Subtractive Lighting

[Benji]

Leon Kennamer was the inventer of this technique about 30 years ago. He was photographing a young lady outdoors and while he liked the location, the lighting was rather flat. He took his black jacket off and draped it across a small bush that she was posed beside and he noticed that it darkened that side of her face. The rest they say is history.

I used this technique on this shot. Note the first image has poor lighting. The second shows a 4 x 4 piece of styrofoam being held above and beside the subject's face to block the unwanted light. The final shot shows the effect of the blocker.

Benji

[Austen]

Another great tip !!

Thanks Benji.

Austen.

(Memo to self, Use something light in case you drop it on the subject !!! )

[C Webb]

Leon is still very much alive in the minds of those that knew him. His techniques and vignetting
gadjets were quite novel. Thanks also goes to Reflectasol for building and selling his black toys
to us. We here in Colorado could not support Leon as much as we liked the results of his tinkering. The 6 x foot by36 inch subtracter flew better in Colorado's wind than a "High Flier" kite!

I miss his grin that covered his face while explaining his system to those of us that had no clue of what he was talking about. His display prints are what sold his idea! They were wonderful!

Good job Benji ! keep up the great work! Thanks for the memories!

C Webb

[Benji]

Originally Posted by c_dwebb@msn.com

Leon is still very much alive in the minds of those that knew him. His techniques and vignetting
gadjets were quite novel. Thanks also goes to Reflectasol for building and selling his black toys
to us. We here in Colorado could not support Leon as much as we liked the results of his tinkering. The 6 x foot by36 inch subtracter flew better in Colorado's wind than a "High Flier" kite!

I miss his grin that covered his face while explaining his system to those of us that had no clue of what he was talking about. His display prints are what sold his idea! They were wonderful!

Good job Benji ! keep up the great work! Thanks for the memories!

C Webb

Thanks! I never met Leon, but he wrote some articles for The Professional Photographer magazine that I read years ago and that is where I picked up his techniques.

The old masters of photography of yesteryear are slowly fading away (or is it their fixer is getting weaker ) I went to Winona School and sat under the teaching of Don Blair and Monte Zucker, and I attended seminars taught by Frank Kristian, Jay Stock, and a lot of others that I can't remember their names! My hero, Frank Cricchio, is still with us but he's really up there in years and he has slowed down a lot. He is truly a master's master. Yup, thanks for the memories.

Benji

[Rain Lily]

Cool demo, Benji.

[Not4wood]

Benji,

Great stuff!! Now not only do we need to carry the rest of the "Stuff" we now have to have some room for a blackout toys. Reflectors, umbrellas and even double sided umbrellas so we could have the light do different things and now to block those other different things.

[swampler]

And, as with any good before & after demo, the after shot has the model smiling and looking happier than in the before shot!

All joking aside, thanks for the tip, Benji.

[ascending Phoenix]

Agree..great simple trick to add modeling to the face.i tend to think of reflectors.More as KICKERS for fill..than BLOCkErS..for contouring,Great tip.Thanks for sharing

*the best tricks..are usually the simplest *

[mur_phy]

Leon's definition of Subtractive Lighting was "the creation of highlight and shadow by blocking light from one side of the face". I first heard this definition while doing the photography for the only joint PPOC and PPA convention arranged by Al Gilbert in 1970 in Toronto. At the time while working for Al, I moved all around the Sheraton Centre to capture images of the various presenters and by pure chance was in Leon's presentation when he made that statement. Never forgot it after that and it made so much sense out of my wonderment as how Al was able to create the brilliant images he did.

In the area that Benji shows, one could also use the natural areas near/under the tree over hang to the R and rear of the holder of the blocking tool and even over by the window framed area to the left of the subject in the background and one would not necessarily need the blocker at all.

When working as a wedding gunner, there really is not time to setup these types of tools and often the slightest bit of breeze would blow over a light stand. Just too many hassles so the photographer had to learn to find the right background, right area to create subtractive lighting and find some back light too so as to create a nice portrait with, in effect, 5 lights just like in a studio.

The nice thing about using places one is familiar with is that spots can be learned depending upon time of day to use and get the best images possible.

[livinginthepast]

As a relative noob, I find the 'before' and 'after' intriguing. I supposed it's extremely obvious to trained eyes, but to me, the difference is subtle but undeniable. Thanks for this.