Lighting. It’s becoming a semi-obsession with me. I find myself looking at and for light everywhere. Light. Shadow. Bright. Dark. It’s all a variation of the same thing: the way light shows up in the world. I get frustrated when I can’t find good light and my camera isn’t powerful enough to compensate. I’m excited when I stumble upon an ideally lit situation (not very often). I’m becoming more resourceful about using creative lighting setups when the ideal can’t be found.
Today’s photo just illustrates this growing fascination. I saw this light when I first entered the new Hilton Orlando hotel on Sunday evening. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I would be taking my camera and capturing at least a few images. Today was the day.
Sitting in a lobby chair, I shot in manual, increasing the shutter speed to let in less light. I wanted everything to be muted and dark but the lights themselves. In post, I added a Gavin Seim preset—Sepia Light. That’s it.
There are so many analogies easily drawn here about lighting. I’ll keep it simple and just ask you this one question: Whose world are you lighting up?
Manual: Page 103 in the Nikon manual—Factory Defaults. I knew how to reset to factory defaults, but was wondering if there was a way to keep some custom and return others to default. Now I know!
Images: Gene Higa. Always love his work. Humbled when he gave me a private lesson at his studio in San Francisco. Overjoyed when he did a photo shoot in the city with my husband and I. He’s the professional whose work I’m studying today.
