Stefanus Prayitno Photography

Greetings, photography is not a single thing. It is a complex multitude of things. Lets begin with light.

There are different ways that you can have light shone upon your subject. Should you want to express masculinity or, rather beauty, you would probably use harsh for the former, and soft for the latter.

Lighting is a funny thing. You can have an overhead projector being the only light source in a meeting room, bouncing to a projection screen in front of a subject, and yet it will create halo on the side arms. Pretty much like using strip light in a studio to create side light.

Notice different ways that lighting can affect a photograph. In the same way an exterior decorator puts spot lights around a house, illuminating different parts of a composition allows you to bring out different moods of the picture. These illuminations bring out different composition of highlights and shadows.

I like an image with proper exposure to highlight and shadow. Some part is overexposed by 2 stops, and some underexposed by 2 stops to try to obtain these highlight and shadow. I try to use flash in outdoor setting to try to bring out the sparkle in the colours in the picture.

Of course composition makes another big thing in photography. I try to apply one-third rule in my photography where applicable. Of course not everything can be attributed to the famous one third law. Sometimes it makes sense to shoot bulls-eye, or even way off center.

Ever wondered why your greens do not always look very nice under harsh sunshine?

And don't forget about human interaction. Photographing human is not that easy without proper human touch. In my photography, I make my subjects relax by explaining what the photograph will entail, and how the subject will look best. Whether it be chin towards camera, or right-side better, or even mysterious mood that we try to project.