Concentrating Light

This exercise demonstrates how to concentrate light using rolled up paper as a snoot.

I took the following image in our lounge using Speedlite 430 EX II with diffuser attached to my Canon camera:

f4 1/60 ISO200

It is not the greatest image ever taken but was ideal to demonstrate the need to use some sort of selection on the shot - what we want to see are the figures on the fireplace.

I rolled up some crepe paper (purple in absence of black worked fine) and held it around the diffuser. With a few goes, I achieved the following result:

This works far better as it focusses the eye on the area of major interest (albeit losing the figures on the right). The same effect could be achieved in post processing using a vignette, which would provide a more accurate result. Personally I would probably try this in the first place, but fall back on post processing if this did not work as required.

This exercise provided a useful tool for lighting effect.