How do you create drop shadows with a flashlight outside (maybe when its not even dark)?
First things first: you’ll need to be working in Manual on your camera. The standard settings just aren’t set up to mess around with light in this way, and you need to be a little tricky. If you aren’t familiar with Manual mode, let me know. A good resource for the basics is Cambridge in Color.1) You need a camera flash or a light source with a lot of umph to it — a standard flash would probably do (you can find them for as cheap as 70$ if you are willing to go to Chinese brands and commit to working in Manual the whole time). Lacking that, workman’s lights or carpenter’s lights have a lot of output (check home depot or similar places), so they might work if you have limited resources. Anything that pours light out and blinds you when you look into it might work. A flashlight is a very weak source of light and just wouldn’t be able to compete with the sunlight unless you are in a very dark place. In fact, your flash might not be able to compete with sunlight depending on the time of day anyway. In this case, you underexpose for the ambient light and expose for your output light. E.g., if you took the picture without your controlled light, everything should look really dark. It’ll likely take a bit of fussing with aperture/iso/shutter to make it work. If you want the sky or background to also remain visible… unless you are working in HDR, this might be impossible. Remember, in this case, you’re making sure the ambient light comes out dark so your light makes things bright to create that contrasting shadow. That means the ambient light for your background, too!
2) The other idea is to commit to using the sun. High noon is terrible light normally, but the sun is at its strongest. Expose for the brightest part of the image properly and your shadows are going to be harsh and dark—which will give that drop-shadow look. Your background will likely be similarly lit and thus show up in your image.If you just want to play around with neat lighting with a flashlight, it would probably be best to work inside or during the night. You won’t need as much light to overpower your ambient light, and you can try out some extra spooky things.I hope this was in some way useful to you! If you try this out, have ideas, or if anyone would like to chime in with corrections, please drop me a line.
