Here’s my new friend. She cost $25 and I thought I could use her to learn about lighting faces.

1. Ambient light in the room.

1. On-camera fill flash only.

1. Split lighting – just a small softbox on a flash at 90 degrees and level with the model. No fill flash. Use for dramatic images, especially for men.

1. Loop lighting, main flash only. See small 45-degree “loop” shadow under nose, with space between it and the cheek shadow. Easy to create and flattering for most people. Both eyes have flattering catchlights at 2pm position.

1. Adding fill flash to soften shadow.

1. Rembrandt lighting with a light triangle below the left eye as the nose shadow joins with the cheek shadow. No fill flash. Main flash at 45 degrees right, 60 degrees high. More dramatic than loop lighting but not as much as split lighting, it’s often used for males. Retains catchlights in both eyes. The face is normally turned into the light a little.

1. With fill flash to soften shadows.

1. With diffusion panel in front of main flash softbox to soften even more.

1. Butterfly lighting, no fill. The main flash is above the camera, creating a butterfly shaped shadow under the nose. It’s also twice as far away so the intensity is four times lower. This lighting is symmetrical and is used in glamour photography to hide wrinkles, and to emphasize cheek structure and chin outline. It’s not used on men too much.

1. Adding fill.

1. Removing the small softbox from the main light to add more light and harder light. A reflector at chest level would fill in shadows on the neck which don’t look so good, but I didn’t do that.

After working hard on the house all weekend and still a bit grubby, I took a break to learn more about adding texture to photos. I was the only one in the house, so it had to be a self-portrait.

I’m not a fan of special effects photography because the results often seem too unreal and contrived. I thought I’d try working with a texture tonight, after being inspired by an article I read. I like the result as long as it isn’t overdone.

I like the framing and captured action in this street photo from San Francisco taken a couple of weekends ago.

For dessert tonight we had fruits from the garden. The blackberries mostly went into jam a few weeks ago so only a few are left. The figs aren’t really ripe yet, but there are lots of them. We have plenty of peaches, but the last dozen of the nectarines were stolen by squirrels. Kaori watched a squirrel carry one off so we know who did it.