David Pinkerton Photography

"Those are beautiful photos. You must have a really nice camera!"

This often heard compliment is the one that makes every photographer cringe. Why hire a photographer when all you need is a nice camera? When I first became seriously interested in photography I honestly did not understand why a photographer would be praised for his or her skill. Taking a photograph is simply a matter of pointing a camera at something and pressing a button, right? Did I ever have a lot to learn! A good photographer has a complete mastery of not only his camera and achieving correct exposure using shutter speed, aperture and ISO, but he also must be good at "composing" a photograph and knowing how to light it well.

My passion is lighting

This, of course, includes taking advantage of good natural light when it presents itself. However, I love augmenting or simply overpowering the given ambient light with something that is a bit more interesting and often improves the photo dramatically. Too often, photographers are afraid of flash or do not know how to use it and end up settling for what is given to them and compromising the photo greatly. Have you ever had a photo ruined by blown highlights, dappled sunlight on the face, harsh shadows, etc.? All of these problems can be solved with knowledge of lighting. To help illustrate, let's look at a few examples.

Here are two photos taken of the same scene using the same camera and lens. Both photos were taken with a Nikon D90 (high end "prosumer" DSLR) and a Nikon 85mm f/1.4D lens (one of the most highly praised Nikon lenses for portrait work).

This first photo was taken with full automatic settings and flash on camera. Despite being taken with well over $2000 worth of equipment, these are results you would expect to see with any $100 point-and-shoot camera. While using direct flash is often necessary in fast paced environments such as a wedding, unfortunately, many well paid photographers use this technique (albeit with a bigger flash on the camera) for much of their portrait work (especially outdoors).

The second photo was taken a few moments later, under the same natural lighting conditions, and with the same camera and lens. However, this shot was made with an understanding of lighting and exposure applied to achieve a particular "look." Three flashes (with various modifiers) were used here. I hope you agree that the difference is dramatic. The first photo is flat while the lighting here creates depth and dimension. This is just one simple example of what I can do for you.

Here is another simple example. This first photo was taken close to dusk in all natural light. The quality of the camera and lens do come into play here a bit as you get a nice effect with the subjects in focus and a background thrown out of focus. It is certainly an acceptable photo.

However, take the same scene, adjust the exposure a bit, bring in some off-camera lighting and we suddenly get something very different and much better (in my opinion). It is richer, more vibrant, and displays a wider range of shadows and highlights. This is an example of the results I like to shoot for. It can't be done in all situations but is the type of look I enjoy producing.

This is another photo taken in all natural light with the setting sun behind our model. While the highlights on her hair are a little over-exposed, her face is actually correctly exposed. However, the result is far from desirable. The light is cold and lifeless.

However, take the same scene, under-expose the background a bit, bring in the off-camera lighting again and we get a beautiful shot of our little model with a golden glow.

In this case we have the sun coming through the trees from behind the subjects. The camera has to expose for the highlights in the background which puts our subjects in pretty heavy shadow.

In order to solve this problem we simply light the subjects with flash (in a shoot-through umbrella for soft light) and we can expose the background to our liking but also lift the subjects out of the shadows. This is also the only way you can pull off a heavily backlit shot like this without simply letting the background be completely over-exposed.

Here's an example where lighting is not necessarily a requirement but rather an artistic choice. These shots were taken in full shade on an early October evening. The first photo is all natural light and is straight out of the camera (no post processing applied).

I felt that it was an OK photo but that it lacked interest. To give it that interest I setup an umbrella (camera left) to light the model and a second bare flash (camera right and parallel to the barn door) to add a splash (or flash!) of light and hard shadows across the door. Those two lights are the only differences between these two but they create a completely different photo. Lighting is key.

Here's another case of an artistic decision. The first example is the natural light version of this sunset scene. In this case, in order to properly expose the model the sky and sunset in the background must be over-exposed since the camera cannot correctly expose both at the same time. The photograph certainly works and is a viable choice.

However, by using off-camera lighting we can correctly expose our model while also darkening the sunset and sky in the background and giving the whole photo a much more warm and rich texture. These two photos were taken exactly three minutes apart.

This is a situation where the shot is absolutely impossible without some pretty powerful lighting. In this case we're staring directly into the setting sun. Without some additional lighting you have to decide what gets priority in the exposure since there is no way the camera can correctly expose both this sky and your subject. As you can see, if the sky is correctly exposed then your subject is a shadow. It can be a nice effect but not what we want here.

However, setup some big lights and you have to make no compromises. You get both a beautiful sky and a beautifully lit model.

Here is an example of the benefits of on location shooting. This was shot in the client's living room. There wasn't a huge amount of space but it was just enough. Immediately out of frame camera right was an overstuffed chair and directly out of frame camera left was a widescreen television. However, with the right framing this is a beautiful scene and far outclasses any department store setup. Also, when the kids got frustrated they also could run into the next room to play for a few minutes before being called back to try again. You can see two other more tightly framed shots from this session here and here.