How to Capture Emotion In Your Images

How to Capture Emotion in your images through exposure and the zone system. Capturing True emotion in photography comes with experience and practice. Learn through this tutorial how to capture in photography feelings and emotions as well as use our exercises to capture emotion photography projects given.

How can you use exposure to control the emotional tone of your image, and how can the lighting impact what the viewer is feeling?

To start we will define the terms that we will use in this post:

The Zone System: A method to visualize a scene and a subject to fit your creativity. This is a technique to determine the optimal exposure needed to fit your visualization. Every shade falls into a certain zone, whether color or black and white. Understanding this is a vital key in moving forward.

How to Capture Emotion In Your Images

Soft light: Light stemming from a larger light source, diffused in some way. Minimal shadows and contrast. Emotionally it can be a happy image. Great if you don’t want to draw attention to any one point of an image, but rather the entire image as a whole.

Hard Light: Generally from one direct source, non-diffuse. Harsh shadows, high contrast. This type of lighting can enhance; the emotion you are trying to obtain.

Dynamic Range: The range of light between the shadows to the highlights.

Exposure triangle: Your aperture, ISO and shutter speed and how the use of these three are used to achieve proper exposure.

First we are going to dive into the exposure triangle.

For us, we tend to set our aperture to try and isolate our subject. There are creative ways to use your aperture but in order to keep things simple, we will generally set it between 1.4 and 2.0. This means that we typically adjust our ISO and shutter speed in order to expose properly. What this means is we are adjusting our ISO and shutter speed to achieve our ideal exposure for the image and emotion we are going for, more so than our aperture.

It is very important to visualize your ideal image before shooting. Or at least have an idea for what you are trying to achieve.

A word of caution, make sure your camera is in manual mode and set to spot metering. Your camera is too nice to let “IT” make all of the decisions. Creativity is like a muscle, the more you create the more art will flow forward.

Exposure and Emotion In Your Images

Breaking into light:

The light in this image is hard, so there is a lot of dynamic range. We have harsh shadows coupled with harsh highlights. Our settings were ISO 100, f/1.4 and a shutter speed of 1/1250. This was shot on a canon 5d classic and the 35mm 1.4 prime lens. This image gives a feeling of intensity, mystery and drama. Much more so than if we had exposed for the wall behind her as opposed to the highlight on her cheek below her right eye. We metered using The Zone System.

Emotion Photography Project

EXERCISE 1: Separate Exposures: If you have children or a subject available then you can try this exercise. “Set the scene” We don’t mean find a subject, dress them up and use props. What we mean is, find a certain lighting situation (hard or soft light) and photograph your subject being natural in that scene while experimenting with different settings through the exposure triangle. Shoot three separate images changing only your exposure with ISO and shutter speed. Leave your aperture at 1.4 or whatever your favorite lens allows.

The light in this image is hard as well. Yet, it’s very different from the first image. It still has a high dynamic range, deep shadows and bright highlights, but instead of directionally lit it is backlit. The snow is working as a reflector bouncing light onto her face. Because of this, the shadows on our subject are minimal. Emotionally it is light and airy so it causes the viewer to feel joy. ISO 100, 2.0, 1/3200 24mm 1.4 lens, Canon 5d Mark 2.

This image uses directional light that is indirect. This type of diffused, soft lighting can be a great opportunity to create moody images when used directionally in this way. What ideas can you come up with? What can you visualize here? A couple snuggling next to the window? A child starring out into space? You can use this type of lighting situation to create and inspire a lot of different emotions. We are metering off of her forehead. ISO 125, 1.4, 1/320 50mm 1.4 lens Canon 5d Mark 3.

This image was shot on an overcast day, so it is very diffused, soft light. It’s not terribly interesting, just safe. We are depending on our subject to make this image emotional, to make us feel something. We are metering off of her right cheek. ISO 100, 2.0, shutter speed 1/400 24mm 1.4 lens canon 5d mark 3.

This image is an example of a softly lit image that inspires emotion. The light is diffused and flat, but because of the composition, use of shear curtains in the foreground, and her expression, it feels more emotional. She is happy and the light makes it feel airy and exciting! The light fills the scene, adding to the warmth of her expression. The dynamic range of this scene is minimal.

EXERCISE 2: Framing and light: Find a window in your home or favorite coffee shop and frame your subject in the drapes or curtains. Experiment with visualization, picture the image in your head and make it a reality. Adjust the exposure using your settings to match the image in your head. Do not tell your subject what to do.

This image has a slightly larger dynamic range, but the sun is slightly diffused through the clouds, making the light fairly soft. However, there are still some flattering shadows that pulls the viewer into the scene. What is this child thinking? What is she starring at? These are the questions this image asks. We metered off of the rocks, not our subject. Because of this we have deep colors, this is something The Zone System has taught us. ISO 125, 2.0, 1/5000 50mm 1.4 canon 5d mark 3.

Because this image is backlit, it has a high dynamic range. There are deep shadows in the bottom corners of the image and harsh, nearly blown out highlights in the top portion of the image. We metered off of the woman’s right cheek bone by -1 stop, preserving our highlights as best as we can. Our aperture is 1.8 so the image is sharp in our narrow focal range then has a subtle drop off the further away from her cheek bones we get. In this image the sun behind our subject casts a soft romantic feel over the image. We can tell they are happy and we can’t help but feel happy for them. They are younger so it could cause a feeling of nostalgia for older couples, it could entice memories of young love. The light enhances this feeling. ISO 100, 1.8, 1/500 35mm 1.4 canon 5d mark 3.

Here is another image that was shot fairly wide open. You can tell that the subject in focus is the dad on right. You can also tell without us talking about the light that they are happy. They are smiling and there is love in this image. The light is pouring in from the window. It is back lit and slightly harsh. You can see that shadows are falling onto our subject the further away from the window they lean. We metered off of the center of the dad’s forehead. ISO 1000, 2.0, 1/160SS, 35 mm 1.4 canon 5d mark 3.

This image mimics the previous beach scene. The light is diffused, it has a fairly broad dynamic range. There are pockets of deep shadows and bright highlights. We exposed for the shadows that were on the child’s face to the left. Emotionally, this image produces a sense of wonder. Part of this comes from the lighting and part of it from the scene itself. ISO 125, 2.5, 1/4000 shutter speed 50mm 1.4 (sigma art lens) canon 5d mark 3. This is a good example of the creative use of composition and angles. We were sitting in the sand and angled our camera towards the ground after we focused.

Exercise 3: Unique Composition: For this exercise We want you to experiment with the exposure triangle AND different compositions. Shoot down on your subject, shoot your subject from the side, and shoot your subject from 50 feet away. The point here is to challenge yourself. Figure out what feels right to YOU. You know what looks good, you know what feels right. Experiment and grow!

If some of this went over your head… It’s ok! It went over our heads to the first few times we tried to learn our cameras. Education is an amazing tool… The Zone System is an amazing tool and definitely our ‘ah-ha’ moment. Maybe it can be yours? You have the ability to create amazing art, if you have the passion the rest will come. So remember… Manual – Spot metering – understanding emotion and light – know The Zone System – all of these are the key to pushing your images to the next level.

As an extra for you guys, we put together a video showing how we hand edit our images!

Who are we?

We are Kris and Lauren Penland of Sea and Rhythm Photography, family and newborn photographers, photography educators, podcast hosts, and most importantly… we are our own family’s storytellers. We have been married for almost a decade now and have three adventurous daughters. We are teachers of the Language of Light : Understanding the Zone System. But more importantly, we are rule breakers.

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