Image of the Week: Steven, Middlebury College, Vermont

Window light: it works every time.

Why use natural window light? Because it looks good, and I'm lazy. I could spend a lot of time setting up strobes, softboxes, scrims, and reflectors trying to replicate natural window light. But why go to all of that trouble when I can simply put the subject near a window and fire away?

The diffuse, directional light from sunlit windows embues a dramatic softness to subjects that's nigh impossible to achieve with artifical light. Plus, you can get away with carrying far less gear. Your back will thank you.

You may have noticed that the majority of the images chosen for my Image of the Week were taken with film. I don't have a hidden agenda, and nor do I have a marketing agreement with Kodak or Fuji (although I'm not adverse; representatives of either company are certainly welcome to contact me).

When it comes to cameras and materials, I'm a "right tool for the right job" kind of guy. For many assignments, shooting digitally is great -- the instant feedback and speed of processing is an incredible boon. But there's a "look" with film that you just can't get with digital capture. A well exposed and properly developed black-and-white negative possesses a three dimensional tonality not possible with digital imaging. And for portraits, you just can't beat natural window light for producing a negative that looks like it was etched in glass.

Have questions, comments? Let me know what you think.

Technical Data

Steven, Middlebury College, Vermont was photographed with a Hasselblad 500C/M and a Carl Zeiss T* 80mm ƒ/2.8 lens on Kodak TMAX 400 Professional Film. The exposure was 1/30 sec at ƒ/5.6.

Other Images of the Week