The Art of Photography

Friday 16 September 2011

Contrast and Shadow Fill

Understanding contrast and shadow fill.  The images below were taken as follows:
  • No diffuser
  • with diffuser
  • with a white reflector about 3ft away
  • with a white reflector close
  • with a gold reflector
  • with crumpled foil as a reflector
The last three images are similar. With the light reflected back both sides of the hat are well lit. The first image without diffused light has the most contrast and the right hand side of the had has light shadows.  The pictures were all taken during the day so there is a lot of ambient light, so while the image shows contrast it is not as strong as if the light was darker plus the walls of the room are white. So while I attempted to control the light I still had a lot of light being bounced into the pictures.
I'll do this exercise again with a model when it is darker to demonstrate how much light can be controlled.

Technical problems

Grrrr Hours spent trying to get paper profiles form Epson. They are the most unhelpful help desk ever. I have to download new print driver but their site crashes. The US site hase the icc profile I want but that just crashes as well. I recall having problems with their site before.Despite asking several times they will not email me the profile I need. Why? Because they can download it at their end. Such a simple request. I have spent too long trying to resolve this issue. Have had to resort to solution used in the past with Epson. Get someone in another country to download the file, zip it and email to me. Why Epson can't you do this??? Why can't you zip the file in the first place?

Exhibition - Terry O'Neill

A visit to the Little Black Gallery to see Terry O'Neill's work was very inspirational. As I have been taking photos of smokers for around a year now I was particularly keen to see the most iconic smoking photo of all time. that of Bridget Bardot. Even more impressive is that Terry only had one shot left on his film when he took this shot. I break out in a sweat even thinking of the pressure to get something perfect in one attempt. I love the angle of this shot as well. Must try it out on the next person I accost on the street. Well maybe 2nd 3rd or 4th person. I must also study the images of the Marlborough Man.

Monday 12 September 2011

More on the Lighting Angle

I tried a different set up to try and show texture with my lighting.  I used an ordinary tungsten desk lamp and placed a gel sheet in front of it to act as a diffuser.  I placed the light at 90 degrees and level with the weta. I chose AV 5.6 focusing on the eyes. This made the foreground and background soft. The position of the light cast shadows on the edges of the legs creating nice texture.
I want to experiment with adding a small amount of another colour into this type of shot if my idea for the assignment is going to work.

The Lighting Angle

Although I have been busy focusing on other projects in the past few weeks I had not totally abandoned the work required for this module. Lighting is one of the most important things to get right in photography. I've been reading several books on lighting. Researching on the web, Spending lots of time fondling lights at the lighting centre that are way too expensive for me at the moment. The book 'Light Science and Magic' has confused me more than helped. I've spent ages trying to get the family of angles into my head.  I understand the general principal but trying to set up the positions is not as easy as I thought. I've had a few attempts to try and meet the brief for this exercise while also trying to apply the techniques I have been researching.
The images below are from one of my sessions. (my model had enough by the last picture and ran off. Says she doesn't want a career as a model. Guess my next session will be an object.)
Take a picture with the light front on. Yet you shouldn't have the light next to your camera. Light from behind, but you don't want to take a picture of the light! The solutions weren't immediately obvious to me, but I did get there, well somewhere on the way there after a few trials. Back lighting - turn the light around and light the area behind the model.  Front lighting - put the light in front of the model but move your camera and have the model turn slightly so they are facing the camera.  I need to experiment a bit more with this if I am to achieve the ideas I have for the assignment.









Friday 9 September 2011

Recent events

A frantic time recently. My laptop became such a problem that Lenovo agreed to replace it. Finally have new one up and running. Takes forever to get all the sofware reloaded.
Finally handed in my project for my diploma course.
I've had 2 photos selected for the L.I.P. annual exhibition.
Now I can concentrate on getting caught up on assignment 4