Week 6 Module: Lovely Heart-Shaped Shadow

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and even photographers can get mushy sometimes.

This week, the Imagine That Photography Tribe is learning a lighting setup that can help you to create a Valentine’s Day image to put on a card and give to a loved one.

What you need

Grab your camera and: a desk light, a circular object such as a ring, a bit of transparent tape, and a book that can remain open when you crack it to a page around the middle.

As it so happens, I’m currently reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain, and Chapter Four is titled “How to Love, How to Work.”

So I cracked it open to that page. Balancing the ring in the middle where the pages are joined, I taped the bottom of the ring and placed the ring where I wanted it in the shot.

How to set it up

Then I set up the light so that it was shining on the ring and formed a shadow that formed a heart.

Here’s a photo of the full set-up:

A simple lighting setup to make an image of a heart shaped shadow.

I was originally shooting at f/5.6, but also experimented with using a very shallow depth of field to get that creamy blur that looks romantic.

Shadow of my Heart. Copyright Aloha Lavina 2012.

And there you have it, a simple continuous light set up with ordinary materials that can help you create a photograph that spells love with a simple shadow. Now go get creative with that composition!

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