Lighting

Photograph by Kevin Lachman @2009

By Robert Lachman
Recently I was working with my son who is taking a college black & white photography class at our local college. It?s really back to basics when you?re shooting Tri-X-400 film and then waiting a couple days to see the film developed.

The wait seems endless when you are used to looking down at the back of your camera and seeing every shot pop up on the back of the camera on a beautiful color screen. It hard for me to believe I used to shoot and process film every day.

For this assignment we just used me as the subject and a light we found in the garage. It couldn?t have been any easier.

It reminds me of those portraits on the ?Meet the Beatles!? album cover. That was a long time ago, but don?t say you don?t know what I?m talking about.

After attending the Joe McNally lighting workshop, where he used as many as ten small $500 Nikon strobes to light his subject, our method seemed so archaic.

I mean is it possible to shoot a nice portrait with a 100-watt bulb and a bent-up dusty reflector? I will let you decide.