Way way back in high school one of my history teachers made the declaration: "We have to understand our past, so that we can understand our future". I am thinking that this is a famous quote and words that we all live by. Fortunately for me, I am an experiential learner when it comes to certain topics. I have to experience the negative result so that I will embrace the impending disaster, name it for what it is, and then let it go. Hopefully, never to repeat such an error again. Currently I am taking a portrait class with expert photographer Jack Foley. (Check out his work www.jfoley.com. ) The first day of portraiture he urged the class to use at least two lights when lighting a subject. The correct lighting will give the subject a 3 dimensional look, while one light will make the subject would look flat and dull.
Keeping this instruction in mind. I decided to photograph my friend Scott using only one light. I was thinking that I wanted a certain look, but did not want it over lit. Scott is the guy in the second picture who looks a little like what I would imagine Jean Valjean to look like in Hugo's Les Miserables. Now I liked the exposure enough. But it was not until I used two lights, while photographing and my colleague Arthur (you know the guy that looks like he could open a wine company), that I realized that his portrait POPPED off the page! Two lights = dimension. Jack was right. Understanding the mistakes of the past will in fact place lessons learned into my long term memory.
