Sculpting with Light

This is our latest Special Interest Group (SIG). As Barbara Hodgdon has demonstrated with her many wonderful images exhibited at the Club, Sculpting with Light (SWL) is a magical approach to photography that can transform a scene into one unattainable by other means. The ability to control the local softness, contrast, saturation, direction, and intensity of the light results in images that emanate a unique glowing quality. Having honed her skills over the past four years, and having taken a workshop with the developer of the technique, Harold Ross, Barbara is now leading a Special Interest Group with the specific purpose of sharing the technique of sculpting with light to other members of the Camera Club. She is assisted by David Auston who in recent months has learned the SWL process and is producing some very fine work.

Ten members have signed on to participate in a sequence of activities that includes a hands-on workshop to teach how to prepare a composition and set up your camera; how to use the special lighting tools to photograph the multiple images required for SWL; and how to combine these images into the final result using Photoshop compositing techniques. Subsequent activities of the Special Interest Group will include some local field trips to create SWL images out of doors at night, and to further explore and expand the development and application of various approaches to sculpting with light.