I first discovered Littleshao through a picture he took with one of my favorite dancers. Littleshao is a french photographer who works heavily with dancers and athletes, often covering dance and music events, but also does weddings, portraiture, etc. This picture he took caught my full attention with its color, light, and movement, which I thought portrayed an image of dance beautifully. This really pulled me into looking at more of his work.
(littleshao is the first dancer from the ground.)
In his pictures, his subjects are always well lit. This is something I have been struggling with for as long as I’ve had my camera. Many times after having found the perfect location and the perfect subject to shoot with, if there is anything that could ruin the picture completely, it would be the lighting. At one point, I was convinced that it was extremely difficult or even close to impossible to take a good picture in the afternoon when the sun was shining directly from above. Because the light always created really harsh shadows, and often across the faces of my subjects(though this only applies to the summertime or tropical countries such as Malaysia when the sun actually gets directly above our heads). This is an example of a picture taken 3 years ago. (I do now realize that lighting wasn’t the only thing bad here, a different angle of the shot might have improved the picture as well)
(I do now realize that lighting wasn’t the only thing bad here, a different angle of the shot might have improved the picture as well)
Although it did help to choose the time when the sun was in better positions to take pictures, the weather is always varying which still made things difficult.
After looking at Littleshao’s work, I realized that he would take his pictures at anytime throughout the day, wherever the sun was shinning from, and still produced stunning images. In a video portrait of him, he mentions :
“I would say there’s two ways I’m taking pictures, the first way is to take pictures in natural light, trying to represent as best as possible the ambient that I have in front of me. And the other way is to use artificial light because I really like to create an ambient that people are not used to seeing. When I use artificial light, it’s easier for me to freeze the movement and to focus the light on the subject”
Lighting made all the difference. Although I did get some equipment out of the photography department on a Christmas loan, the one thing I missed out on is a speedlite or any portable flashes.
zenkhyeooi 