Fill Light

Shooting subjects that are backlit creates a unique challenge so I’ve decided to kick off my blog by saying a few words concerning this very common issue.

Here’s a typical scenario: You’re on vacation and you want to take a picture of your other half standing in front of some spectacular view so you take out the camera and you snap a few shots. A few seconds later you look at the digital display only to observe that you’ve shot a dark silhouette standing before a nicely exposed background. What went wrong? So you try again to no avail and quickly convince yourself that there’s something wrong with the camera.

The answers to situations like this simply lie in understanding the camera. The camera has a built in light meter which unless you’re in Manual mode, will either influence the shutter times (Shutter Priority Mode) or the aperture (Aperture Priority Mode) in order to give you a perfectly exposed image. It reads all the light being reflected back through the lens and calculates what shutter speed or aperture or both (Automatic mode).

Notice that I used the term “reflected back through the lens” to describe how the camera’s built in light meter functions. So, in the vacation photo described above, if the background is very bright, the camera automatically figures your shutter speed or aperture or both in order to compensate. It doesn’t take into account the exposure of your significant other and therefore they become grossly underexposed.

There are a few things we can do. We can do what most professionals do and use an external hand held light meter to measure the light falling onto the subject instead of the light being reflected back at the camera lens or we can just make a few quick adjustments on the fly. Note that although a hand held light meter will give us the right aperture and shutter speed to perfectly expose the subject, it will do nothing for properly exposing the background.

Pasquale Stalteri; Photographer

I’m a Montreal based professional photographer and digital retouch artist who is relatively new to the industry. I’ve never worked with film and I only picked up a digital camera for the first time less than five years ago. My journey began by frequenting local hockey arenas, taking action shots of kids and selling prints to their parents. Before I knew it, my venture had paid for my camera equipment and I was earning an extra two to three hundred dollars weekly just in my spare time. As my interest grew so did my curiosity and yearning to learn more so I applied to Dawson College and spent the next two years in their Commercial Photography program trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible while already having embarked upon my new career.

In the beginning, as much as many people told me that I needed to specialize, I thought that the best way to figure out what I really wanted to do was to accept everything that fell at my feet and then evaluate the experience later. That being said, I realized early on that shooting weddings, as profitable as they may be, was not something I enjoyed doing.

My first photography jobs came through friends and word of mouth and ranged from shooting restaurant menu items to commercial advertisements to weddings and it was all good. Like the first time doing anything, stress, nerves and performance anxiety needed to be well contained but once I got past the first few experiences, everything sort of fell into place. Nothing succeeds like success so with a few jobs under my belt I soon felt confident enough to seek out more prestigious work which I had previously thought  beyond my capability and have since realized  some great personal accomplishments and have managed to set the groundwork for several future prestigious endeavours as well.

Two years ago I also began shooting for Canada’s premiere cycling magazine and very much enjoy the challenge of shooting sports. As much as all the rules governing photography still apply, shooting sports is more comparable to being a sniper than being down in the trenches where most photography work actually takes place. Although, everything happens so fast that if you don’t have an intimate knowledge of your equipment or photography, the moment(s) can easily pass you by and getting the shot not only requires skill but also putting yourself in harms way at times with high-speed projectiles furiously driving towards you in conditions that are often far less than ideal. But it’s that rush that I find so exhilarating!

Education is the key …

I've set up this blog not only to share my images but to also share my shooting experiences and knowledge. There has never been a time when so many professional cameras have been in the hands of so many non professionals with limited knowledge of how to use them so I thought that I would cease the opportunity to offer some perhaps much needed help to anyone willing to tune in regularly. 

One thing that I often hear is that professional cameras aren’t capable of taking bad pictures and the fact of the matter is that nothing could be further from the truth. Professional cameras require that you know what you’re doing at all times and knowledgeable photographers everywhere are creating amazing captures and so can you!

Hopefully we can all share ideas along the way and learn from each other

Thanks for tuning in and please feel free to participate by adding your comments and sharing your ideas

Pasquale