15.05.2012

TAOP

Part 4: Light.

Project: Photographic Lighting.

Exercise:  Softening the Light.

Object: To explore the effects of using a diffused source of light.

The subject for this was a pair of pistols on my kitchen work top.  This gave a good mixture of surfaces and textures.  

The first was taken with a naked light set about one metre above.  There are harsh reflections off the shiny metal and another off the work surface.  The shadows are so harsh that there is little detail outside the directly illuminated areas.  Very contrasty with blown highlights and shadows that are too deep.

The second was taken with a sheet of kitchen towel held in front of the light.  The change was very obvious and for the better.  The harsh reflections had been mollified and the texture of the various materials was more evident.  The shadows were not so sharp and deep, and details not visible in the first image were now available.  There was a pleasing reflection of the pistols in the work surface which was not there before.  This is still a high contrast image but here it is more controlled and the contrast does not become a problem.  

The addition of this simple diffused has made a great improvement.

Exercise: Shiny Surfaces.

Object:  To not appear in the reflection of a shiny surface.

After failing to build a light cone that would stand up I went out and bought enough white card to build a cylindrical light box.  The results for the vertical view are below.  They are in order, naked light from above, direct diffused light from above and finally bounced diffused light from above. What ever lighting I tried I ended up with a similar and equally poor result.  Eventually I gave up and built the contraption you can see below and got a much more pleasing result.  

Open top with me reflected.

Covered top and direct diffused light.

Covered top with bounced diffused light.

Light box.

Image taken using above contraption

Exercise: Contrast and fill in.

Object:  To examine the effects of various reflective surfaces.

The still life was a bowl containing two carved wooden bananas and a real apple.  The main light source was from the right and the reflector was placed to the left.

I am not going to reproduce all the shots of this set but will show the single light image and the one I think the best of the rest, which was the one with the crinkled foil reflector.  There were subtle differences between them all with the bare card having little effect, the dull side of the foil giving a grey cast and the shiny side giving a rather bland and featureless in fill.  The crinkled finish foil broke up the reflected light and gave the image more body.

Single light.

Added crinkled foil reflector.

The portrait of Dorothy Norman lacks any detail except for the face.  One is forced to look into her eyes.  Here is  the face of a woman of strong moral conviction and great integrity.  To soften the shadow area would take away much of this portraits power and reduce it to just another family snap.

The portrait of Guadelupe Marin de Rivera is dominated by her hair.  The plain white background allows the wildness of the hair to fill the frame.  There are two other factors that give the portrait power.  One is the low angle of the camera and the second is the shadow that this low angle allows.  Had the shot been taken from a higher position it would have lost a lot of its interest.  

14.05.2012

TAOP

Part Four: Light.

Project: Artificial Lighting

Exercise: Night Photography.

Equipment: Olympus E3.

Sky scrapers in Deal.  There’s a concept.  

The shots I have taken for this exercise represent the night scenes in the area.

The first is of the Deal taken from The Pier.  It was taken, as was suggested, just before full night so that some texture was left in the sky.  To render the colour of the town and The Pier with something approaching reality I had to let the sky and the sea drift off to a dark blue. This is partly tempered by the reflection of the town in the sea.   I played with various camera positions, increasing and decreasing the amount of pier and taking the image with different horizon heights.  This is the one I liked best, with a busy lower half balanced by the dark and deep expanse of sky.  The picture is based on two strong triangles.  The first is formed by the left side of the frame, the line of illuminated buildings, and the pier itself.  The second is the raised part of the pier which disappears at a vanishing point at the landward end.  There is an implied triangle formed by the pier and the row of lights.  The position of the nearest light stops the eye from being constantly led to the landward end of the pier and allows the viewer to look elsewhere.  

2.5sec @ f8.  

The second is my bridge over road shot and was the culmination of 30 minutes of shooting.  The whole of east Kent must go to bed at sundown as this was the busiest of the shots.   I closed the lens down to its minimum of f22 to extend the time and have the best depth of field.  Tripod mounted, the camera was allowed to look after the exposure.  The only change I have made is to the colour balance which I did in Photoshop by changing the colour temperature and playing the the tint slider.

50secs @ f22.

The third is an evening shoot of a large pond lit from the side by sodium lights.  The difficulty was to allow enough natural light to illuminate the scene without having the sodium lamps drown it out with their orange glow.  I tried playing with the exposure settings  to see the effect but settled for this one.  Any darker and detail disappeared, any lighter and it looked like washed out daylight rather than evening.  The sky was a little pale and bland so I allowed the low branches of a tree to fill the space.  the water was mirror flat so the reflection of the trees at the far end work rather well.  I left the lamps way out on the left as they became more dominant as I let them further into the shot.  I used them merely as an indication as to how dark it really was.  As with the image above I tweaked the colour by using the colour temperature and tint sliders.

1/2sec @ f4.5.  Jammed against a tree for steadiness.

The last is a night shot of Dover Castle.  The castle is lit by strong orange lights that I have managed to correct with the same technique as before, namely by playing with the colour temperature and tint.  The power of the Castle is well demonstrated sitting as it does above the town and guarding all approaches.  

1sec @ f4.

10.05.2012

TAOP

PART FOUR. Light.

Project: Photographic Lighting.

Exercise: The lighting angle.

Equipment: Olympus E3 with a Metz 58 AF-1 linked off camera by radio.  Light diffused through an Interfit 5 in 1 diffuser/reflector.

I lit the subject as instructed allowing the TTL metering to look after the exposures.  

All the shots had a pleasing soft edge to them unlike some experimental shots I took without diffusing the light.

Front. Scary Tiger.  The low angle of the light has illuminated the features from below giving the classic horror film look.

Right and Left.  Both of these lacked lighting balance.  The lit side was fine but the unlit side lacked both detail and warmth.  A bit of fill in reflected light would have improved this.

Rear.  Not quite a silhouette but close.  With some front lighting this could have been turned into a pleasing shot.  As it stands it has little to recommend it.

High front.  Best so far.  Pleasing overall lighting with some modeling  of the features, especially the lower part of the face.  The shadows under Tiger give it substance.  Without using additional lighting this is about as good as I could do.

High rear.  This lighting picked out the edged of Tiger and back lit his fur nicely.  The sort of lighting used to back light hair and light clothing.  With added lighting would look great.  

High Left and Right.  Both pleasing pictures.  The raised height of the light source has improved the modeling of Tiger and given him some shape. 

 Top Back.  A version of the High Rear shot that illuminates more of Tiger’s front but to no great improvement.  I would rather add front lighting to the High Rear shot than to this one.

 Top  Centre.  This lighting gave effective but harsh modeling.  The shadows under the head were over dark and contrasty.  Soft top lighting can help to highlight hair but here the lighting is too harsh.

 Top Front.  This, for me, is the best of the bunch.  Good 3D modeling and a feeling of body.  The shadows are not over harsh and the shadows both under Tiger’s head and under is body give him solidity.

30.04.2012

TAOP

Part Four: Light.

Project: The Colour Of Light.
Equipment: Canon G12.

Exercise: Judging Colour temperature. 1.

The timing of this exercise was fortuitous as I was due a break in Spain where I knew the sun would give strong, pure colours.  For my model I took along a white bear.  I have made no corrections to these pictures other than converting to jpg. and changing file size. 

I photographed bear in the three conditions requested and achieved the result one would expect.  

Full sun:  A nice clean white bear.

Shade Under a clear blue sky: A blue tinge to the bear that was stronger that I would have anticipated.  Not a very pleasing colour and one that would have to be corrected or avoided.

Full, low morning sun:  A gorgeous warm colour that although not true one would probably leave alone.

Judging temperature. 2.

The following three were taken in a shaded area with as neutral as colour as I could achieve.

The first was shot on auto to give a base line for the others.  The colour was pretty good.

The second was warmed up with the cloud setting.

The third was cooled down by using the full sun setting.

Again the blue image is the least pleasing as it has that cold feeling one attributes to blue whereas the warm yellow/orange of the second version is much more acceptable.  The neutral baseline picture is the truest but not necessarily the most pleasing.  

Exercise: Two pictures in sun and shade.

This is a pair of pictures of the tiles on the villa.  The one taken in shade is certainly less yellow than the one taken in full sun.  There was on a 1/2 stop difference between them but this can put down to the light nature of the cloud.

This pair is a beach scene. Again there is only a 1/2 stop difference but the cloudy one is now definitely bluer.

Exercise: Variety with a low sun.

I first carried out this exercise using the bear but decided I could do better by photographing some local trees.  Unfortunately I could not get all the required shots using the same trees but the effect of the different lighting angles is obvious.

The first is the image of three different trees rising above a building line.  This picture lacks any drama and is lacking in depth.  

The second is with side light.  It shows more detail and depth but still lacks any drama.

The third is a silhouette with the sun hidden behind the trunk of the tallest tree.  Much more dramatic than the other two.  The structure of the trees stands out clearly but all colour has disappeared.

The last is a rim shot and was taken from behind a side wall where the trees were back lit by a low sun that was out of my view.  The result is quite pleasing as it has the drama of the silhouette as well as the colour details.  The result is very different from the full back lit version yet from a light direction that is not that much different.  One to remember.

Project: The time of day.  

Exercise: Light through the day.

This series of pictures was shot from the roof of the villa I was staying in.  It’s more a village scape that a landscape but served its purpose.  The view includes the roof of the villa which shows nicely the effect of the sun on its undulating surface.  The trees start off being back lit and again show the effect of the sun passing overhead.  The first picture was at 07.25hrs and the last was shot at 20.56hrs on a 2 sec exposure.  The camera was set on Av and the sun setting.  I am not going to comment on each picture individually as I think this series tells the story of the sun's passage quite graphically, although I will pick on a few.  

The first was taken before the sun had risen.  I would normally expect the light at this time of day to be warm and either yellow or red but on this morning it was neutral allowing the blue of the sky to dominate.  The lighting is very flat with muted colours and little contrast.  The bright blue sky is giving a cold blue tinge to the white walls.  As the day progresses the contrast increases and the colours become more vibrant.  Different patterns appear on the tiles as the sun passes over.  


The mid-day images are lit by a near vertical sun that is throwing down high contrast shadows.  The roof tiles have no modelling and the general tone is one of unforgiving harshness. 

The penultimate shot has the sun coming from over my shoulder and the colours are at their most saturated.  What shadows there are appear very harsh and the warm tones associated with evening are evident especially on the tiles.  My shadow appears in the two shots previous to this one.  

The last shot was taken long after the sun had disappeared and again the contrast has dropped away and the colours are really muted.  There is the blurred image of a person walking through the bottom of the shot.  I have left this in to indicate how long the exposure was.


To my eye the most pleasing shots are the ones where the light is coming from behind me.  There is just enough angle on the sun to allow some shadow modelling and the colours are fully saturated. 

Exercise: Cloudy weather and rain.

Below is a picture I took of Brighton Pier early one morning.  All the elements were with me.  The sun was low enough to illuminate the underside of the clouds yet not high enough to be seen.  The extremely low tide allowed the clouds to be mirrored in the wet surface of the sand and their colour implies the fire that brought about the pier's downfall.  The gentle waves make a sympathetic curve round the sand and match the shape of the cloud.  The high flying birds make an implied triangle with the two lumps of pier.  Even the shape of the cloud follows the shape of the derelict pier.  I have seen many pictures of Brighton Pier that were shot on a sunny day and they are just that and no more.  In this image there is an air of brooding, tranquility and emptiness that full sun would take away.  The silhouette of this ruin is far more powerful than the full detail sun-lit equivalent.  This is an image I have always been proud of of but until I started this course I didn't know why it works so well.

Exercise: Three photographs on an overcast day.

I went out on an overcast morning and walked out into the salt pans at Lo Pagan near Murcia.  I took a hint from Perello's book and Chased the Light.  There was an even blanket of low laying cloud that cast no shadow.  The air was still and the water was glass smooth.

The first is of pylons marching through the tranquillity of this shallow lake.  The water was mirror calm and the light soft under low and even cloud.  The pylon at the left is in fact the last but by cropping where I did I have tried to indicate their continuation.  I also took the shot from right of the pylons but it didn't work.  There is a gull on top of the first pylon that I did not notice until I had downloaded the image.  

This is a long derelict house on a tiny island way out in the salt lakes.  The empty windows give it an air of total desolation.  The house makes a nice single point in the lake balanced by its own reflection.  The diagonal row of the disused fish trap forms a pleasing triangle with the strip of land and breaks up what would otherwise only be an image of subject and reflection.  It also leads the eye from left to right into the subject of the picture.

Another single point image of a moored boat.  In the background, beyond the the promontories, are faint outlines of islands.  Having the boat facing the opening hints at rowing out and visiting  them.  This could almost be a greyscale image were it not for the colours of the boat.  This picture best illustrates the softness of the light on that morning.

Exercise: Tungsten and fluorescent lighting.

I have had to alter this exercise as I live in an Eco house that has no tungsten lighting.  It has low voltage diode, compact fluorescent and energy saver bulbs but tungsten it has not.  What I have tried to do is cover both parts of the exercise in one experiment.

I did what I could with the lighting I have in my living room.  I waited until the light value inside and outside roughly matched and took the following.

Daylight.

Tungsten.

Fluorescent 1.

Fluorescent 2.

Fluorescent 3.

Auto.

The unevenness of both the illumination and the colour cast by these various sources is pretty obvious.  None of the inbuilt correction settings come close although the Tungsten get nearest.  The one that comes nearest is the camera's Auto setting but leaves the outside of the image very blue.  With a bit of fine tuning this would be a passable representation of the real colours.

Have decided to publish as the blog has become unstable.  Will continue the rest of the Light section in a new blog.

For the third part I have chosen very different pictures.

The first is a picture from m window on a dull and rainy day.  It is the sort of view a child would see on such a day.  I focused on the wet glass and allowed the scene to blur.

The second is obviously a set up but does nicely show the action of a drop of water falling on water.

The last is a picture I took a while age of a faint rainbow over Ularu in central Australia.  Not the best rainbow ever taken but to see one in one of the worlds driest places was worth recording.