Maximize the effect of natural-light side lighting

I got very lucky Saturday morning. We had a grey, drizzly morning that turned into one of those bright but overcast-type afternoons. The diffused and soft light meant that my glass front door turned my entry hall into a beautiful large softbox. It was the perfect kind of light to play around with another still life arrangement.

So play around, I did.

The only problem with all that soft light bouncing around the hallway, is that the side light effect gets kind of muted.

After all, almost as much light is hitting the far side of the object as is hitting the closer side. Just like the last set-up it was the black tri-board to the rescue.

Putting it around the back and across the far side of the pitcher kept any light from reflecting back on that side. It did a great job! Actually, it did too good of a job.

You can see that now the flower on the far left is too dark. To fix that, I called in my 4 year old to hold a big white foam board up over his head and pointing down at the flowers.

That quick fix was just enough to bring a bit of light to the left flower but still maintain the shape provided by the black GOBO*. Natural light is always so beautiful — especially when it’s the type you want at the time you want it. Makes things so much easier to set up and put away.

*GOBO, by the way, is short for “go between” so it’s any object that “goes between” your subject and the light.