Assignment 4 - Light

I started my assignment by setting up my tripod outside to take advantage of the natural light, I also used my white background on which to place the wicker heart. After much moving around I settle into some images using f/5.6, the WB was set on daylight and images looked ok but I wanted a little more warmth so I changed it to shade as the object was partially shaded by a large tree and the wicker was looking a little flat. I reduced the height and angle of the tripod right down to take advantage of the shadow coming round from the tree to use the side natural lighting. I changed to the black background just to see what difference it made, there was some creases evident and just didnt look right, the shadows were harder to see.





 





For the next set of images I moved indoors to set up the tripod with live view, I really like using live view, I like to see what the image looks like before pressing the shutter. I like live views ability to change the WB instantly. I filled in the centre of the heart with a pink scarf, the scrunched up ripples of the scarf would cast interesting shadows combined with the wicker, I took several images, they were ok....ish,

I keep in my mind that Henri Cartier Bresson didn't have use lots of equipment, expensive or otherwise, although shooting outdoors is perfect for natural light.

I decided to move to another part of the room where I could balance things better, the heart shape is proving to be a little problematic, I call in the help of my husband to help hold the diffuser (what a silly shape!), I place a small tungsten lamp on the floor with the diffuser on top for back/underneath lighting, I played with the WB, by changing to tungsten the wicker showed up quite dark which highlighted the 'shape' of the heart.




I thought I'd be inventive for the 'colour' image, I put the cerise scarf over the top of the lamp on the floor, placed the diffuser above with the heart again placed flat on top, I had to work quickly as I was concerned that the scarf would burn, I got down low so as to create an image that looked like it was floating. My thoughts turned to other lighting effects for the remainder of the assignment images, candles? torch light? headlights of my car? I would like to try an image of the wicker heart in a half light like Bill Henson, in an esoteric style such as Henson used in his untitled (Ballet) shot in 1974. I may also try to photoshop one of the images with the white background and change it to black and white or try to add an artistic twist.









Later one evening when it was dark, I set up a white background on the floor of the lounge, I lit a candle and placed it close to the wicker heart, I wanted to cast a soft warm light to the edge of the heart, the image wasn't really what I was looking for, I put the TV on and adjusted the positioning of the heart and candle to try to create a half and half of the warm candle light and the blue tinted light from the TV, does it look symbolic of heartache? Another image was taken with the ISO setting at 400, I thought I would increase the contrast in photoshop to show the noise and create a grainy, textured effect reflecting the courseness of the subject.






I wanted to create a chiarscuro effect, after much though and lost sleep I came up with the idea of using the light that comes through the bottom of one of my window blinds, holding the wicker heart on the wall to catch the morning rays of light as they cascaded accross the pale wall, monochrome was used  to show the texture of the heart but also to keep the simplicity of the image. Sellotape, blue tack, none of which worked, my 11 year old daugher was called in to help by holding the heart with her small finger tips, the ISO was set at 800 as it was a blackout blind the room was quite dark. It took several attempts and it was quite difficult to get as much of the heart in the frame as I wanted (I didn't have much room), and the heart was getting increasingly difficult for Sophie's little fingers to hold. The light had just split into 2 shards as I waited, I positioned the heart to the light would come from the bottom and straight through the middle and opening out as the light continued further accross the heart, the high ISO kept the coursness of the wicker.