lighting

[nahid ahmed]

i would like know about negetive fill. when should negetive fill be used? how big a negetive fill should be?

[Chris Keth]

i would like know about negetive fill. when should negetive fill be used? how big a negetive fill should be?

 

 

I'm not sure if those are quite the right questions to ask about it. The answers I would give would be: 1. when it's needed. and 2. Big enough.

 

But, to give you something helpful, negative fill is most used when you're working outdoors on an overcast day. It's a situation when you would usually have a look that is kind of like all fill light with no key. Using some negative fill lets you take down some places and give the subject some definition to their features.

 

I still like my answer to your second question, but the answer is usually very large. Since negative fill is usually used to cut some of a very soft light, it has to be very large to get any of the job done.

[Michael Nash]

Negative fill usually has to be very large or very close, or both. Because negative fill doesn't spread the way light does, it actually "shrinks" meaning that ambient light wraps and spreads around the flag you're using.

 

Usually you want to take light away when you want to increase your contrast ratio on the subject, but don't want to add even more light to the set or subject. So you just take away a little on the fill side instead.

[nahid ahmed]

[thanks a lot.

[Sam Wells]

Useful for photographing highly reflective or specular surfaces...

 

-Sam