Posted on by james-wdeo

Photo Fun: Toying with Cheap Lighting

Just had a cool weekend with the kids. They enjoyed swimming in the pool at the Countryside Hotel where we stayed overnight. As I did not feel like having fun swimming, I opted to have photo fun – photographing the wife and kids at the pool. But that’s not what this post is about.

As I still haven’t had enough playing with the camera, when we got home I played around with cheap lighting with some of the kids’ toys as subjects. By cheap lighting, I mean using just that plain old flashlight – the ones with led lights. A few weeks ago, btw, I bought a halogen light set because I had a mind to attempt another one of those water drop photos. Have to set another time for that though as it takes a little bit more time and preparation and setting up to do.

photo fun

Tails: The light is to my right and just a little below us – right there. It’s nearer to me, but why do I get the feeling that you’re getting more of it?

Silver: I’m facing it you moron. Why don’t you try facing it too? That way, you’ll get more light on your face, instead of those shadows cast by your silly facial hair.

Silver: Oh, I see. Camera shy, eh?. Ok, let’s see what happens if I face the same way. There.

Tails: Uhmmm…my shoes look good, don’t they? Still, you look cool and dramatic. D’you think I should wear that funny fierce look too?

Tails: How about we try moving the light to the left?

Silver: C’mon Tails, stop complaining. It’s just that…some folks simply have it, others don’t. I’ve accepted long ago that I’m photogenic. Wait, did you see that? Stay here, I’ll go check it out.

Silver: Hmmm…I remember this kind of lighting in some suspense movies. Makes me look even more menacing as I stalk my prey. I hope though that that flash I saw was a rabbit and not a tail of some dinosaur.

Silver: What the…? Cool! Two cameras. Ah, that red light comes from that point-and-shoot camera as it is pressed halfway. I hope that won’t give the red eye effect.

Ok, cut! Silver and Tails, back to your Sonics boxes.

There, who said we can’t have photo fun without strobes and expensive fancy photo lighting systems? Looks like my flashlight and that point-and-shoot camera’s pre-flash red led work just fine. Well, at least they do for small subjects like my kids’ toys.

8 Replies to “Photo Fun: Toying with Cheap Lighting”

    1. Looks like it, indeed, can be done. 🙂

      As to the commentary, I got the idea from watching my kids as they played, making their toys ‘talk’ to each other.

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