Ken Knoll Photography

I love windows (I mean those holes in the walls, just to be clear) – creating a huge variety of lighting setups without expensive equipment never gets any easier. Overcast day? Perfect softbox. Either as a back light, front light, side light, maybe used with a reflector…. Sunny day? Dramatic light. Expose on the face and you can let the room go dark. This day was overcast, so I basically had a big softbox. Tried different distances to make use of the inverse square law – in a nutshell, it means: The closer you are to the light source, the more dramatic (i.e., squared) the falloff of the light is. So you can actually let the room go dark if you move your subject pretty close to the window (first image). Or you can use your window as a classic beauty light combo if your model is on her back, meaning that the light comes from (her) above. Push in a reflector and you have that instant glamour look. Love it!