Lechwe dawn

[Marc Mol]

It seems we're a little short on themed Key lighting images for this month, ..................c'mon let's see a lot more

so getting through a mountain of images from my recent RSA/Zambia/Bots trip, I came across with this beautiful backlit male Lechwe gazing back at his harem just on sunrise.

Kwando- Botswana.

D4 70-200f/4VR 1/1000s f/4 ISO160@ 200mm. Bean bag from front pax seat, curves, levels, TK masking , WB adj, in PS CC'15 & ACR.

Cheers
Marc

[David Cowling]

I like the way that the backlighting has rim lighted the Lechwe. Nice to catch the head turn to show us the eye. Exposure looks good with plenty of detail in the shadows. The background places the animal nicely in it's environment.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Marc - Hmm, never really thought of backlighting as key lighting. That said I do like the rim light effect on the lechwe and the hl in the dew on the grass. If it were mine I would burn the hl on the water in the bg just so it doesn't pull the eye. Overall, a pleasant morning scene and nice placement of the lechwe in frame with both enough space for it to move into and to look back to.

TFS,
Rachel

[Mike Poole]

Beautiful lighting on your subject Marc - a full rim light and the head is lifted just enough to show the lifting under the chin.

Did you do much PP with the sky, the 'lines' in the sun look a little unusual, although maybe that could be down to compression.

Overall though, I'm a big fan of seeing some environment in a shot, and the tones here are superb - very nice work.

Mike

[Marc Mol]

Many thanks Rachel, David & Mike.

Hi Marc - Hmm, never really thought of backlighting as key lighting.

TFS,
Rachel

Quoting from Google here Rachel:

The key light is the first and usually most important light that a photographer, will use in a lighting setup.

The purpose of the key light is to highlight the form and dimension of the subject.

And using backlighting to form my subject will most certainly qualify as Key Lighting in my books.

Point taken on the HL water, I hear you there.

[Marc Mol]

Did you do much PP with the sky, the 'lines' in the sun look a little unusual, although maybe that could be down to compression.


Mike

Very little Mike, once tweaking the WB to get the colour I wanted, and adding the sun rim light colour to the very inner top part, that was it.

Here's the cropped sun straight from the RAW file:

[Rachel Hollander]

Marc - I think you need to read further in that definition and page. My understanding of key lighting is that it is derived from the 3 light system used in the studio where the key light was set at a 15-45 degree angle from the camera as the direct light source and then the other two lights in the system were the fill light and the backlight. The key light if used alone creates deep shadows. What we are looking for in the theme is those images that have become somewhat popular in nature photography where there's a strong direct light source illuminating a part of the animal and then the bg is darker, like Gabriela's image here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ll-Try-To-quot

We can have backlit images as the theme another month.

Thanks,
Rachel

[Marc Mol]

Marc - I think you need to read further in that definition and page. My understanding of key lighting is that it is derived from the 3 light system used in the studio where the key light was set at a 15-45 degree angle from the camera as the direct light source and then the other two lights in the system were the fill light and the backlight. The key light if used alone creates deep shadows. What we are looking for in the theme is those images that have become somewhat popular in nature photography where there's a strong direct light source illuminating a part of the animal and then the bg is darker, like Gabriela's image here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ll-Try-To-quot

We can have backlit images as the theme another month.

Thanks,
Rachel

No problem Rachel,

However my intrepretation on key lighting still includes back lit images, using the sun as a direct light source.

Feel free to remove this post and I'll resubmit later.

[haseeb badar]

Hi Marc -- Lovely scene ! Beautiful colours and lovely backlighting effect in this image . The framing is very nicely done and the pose is also very nice.

TFS !

Going with rachels description of keylighting can we also term it as spotlighting ??

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Haseeb

Going with rachels description of keylighting can we also term it as spotlighting ??

I think Rachel's interpretation is more of a keyhole lighting scenario......................an interesting discussion nonetheless where one could come up with a few variations/interpretations.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Marc a very nice subject and a pleasing setting . Love the created rim lightning and the overall well controlled tones in this situation . Good detail and sharpness
The edge of the landscape does look a bit funny for me , might be a masking thing or is it in the raw too ? I am not sure about the overall greens ... but you have the original and more important you have been there.

Nonetheless a very nice image , Marc

TFS Andreas

[Mark Needham]

I love the backlit effect here with perfect rim lighting around the lechwe. Great that you included some of the background environment and stunning colors in the sky here. Wish it was mine. Makes me think back to all of the wonderful moments I've had in Kwando concessions - love the place. TFS

[Arthur Morris]

No problem Rachel,

However my intrepretation on key lighting still includes back lit images, using the sun as a direct light source.

Feel free to remove this post and I'll resubmit later.

I'm with Mark in this debate :) a

[Arthur Morris]

Very little Mike, once tweaking the WB to get the colour I wanted, and adding the sun rim light colour to the very inner top part, that was it.

Here's the cropped sun straight from the RAW file:

There is a word for that effect but I cannot remember it. Can anyone help? Surely the sun was relatively small in the frame not the huge orb that we are seeing. a

[Marc Mol]

Thanks Artie

There is a word for that effect but I cannot remember it. Can anyone help? Surely the sun was relatively small in the frame not the huge orb that we are seeing. a

In Art Wolfe's "The (New) Art of Photographing Nature" Martha Hill says in reference to a particular image in the book:

"You may have noticed the appearance of a hard-edged color line in the sun's halo.
This is a phenomenon of shooting directly into the sun with digital. The sensor reaches its maximum 255 (bright white) and interprets that as an edge. Film does not have this delineation."


For those of us that shot film, we never saw this rim edging.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Mark. Come to think of it it might be a form or posterization.... a

[Morkel Erasmus]

Sorry to be late to this discussion folks, I've had a very hectic 2 months since returning from London and after hard work it's almost time to hit the road to the Kalahari again for some R&R.
Certainly an interesting discussion. I understood the definition for the theme to be a "spot-light / keyhole light effect" achieved in the field or via processing. I guess going by the definition Marc shared rim light / back light does fit.

Getting to the image - I do feel there's a weird green tinge (been mentioned above already) which is often prevalent when underexposing shooting into the sun in greener environs. I would add some warmth overall to try and tame it. Nice scene that makes me want to head to the Delta again!