Theory Notes (lighting p.2)

Theory Notes

Considerations when shooting in low and sun light.

Low Light:

A lot of times, if a person is trying to shoot in low light, they will automaticly use their
flash, because then you will get the light that you need.
But if at any occasion a person is shooting something with low light and is not using flash, then there are a few tips and pointers to think about when taking the picture:

Movement: If a person is taking a picture where there is lots of movement (sports) for example it is adviced to think about your ISO.

Sometimes people will also use extra support when taking a picture in low light, because the less movement would be the best if a person did not have a fast lens.

Sun Light:

There are also some tips and pointers when shooting in bright Sunlight.
If we look at some of them we read things such as trying to create a shadow for the object that you are trying to shoot. If you are shooting an object that is not able to move, then a good tip is to create a shadow with your own shadow, or even using an umbrella.
Usually when a person is taking a picture, they try to avoid to take the picture "into the sun". Because it could make your picture turn out very black, but one thing to use is a fill flash.

Examples:

This is an example of shooting directly into the sun.










Another example of taking a picture, which is shoot straight into the sunlight.

Image Bank (lighting p.2)

Image Bank #1

This is my first image for my image bank. This picture is taken by photographer Jerry Avenaim. Mr. Avenaim started out his career working for Patrick Demarchelier, and then later he went to Italy to work for Vogue. Jerry Avenaim is a well known photographer. He is based in LA and has his pictures published all over the world.
I personally really like this picture because it's a bit different. I would consider it a fashion shot. A man wearing a nice smart looking suit, but yet acting a bit silly at the same time. I like this picture because its really very simple, but yet it's interesting at the same time.

Image Bank #2

This picture was taken by photographer Eve Arnold. Eve Arnold was born in America, but afterwards moved to the UK. Her first solo exhibition was in Brooklyn in 1980's.
In 1995, Eve was made Master Photographer, International Center of Photography, New York, USA.

I personally really like this picture. I love the lighting. Even though it is black and white, we still can see that the model was lying down in the sun. I felf like this picture had to do with our project, because it showed the different lighting, and second of all, it could also be concidered as a fashion picture (the clothes).

Image Bank #3

For the last picture, I was not able to get the picture onto this website, so here is the link to the picture. http://www.terencedonovan.co.uk/flash.html
It is a picture of a woman with a earring, and the picture is mainly focused on the earring.
This picture was taken by photographer, Terence Donovan. At the age of 11 he attended the London School of Photo-Engraving. He left at the young age of 15 to be a photographer's assistant. He opened his own photograpic studio at the age of 22 and the studio was a great success.
I really like this picture. The way the model is looking right into the camera but yet she doesn't seem to be 100% focused. I love the fact that we get the woman in the picture and the earring.

Printing Compositions (lighting pt. 2)

Printing Compositions

First Contact Sheet.

Aperture: 2.8

Time: 3

Second Contact Sheet.

Aperture: 2.8

Time: 5

Full Print

This picture was my first full print. This is the picture that I choose to use for the "Shoes" part of this project. The Time was 1.5 and the aperture was 2.8.

I personally like this picture because I like the angle of the two shoes.

This picture was my second full print and I used this picture for my "accessories" part of the project. The time was 25 and the aperture was 8. This picture was not left long enough in one of the chemicals, hence the reason why it has a brown-ish colour on the print. I personally kind of like the effect that the weird colour

has given a cool effect to it, even though its not supposed to be there.

This is my third and final print. I was able to use this print for my "fashion" part of the project because the glasses that are worn are very unusual and nobody would actually wear them outside on a sunny day. Personally I think that it is a very interesting angle and its a bit unusual seeing as it is taken from so close. The time is 5 and the aperture is 2.8

Test Strips

There was only one test strip available and that was the test strip for the shutter shades. The time was 5,7,9 and the aperture was 2.8
As seen in the picture the time 5 was the best.

Diary Notes: Fashion Photography (lighting pt 2)

Diary Notes

This project was all about getting 3 different pictures, one containing clothes, the second containing shoes, and the last picture had to contain accessories.

For me this project went very well. My first negatives turned out all pretty good, and working in the dark room was not a problem for me. Usually it took me a lot of time to go through the whole process of getting the negatives on the reel etc. but I did not experience any problems. With the second negative, it all turned out good, and yet again I did not have any problems.

The only thing that sometimes still gets me a little frustrated is when my pictures turn out to be a bit out of focus or either blurry.

Printing Compositions

Printing Compositions

This was my first contact sheet. As you can see the two portraits that I used are lightly circeled with a marker. My time was 8 seconds, and I had an aperture of 2.8 and I also had to use a filter to take out the greyness, which was a filter of 1.5


This was my second contact sheet which contained my landscape and my still life pictures. My time was 3 seconds and i had an aperture of 2.8. The fact that all these pictures had pretty much all the same lighting, it made it very easy for me to figure out all my other times.

Test Strips

My test strip which had a filter of 2. Aperture of 2.8 and seconds were 4,6,8
This is the test strip for the picture with the flower. I do not have the seconds for this, but the aperture is 2.8

This is the test strip for the picture with the chair. Like I had mentioned before the original picture did have a dog in it...hence the dog. Seconds were 1,2,3,4 and I had an aperture of 2.8



This is the first print that i got. The time was 6.5 seconds and i had an aperture of 5.6. As you can see the light shining all over, but mainly on one side of her face, which gives us this shadow on the other side of her face.

This was the second print that i did. I had 4 seconds, an aperture of 2.8 and I had to put in a filter to get rid of the greyness in the picture. The filter that I had to add was not too high. It was a filter of 2

This was my first landscape picture. I like the picture very much because of the reflection in the water. The times that i used was 11 seconds and I an aperture of 5.6.

This is my second landscape picture. The times were pretty easy to find because of my contact sheet, and all the lighting was pretty much the same. The time was 3 seconds and the aperture was 2.8

This was my first still life picture. The original picture was a picture that involved more things, for example more chairs inside the house and a dog. But because I needed something still life I had to zoom up and basically cut out the rest of the picture. I remember the whole picture had 3 seconds, but because I was zooming up I had to double it, but I decided to make it 10 seconds just to be safe with an aperture of 2.8. It turned out alright.

Because I misunderstood the still life section of our project I took a picure of a flower, which technically is alright, but it would have been better if it were in a vas. But because I did not have any other still life pictures, and I did not have anytime to take more pictures, I had to use this. I personally really like this picture. It really shows the hard light, the fact that the rose is so bright, but still has shadows. The time was 3 seconds and my aperture was 2.8

Image Bank

Image Bank #1

The first picture I really enjoyed and it gave me a very calm look and feel. It is a picture of soft light and it was also a picture of landscape which matches perfectly with our assigment. I love how those big pieces of rock are in the middle, but yet it still doesn't feel like it is the main point of the picture in a way.

I was not able to find any information about the artist except for the fact that his name is Jakub Krechowicz and that he is a polish photographer.

Image Bank #2

The second picture is a potrait picture and it so happens to have that hard light touch to it. I though this picture was very interesting and unusual because you can only see the man's face, and thats it. The rest of the body is completely gone, because of the way the lighting is done. I am able to tell that they focused the lighting just on the face of the person, which gives it a bit of a hard light affect. The photographer of this picture are a father and daughter team from Ireland, who have won many awards and are known for their good wedding and portrait photos. They go by the name of Paddy and Emma Clarke.

Image Bank #3

My final image bank picture is a picture that I like very much. I think the angle and the way its taken is so interesting. It happens to be a picture of still life, which in this case is a stair case. I love how you can see the whole stair case but only a few of the actual stairs. I love the affect of the carpet on the stairs too. I feel that it gives such a good and interesting view. This picture was take by a photographer named Carlos Borges from Portugal. He has worked with cameras and has been playing around with them for about 20 years, and finally decided to actually do something with it. He gets his influences from movies and video clips. He likes pictures with low lighting and likes the dark affects.

Theory Notes: Lighting Assignment Part 1

Soft Lighting

This picture right here is an example of soft lighting. Soft lighting can be thought of as sun on an overcast day. Where the light is not sharp and hard as it would be on a very sunny and bright day. Soft lighting is also less obvious in the way that it usually would spread all over the picture, and would not focus on just an edge or corner of a picture. Soft lighting is also considered to be "wrapped" around the picture. If a picture as soft light it also reduces the shadows on the picture.

Hard Lighting

Hard lighting comes from only one source. That is why it is many times it is compared to a proper sunny day, because you get the light shinning directly from one place to the person/object. Hard Light can often create a lot more shadows than soft light, and it also makes the picture seem more dramatic. Light has a lot to do with picture taking in general, and it all depends on the affect that a person wants to create. If a person uses the hard light, the person that is being photographed will probably look a lot more angry, or man, because of the way the light is placed on their face.

Three-point Lighting

A standard method used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and computer-generated imagery. By using three separate positions, the photographer can illuminate the shot's subject (such as a person) however desired, while also controlling (or eliminating entirely) the shading and shadows produced by direct lighting.

The key light, as the name suggests, shines directly upon the subject and serves as its principal illuminator; more than anything else, the strength, color and angle of the key determines the shot's overall lighting design.

In outdoor daytime shots, the Sun often serves as the key light. In this case, of course, the photographer cannot set the light in the exact position he or she wants, so instead arranges the subjects to best capture the sunlight, perhaps after waiting for the sun to position itself just right.

The fill light also shines on the subject, but from a side angle relative to the key and is often placed at a lower position than the key (about at the level of the subject's face). It balances the key by illuminating shaded surfaces, and lessening or eliminating chiaroscuro effects, such as the shadow cast by a person's nose upon the rest of the face. It is usually softer and less bright than the key light (up to half), and more to a flood. Not using a fill at all can result in stark contrasts (due to shadows) across the subject's surface, depending upon the key light's harshness.

The back light shines on the subject from behind, often (but not necessarily) to one side or the other. It gives the subject a rim of light, serving to separate the subject from the background and highlighting contours.