It wasn’t too long ago that I would seek out perfectly even, perfectly bright and perfectly direct light. I quickly realized how much this style of shooting, while it isn’t wrong in any way, just wasn’t me. I love capturing my subjects in pockets of light and indirect light, especially indoors. What this means to me is finding light that gently meets the shadows on my subject. Give me that and I’m a happy girl!
I think most of us can find some of this type of light within our own homes. It can be easily overlooked because the light may only be a small amount (maybe only one light source) or indirectly coming from a window(s) and oftentimes we don’t think of using small spaces with less light and fewer windows. But it’s those things that spark my creativity. It truly can be beautiful and dramatic and that’s what I strive for in my work.
I don’t remember exactly when or how I stumbled upon how incredible my master bathroom was for photographing my boys, but I’m so glad I did. I’ve created some of my favorite photos in this small space. As you can see in this pullback photo (shot with my 35mm lens), our bathroom is a galley style bathroom and by no means is it huge. It has one large window just above the garden tub and that’s it. The great thing is the window is covered by shutters (great for manipulating the light how I want it) and the window faces a North’ish direction, not exact North but close enough. Up until about 4 months ago there was nothing obstructing that window from the outside. Unfortunately, a house was just built next door so now the light has changed a little, but I still have made the best of it and use this space on a regular basis. The bathroom is located just off the master bedroom so I do have the advantage of getting some of that window light spilling over into the bathroom area if I choose.
I want to show you an example of direct, flat light in this space. For this one, I sat crouched down in the garden tub and had Colton sit directly in front of me (note: if I was really wanting to shoot from that angle and position, I would have used my 35mm, however, I wanted to show you the same lens, same settings, and same processing for this example). The shutters were un-slanted and stayed horizontal in order to create the direct light. Yes, there are catchlights in his eyes, but other than that I don’t find there to be anything intriguing about this picture. This room can be extremely bright during midday and if I were to open up the shutters completely it would be perfect for a fun bath-time session with bright colored toys and tub crayons!
For the next photo I slanted the shutters downwards. I then had him sit right in the middle between the tub and the cabinets. I told him to stay in the middle if he could (I want to avoid having to get rid of too much of the cabinets and bathtub surround if possible in post) and to just ‘do his thing’. He’s 4 so that meant spinning around the floor in a 360! He was being silly and laughing and this was my favorite from the 16 minutes I had with him. Do you see how the light and shadows play around his chin, his neck, his shoulders, his ribs, even down to his toes? Those shadows provide drama, they provide a depth to the photo in which I feel like I can reach out and tickle him behind his little ears.
For this next photo of my older son, I actually shot it the next day and a couple hours later in the day. Instead of having him sit on the floor I had him sit in the bathtub and I shot from above standing against the shower glass, again with my 85mm. He was only about 2 feet or less from the open shutters. This side light provides incredible shadows and light fall off especially on the camera right side of his face and shoulders. I wanted that part of his face to be more shadowed and the other side light, yet still maintain the catchlights in both eyes. Again, the angle in which he is sitting in relationship to the window makes for a nicely lit photo with nice shadows as you can see in the color version. But my vision was to create a little bit more dramatic feel for it so I chose to make a black and white and achieved some of that drama in post processing. However, both the color and the black and white version have nice depth to them. You can see how in the SOOC version it still has much more depth than the photo of Colton sitting in front of the cabinets directly across from the window. This is because of his and my placement in relationship to the light source.
Hopefully these examples will help give you some ideas of how to shoot in indirect light and how to place yourself and your subject so that you can enhance the depth of light and shadows in your shooting!
Celeste Pavlik, Texas
CM Mentor
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Like many first time Moms, Celeste fell in love with photography in 2006 when her husband gifted her with a new Canon Rebel DSLR to start photographing their first baby and their adventures as a new family. When asked how else her personal life has influenced her photography she responded, “In 2009, my Dad was diagnosed with leukemia which was the same day I came home from the hospital after giving birth to the triplets. At that moment I realized more than ever how important being able to share my children’s lives was going to be as my parents lived out of state and neither of us would be able to travel. I didn’t want my Dad to miss the little details of his grandchildren.” From there she began to search for ways to learn to become a better photographer not just for her but for her Dad. In April 2010 she found CM and has never turned back. She says once she switched to manual mode an entire new world of how to make art opened up which grew into her desire to learn how to capture beautiful images that were filled with emotion. Her emotive, dramatic and largely black and white imagery is achieved with a Canon 5d mark III and a few prime lenses. While she loves baking, she also enjoys her almost daily trip to the gym where she works out and takes a little time to relax. Celeste lives in southern Texas with her husband and four boys.
Loved this! Your use of light is incredible and inspiring, Celeste :)
Thank you so much Mary!
LOVE these examples Celeste! I am a recovering flat light-aholic and these tips are just what I need! :)
LOL! That’s awesome! So glad they’re helpful! :D
Wonderful examples Celeste!! I just love your work!
Thank you so much Lacey!
Great post Celeste! Your use of light and depth in your images is always so heavenly!
Aw, thank you so much Jo!
Loved reading this Celeste! Love your use of light!
Thank you Dana!! <3
Great post Celeste!
Super inspiring!
Beautiful examples of how to find gorgeous light Celeste.
Wonderful Celeste! I love hearing how you think – because you are such a master at dramatic indoor light. You know how much I adore your work. Love love love!
So inspiring, Celeste!! Thank you so much for the pullback! Would have never guessed the opportunity in your bathroom. :)
Beautiful images Celeste! Great post!
I’m a huge fan of how you use light! Thanks for the great tips. :)
Loved this one, Celeste!
Thank you Celeste! You’ve been so kind to give me feedback when I’ve been trying to use directional lighting in the past, but it was so helpful and fun to see how you set it up and know what you look for. I adore your processing for the last picture of your son in color.
This is awesome, Celeste!!! I am so in love with your use of light and I am excited to try some of your ideas. Gorgeous images !!
Love seeing the background on your gorgeous work, Celeste! Thanks for sharing!
I am so in love with your photos. Thanks for showing me that it isn’t alway about the location!!!! :)
My bathroom is that exact same style. I’ve been thinking I want to try some shots in it because it has a big window over the tub, just like yours.
Now I have even more incentive.
such a fantastic article, celeste! love seeing the surprising spaces you create your gorgeous images!
Your work is divine! Love this post! Inspiring! If only I had blinds in my house! Fortunately, I learned from Kate Parker in her breakout that a garage works well too!
Celeste – I just love the images. I crave to carve out my children using light such as you did here. It is actually something I have been practicing lately. I am wondering if you can share whether or not you find certain f/stop ranges work better than others? I really only use my 50mm (the 35 is the next one up to bat for my next purchase), and I find that I shoot quite wide open most of the time. Typically around f1.4 to f2.0 regardless of the light. Do you recall your f/stops for the above images? ~Thanks!
Hi Maureen! Thank you so very much for your kind words. I love that someday I’ll hopefully have an entire book or a few books with all the photos I’ve taken of them over the years. :) My settings for the close up portrait were 85mm lens at 2.5 ISO 2000 Shutter speed 1/250. On that one I was going for minimal noise so shot a little more open than I typically do to keep my ISO lower. On the 2nd shot of my son throwing his head back and laughing the settings were ISO 1600 ss 1/320 and f 3.2. The sweet spot on that lens for me is about 2.8 – 3.2 and I typically keep it in that range for portraits because the clarity seems to be better. It really just depends on how much light I have though and my vision for a particular photo because often times I like a gritty/grainy feel to my images so I can’t say that I always shoot at one particular f stop. I hope that helps!
Wonderful tutorial Celeste! The way you capture your boys is so artful and inspiring!
I love it! it makes sense how the directional light can make a nice picture become a wow picture:)
Love this post and the examples you have shared.
Such beautiful images Celeste! You use light in such a magical way. LOVE.
Thank you Celeste for sharing this! I love how you find pockets of light and your images are stunning. Very inspiring for me to go find more pockets of light.
I loved this! You use light so beautifully.
Thank you for the tips and inspiration!
Thank you so much for this, Celeste! Very helpful and inspiring. Your work is amazing!!!
This is incredibly inspiring, Celeste! That B&W image on the floor is to die for!
Celeste, this was such an awesome post!!! Thank you! I have been finding myself wanting to move past the “flat” & “even” lighting that I had always previously tried to get in my images. Maybe being around Clickin’ Moms for the past year has pushed me in that direction?! :) Thank you for the examples & showing how to find those pockets of light. I’ve still got a long ways to go until I understand some of this- but it’s exciting to start learning it.
Thank you Sarah! Once you find those special pockets of light you will notice how different you feel about your work!! <3
Thank you for this!! I am at the point where I have become tired of the flat light look, but still- that’s ”all” I look for when photographing. I needed this incentive to look for different light. Your examples are beautiful
You’re welcome! Be sure to come back and share!
Lovely Celeste!!! <3
Gorgeous Celeste!!! <3
Thank you to all of you for saying such kind things!! I appreciate each and every comment!! <3
These images were absolutely stunning to me. I love your blog too. Now I’m on my computer finding pictures of my children with shadows and trying to make the shadows and light even more dramatic. I have been playing with curves in CS4 and converting it to B&W. But they aren’t as dramatic as I’d like. I also have Lightroom. Would that be a better place to start in post processing? And tips would be REALLY great!
Thanks!
Hi Angela!! Thank you so very much for your kind words, they mean a lot!! For me when I do a black and white conversion I start with the conversion in ACR and then pull in to CS5 and add a black and white gradient layer and typically I will make some minor levels adjustments. I do have lightroom but embarrassed to say I have never opened the box!! It’s on my to do list to learn this year!!
Excellent examples + beautiful photographs, thank you Celeste!
This was very helpful Celeste and I always love seeing your work!! Thank you!
Oh Celeste, this was a great article!! So helpful. I really need to examine my house and see if there is any hope for photographing within… I’m sure there must be! :)
Thank you so much Karen!! I know there must be some fabulous locations somewhere! Come back and share a pic or two!!! :D
I’m overwhelmed with all the kind responses! Thank you so much everyone for your lovely words and compliments!!!
Simply beautiful!!!
Beautiful. I always thougth I was a bright light girl until I played around with the dark a bit. I don’t have shutters so it is hard. I will keep at it. Thanks for sharing!
Isn’t it funny how sometimes the most unexpected places can make for some of the most beautifully lit photos!
Thank you so much for sharing and for the inspiration!! I have recently discovered how much I love this kind of lighting!
I will be looking in my bathroom now too :)
This blog is great. I realy love it
I love the black and white photo. I wish you would do a “how to” tutorial on how you created this image. I love your work. Thanks for sharing.
Great Info..! Thanks for sharing. :-)