Alright, so the other day, I was messing around with my camera, trying to get some cool shots of my cat, Mr. Whiskers (he’s a real diva, by the way). I wanted something a bit more dramatic than the usual flat lighting, so I started experimenting with what I later learned was called “side lighting” or “splitter lighting.”
First, I grabbed my trusty old lamp – nothing fancy, just a regular desk lamp with a warm-toned bulb. I turned off all the other lights in the room to make sure the lamp was the main light source. My initial setup was a bit clumsy, I must admit.
My Initial Setup
- Positioned the lamp to the left of Mr. Whiskers.
- Placed the camera directly in front of him.
The first few shots were… interesting. One side of Mr. Whiskers’ face was totally lit up, while the other was completely in the shadows. It looked like he was some kind of supervillain in a comic book, all dramatic and mysterious. It was a bit too dramatic, though. I wanted to see some detail on both sides of his face.
So, I started tweaking. I moved the lamp around, experimenting with different angles. I found that if I placed the lamp a little bit further back, and at a slightly higher angle, I got a much better result. The light still hit one side of his face more strongly, but it also wrapped around a bit, illuminating the other side just enough to see some detail.
I also played around with the distance between the lamp and Mr. Whiskers. The closer the lamp, the harsher and more defined the shadows. The further away, the softer and more diffused the light. I ended up finding a sweet spot where the shadows were still pretty strong, but not completely black.
Eventually, I figured out that the key was to have the light source coming almost entirely from one side – like, 90 degrees to the side of my subject. This created a really clear division between the lit and shadowed areas, making half of Mr. Whiskers’ face bright and the other half dark.
It took some trial and error, and a lot of patience from Mr. Whiskers (who, I swear, was judging my photography skills), but I finally got some shots I was happy with. The side lighting really brought out the texture of his fur and gave the photos a much more dynamic and interesting feel. Definitely something I’ll be experimenting with more in the future!
