Assignment 4: Lighting Techniques

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 1

Introduction
Here is the fourth assignment after a long batch of exercises related to lighting. I have tried to be as open to experimentation and practice as usual not only for the exercises, but also for the assignment. One of the first milestones to overcome was the selection of the object. I have been investigating in the learning blogs of other OCA students and I realize immediately that it was going to be difficult to choose an original object. After reading and viewing the work of the scottish photographer Niall Benvie (and I have to admit that I really like almost everything he does) I even considered to go for an unusual object (such as my house) and follow his de-construction techniques (but then much more than about eight photographs would be needed). However I reconsidered my position re-reading the assignment brief that clearly specifies a subject that you can move around (and I already had enough brief infringement, and corresponding full repetition of the assignment, in the previous block of the course). One of the things I like about this course is that it is motivating me to see the work of many great photographers. Photographers that (and I have to apologize for my ignorance) were completely unknown to me. In December (see here) I found (recommended by friends, and other blogs) Edward Weston. One of the things that stroked me is that he was able to make the most beautiful photographs of the most commonplace, ordinary objects. And then I realize that the object choice was not so important after all. Weston Is well known for the toilet photograph, for the peppers photographs and...for the nautilus shell ones. Shells are fascinating objects with an incredible varied typology, colour and size. Additionally, they are representative of one of the most recurrent and fascinating forms in nature....the spiral. I decided then to use a shell as object and I found one with good chances of become an interesting photographic object (in my humble opinion). Once I had the subject I have tried many different things including: different backgrounds, diferent positions of the object, different light angles and different qualities of light (artificial and natural, midday, late afternoon, morning, shadow of a sunny day, shadow of a cloudy day.......). One of the problems I found is that, being the shell a small object, and requiring in order to fill the frame (and not become an irrelevant point.....thing that I also tried, by the way) was requiring the camera and the lens to be quite close in distance. This originates a problem of depth of field, particularly when using a macro lens (this is apparently, a well known problem in macro photography). NOTE.- Most of the images have been processed with photoshop to remove dust spots and in some cases some other minor defects (such as a small fibre visible in the shell).

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 2

SHAPE
Shape 1:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash:

Canon EOS 5D EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Manual exposure, 1/15 sec, f/7.1, ISO 400 Off, Did not fire

Made with the shell on an old wood floor and a torch placed in the back (it is a back light). The colour was irrelevant because the shell side exposed does not offer any colour at all. To the right side of the frame the floor is over exposed (in fact part of the white is completely burnt) but as a trade some slight detail of the shell can be appreciated. The long shadow and the silhouette give a first impression that the photograph is about a sort of creeping animal or strange insect. Leopoldo de Castro The Art of Photography Assignment 3 Page 3

Shape 2:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash:

Canon EOS 5D EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Manual exposure, 2.5 sec, f/11, ISO 200 Off, Did not fire

This one required a lot of experimentation. My idea was to show shape in al alternative manner without re-iterating the back light/silhouette. Therefore I chose a dark background (well it was not black, but the light did not reach it) and an edge lighting to show the upper part (edge) of the shell in contrast with that background. Then there was the problem of the lower part of the shell, and I chose a light wooden support to define the shape again by contrast. In fact the wooden support (of a clear green tone) was reflecting a greenish colour in the lower part of the shell, which I didn't like at all (that's why a monochrome conversion was chosen).

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 4

FORM
Form 1:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash:

Canon EOS 5D EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Manual exposure, 0.3 sec, f/16, ISO 400 Off, Did not fire

On a flat surface and viewed from above, the shell receives natural sun light almost lateral, and the shadows produced together with the depth of field reveal a quite complex form. The shadow along the diagonal and the blue colour of the background contrasting with the orange tones of the shell, emphasized by the warm sun light, provide the impression of an asteroid travelling through space. No need to point to the fact that (as all the photographs before) the camera was on tripod and timer triggered.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 5

Form 2:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash:

Canon EOS 5D EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Manual exposure, 1/30 sec, f/20, ISO 800 Off, Did not fire

Here the problem of the depth of field is clearly appearing. In order to have all the shell sharp, and given the short distance of the lens to it a quite high f/ value is required. In order to get a reasonable exposure the ISO or the exposure time has to be increased. For a pragmatic reason (I was moving around the subject and shooting with the camera handheld from other angles) I decided to increase the ISO value, but it could have been the exposure time as long as the camera is on tripod or firmly supported. In my opinion, even though the ISO has a relatively high value, the amount of noise is reasonable.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 6

TEXTURE
Texture 1:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash:

Canon EOS 5D EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Manual exposure, 2 sec, f/22, ISO 200 Off, Did not fire

A quite extreme close-up, almost an abstraction. A huge f/ value required, but this time it was the exposure time that was increased. The axis of the rugged shell becomes a diagonal and strongly contrasts with the regular background. The defined shadows produced by a small, not diffused artificial light help to provide an almost tactile feeling.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 7

Texture 2:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash:

Canon EOS 5D EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Manual exposure, 2.5 sec, f/11, ISO 200 Off, Did not fire

A different angle and a more diffuse light may also serve the purpose of showing the texture in another way.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 8

Colour
Colour 1:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash:

Canon EOS 5D EF100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Manual exposure, 1/15 sec, f/11, ISO 400 Off, Did not fire

This is the image with the more post processing of the set. The shell has nice texture and form properties but it has a weak point, it doesn't have many colours, only different tonalities of orange. First of all I had to choose a background that could help me emphasizing the soft colours. It had to be a complementary or a contrasting colour. Blue, the complementary, I tried and it was producing a too strong contrast, and additionally a weird photograph, because there is a colour not easy to find in nature (apart from the sky, which I also tried, but then I had a back light...not a good idea to show colour), so I was almost forced to use a blue artificial background (such as a cardboard). Green was certainly easier and the contrast softer. I Leopoldo de Castro The Art of Photography Assignment 3 Page 9

arranged a set of leaves from a lemon tree and placed the shell in a shadow on a clear day in a manner that was attractive to me (off centre, with many lines that lead to it). To some extent it looks like a snail. The camera was on tripod pointing downwards. Then comes the post processing.......in camera RAW i adjusted levels as usual, and then manipulated the sliders of HSL colour related to orange (hue, saturation and luminosity) boosting the colour to a point where the result would't look unrealistic. I also decreased the overall brightness of the whole picture with the same purpose.

Other
I also decided to include some more photographs made within the assignment (and I took some hundreds of them) that I liked because of the light. Other 1:

From this one I like the spiral shape contrasting with the rest, and the shadow. It could have been used also for shape (with some doubts) or for colour.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 10

Other 2:

This one i like for the strong contrasting shapes (the sharp rugged shell against the round uniform chestnuts) and tones (the clear tone of the shell attracts the viewer strongly). It has also some reminiscences of rhythm and pattern.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 11

Other 3:

From this one I like the abstraction (the shell is har to identify), the shadow and the transparency revealed by the light. I find that it also has a wide tonality range (from black to white). FINAL CONSIDERATIONS All in all the best part of the course so far, both in terms of interesting and varied exercises and challenges proposed. I have tried to work as hard as with the other blocks and keep my motivation as high as possible (which is not always easy). Fortunately during Christmas break I had plenty of time to think about the assignment and to make the right photographs for each of the points of the brief. I have tried to be careful both with the technical aspects (and I believe that the photographs are sharp, with low levels of noise majorly, and free of dust spots and other defaults) and composition aspects (looking for different perspectives of the subject, backgrounds, variety of photographs, etc.....). Very satisfactory.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 12

Bibliography: For the B&W conversions I consulted : M. Freeman, "The complete guide to Black and White Digital Photography", Ilex, 2009. The idea of the shell : "Edward Weston. 1886-1958", Edited by Manfred Heiting, Taschen, Koln, 1999. For the lighting angles: David Prkel, "Iluminacion", Blume fotografia, Barcelona 2009

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 3 Page 13