times wherein we practice the procedures we were taught in the lectures. Two weeks ago our Portrait Lecture focused on learning the "accent light". It's a light that accents our subject. Pretty obvious, right? Well, you'd think......but, it's a little more tricky than that. Think of what we do as compared to riding a bike. For most, first comes one of those battery powered 4-wheeled cool things we rode as kids. Then you upgraded to a tricycle. Then you learned on a bike with training wheels. Then you got a bike that was a bit bigger and the training wheels came off. Then you got a 10-speed bike. Next came a mountain bike. Then - if you got really serious - you could get a trail bike or one of those fully customized bikes.... but in reality, you didn't start off riding a mountain bike, did you?

No, likely not. You had to take what you knew and expand on it....prior knowledge. Scaffolding. Building blocks. Call it what you may.

This is what we do in the portrait studio. First it was the key (or main) light. Then it was the fill light. Next the accent light. Then the hair light. Now we're getting more into posing, and instead of head and shoulder shots, we're doing 1/2 to 3/4 length shots. So when I say we learned about the accent light, we not only had to get that down, but use all the other knowledge we've received to come away with some stellar images.

I was assigned to a group with Garrett and Justine. We had a really fun time with one another, and worked really well together. But the assignment was cumbersome and we went right up to the end of our studio time (and a couple minutes over) trying to grab the last shot. I felt a little rushed, and got some lens flare in my shot, so I asked Garrett to stay after with me so I could reshoot one of my frames. We ended up shooting some awesome pictures, since we had extra time to mess with the lights and try some different lighting patterns.

These are some of the shots I submitted for the assignment. I haven't edited the ones we did as an "outtake" but they turned out pretty awesome. I'll be sure to post some of those soon.

For each one, we were asked to do a different lighting pattern. I'll spare you the details, but for each one as well, it's advantageous to change the pose.