Assignment 4: Applying Lighting Techniques

I have really, really enjoyed this project, even though it got me a little stumped in the beginning I have now learnt some invaluable techniques with lighting that have helped me to achieve some shots that I have always wondered exactly how they were made. So for my assignment on lighting techniques I was asked to take a specific subject and focus on displaying that object in different conditions to show how my knowledge on light and its effects has improved. The key things to look at were how the light showed shape, texture form and colour. At this point in my photography I felt that I had not studied more difficult subjects such as moving people, children, animals etc as much as I would have liked and wanted to use this assignment as my opportunity to choose a subject like this to gain some practice. Who better to help me out with this than my little dog :)

As with children, he could be quite unpredictable whilst trying to shoot and sometimes even camera shy! This made for a very interesting and varied subject for me and posed some challenges with either trying to keep him still or following his movements. An awful lot of bribery and dog treats were used!

So here are my photographs using the different methods I have learnt over the previous weeks to illustrate how they can make the subject appear with shape, form, texture and colour. Starting with Form:

FORM 1 - Exposure Time: 1/80 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Daylight

For this first image I was out walking with Clancy and decided to try to capture him doing what he does naturally and felt that a perspective low to the ground would help show this as it is his viewpoint. Fortunately my camera has a feature where the screen swivels out at the back so I didn’t have to spend time laying in damp grass! I used Live View to capture this shot with the WB set to daylight to give an accurate representation of the light that morning. I used a slightly over exposed exposure to increase the brightness of the image as it was in a shaded area and this created some much lighter highlights in the lightest parts of the picture, especially picking up on the light shining off Clancy’s back. The over all lighting and depth of field through the grass and back into the trees gives this scene a very realistic feel of how three dimensional it is, with the over exposed highlights adding additional support to this desired look.

FORM 2 -

Exposure Time: 1/200 sec

F-stop: 14

ISO: Low 1

Focal Length: 55mm

White Balance: Flash

Other: Flash head with soft box, Modelling lamp with umbrella, Silver reflector

 

This next photo is where I started to get more creative and really understood how lighting affected the image. I used two flash heads, one with a soft box attachment and the other with an umbrella attachment. I also positioned a silver reflector to the right of the photo to bounce the light on to Clancy’s back so that more detail was illuminated in the shadows. The flash head with the soft box I hooked up to my camera with a sync cable so that the flash was set off when I took the shot, but the flash head with the umbrella I set as a modelling light to use as a fill lamp on the right hand side. this meant that on the left side, Clancy was lit up by the flash to give a clear image whilst the soft box reduced any harsh contrasting shadows, and the fill light and reflector bounced this back onto the right hand side so that there is still an element of shadow to show off his form, but the details are visible. I was trying to achieve a studio look to this photo where you couldn’t see the background he was against, but unfortunately I couldn’t pull the sheet tighter to reduce the wrinkles in it. I think when I try this again in the future it would be worth investing in some proper backing material that is much stiffer, or possibly try to change the distance that my subject is from the background so that I can use a wide aperture to create more bokeh and distort the background so that creases become less noticeable. He wasn’t happy about sitting here for so long in the first place so it was difficult to try to change the set up.

TEXTURE 1 - Exposure Time: 1/125 sec, F-stop: 8, ISO: Low 1, Focal Length: 46mm, White Balance: Flash, Other: Flash head with soft box, silver reflector

To help show texture using light I again used the reflector and soft box to cast light on both sides of my subject, but still leaving enough shadow to show up the cracks in the nose. Because the light source was predominantly on the right hand side it casts shadows over to the left making the texture in the nose and tongue really stand out. The only thing I wish I had done is cropped the photograph more closely to around the nose area to take away the distraction of the eyes and head shape so that it emphasised the point of the image being all about the texture in the nose. A crop like this one would have worked much better:

 

 

TEXTURE 2 - Exposure Time: 1/125 sec, F-stop: 4.5, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 18mm, White Balance: Daylight

With this shot the slight over exposure in the strong day light highlights the fur very well, creating shadows in between the layers to enhance the effect of its coarseness. By using a large aperture the focus is concentrated onto just the area of the fur so that the trees in the distance don’t draw too much attention away but make a nice backdrop for the perspective the shot was taken at.

SHAPE 1 - Exposure Time: 1/400 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Shade

This is my personal favourite of the group of photos I’ve taken for this assignment. Having finally understood white balance and what effects it can have I knew that the way to enhance to orange of the light falling through the trees was to use the Shade white balance which tried to reduce the blue tones in the image and in turn increases the golden hues. The Lighting angle fell perfectly to illuminate the frame of my dog and cast a gorgeous glow on the autumn leaves. It makes a really lovely atmospheric image that portrays how nice it is to just enjoy a day in November walking through the leaves with your best friend, and the light shows off his rather proud stance brilliantly.

SHAPE 2 -

Exposure Time: 1/15 sec

F-stop: 5.6

ISO: 400

Focal Length: 50mm

White Balance: Fluorescent

 

 

 

Again this image was another backlit one to emphasize the shape around Clancy’s face and nose. I noticed when he had gotten settled on the sofa that the light from the near by window was casting a sort of moonlit looking glow, even though it was only around 4pm. To enhance the blue colour in this light I set the white balance to fluorescent, although I had intended to try to use settings on my camera that would show up more detail in the frame for the ISO and aperture settings I had chosen. In the end an exposure time of 1.15 sec was the slowest speed I could use whilst hand holding the camera, which produced an over exposed result but made the most of the highlights of light shining on the areas of my subject which would show off his shape the best.

COLOUR 1 - Exposure Time: 1/500 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 200, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Shade

I like the interesting pose of this scene, I want to know what he is looking out outside of the frame. To increase the over all orange hue of this image I used the shade white balance setting, and this has given the image a lovely warm autumn feeling and brought to life the golden shiny colour of Clancy’s fur which stands out very well against the contrasting lush green grass. The combination of vivid colours makes for a very dynamic image where the focus is drawn into the central point of the dogs orange fur on his head.

COLOUR 2 - Exposure Time: 1/30 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: Low 1, Focal Length: 55mm, White Balance: Flash, Other: Flash head and modelling lamp with soft box, Modelling lamp with umbrella, Silver reflector

With this photo I’m not sure if everyone would agree it accurately portrays the idea of colour, but I find the very high contrast of this greatly over exposed image does create the effect that the the orange tones in the fur are the most important part of the image as they are projected forwards by the blinding whiteness around them. To achieve this I was playing around with my new flash lamps, and decided to see what would happen if I used the modelling lamps and flash at the same time whilst leaving the camera settings as they were from metering with just the modelling lamps. As you can see the side where the flash went off with the modelling lamp became so bright it is completely washed out and all highlights on the right hand side are blown out also. I actually really like the effect it produced, it makes the image look slightly over saturated which gives the illusion of increased intensity in colour.

  TUNGSTEN 1 -

Exposure Time: 1/15 sec

F-stop: 5.3

ISO: 400

Focal Length: 46mm

White Balance: Tungsten

 

 

 

 

 

TUNGSTEN 2 - Exposure Time: 1/13 sec, F-stop: 5.6, ISO: 400, Focal Length: 52mm, White Balance: Tungsten

These last two images I felt showed more than one property that I was asked to look at so I didn’t include them as separate entries but I really like how a single lamp in a dark room creates a very moody style of lighting. I was originally going to use the images to show texture within the fur and colour from the dog tag but when the prints arrived I wasn’t so keen on how the colour had appeared, but still like the styling so chose to use them at the end of this assignment. I have used this type of lighting before and love how the undiffused shadows can create depth and interest, and you can create either a warm feeling as my images show, or a dark moody image where some details are concealed by shadows. Below are some examples of a photograph I took for a friend to celebrate her growing baby bump, with just one ordinary bedroom lamp to cast shadows to make it look more dynamic and create interest in showing off her shape. We took a few similar to this and I’m really fond of the effect, I’ve had much success with it!

Over all, this assignment has been the most enlightening one (pun intended!) as it has made me very aware of how to manipulate my cameras settings to use light to my advantage and produce images that I could only imagine before. This has been my most successful assignment of the course as with previous ones I took photograph sometimes without realising what I was doing, but with this one I actually planned and executed all of the photos in the style I could envision in my head, and they turned out as I had anticipated. There were a few slip ups and shots that weren’t quite what I had in mind, but there were also some pleasant surprises along the way which I have learned to take control of. I’m now very interested in how artificial lighting enhances an image and intend to use it much more in future ventures in photography. The style that I think I would like to practice a little more is studio inspired photos and the use of flash and other props, possibly different colour lights or gels and the use of diffusers and reflectors. The way light creates depth or adds to it can make such interesting and emotive photography I hadn’t realised it would enhance the way I take photos so much!Also the other style of photography I found interested me greatly was long exposures. I would have liked to have tried this as part of my final assignment, but with a subject that can’t sit still for more than 2 seconds it would have been a little more than challenging! So in closing I am more than happy with what I have learnt and achieved in this chapter, I hope it shows in my work how greatly improved my skills in this area have become now that I can meter light correctly and understand the effects of over and under exposing an image, and how to use light to my advantage.

Contrast and Shadow Fill

I set up a simple still life and took some shots using my new modelling lamp, its soft box diffuser and a few different types of reflectors. I have one of those huge disc shaped ones where you can zip on and off the different coloured reflectors. This exercise is to help show how high contrast images can have a greater impact but also how using shadow fill can illuminate details in the scene that you want to be able to see by bouncing the light back at the object with different types of reflectors.

Single bulb – casts deep shadows behind the objects

With soft box attachment – the harsh shadows from the wall behind are greatly softened and the light is more even and lighter across all the objects. Notice how the compact in the bottom right has more even colour tones to match the rest of the image where as the first shot it is much darker as it is further away from the light source than the perfume bottle.

With this shot I used the white reflector about 3 feet away from the objects on the opposite side from the lamp. it has cast a little more light on the shaded side of the objects so that the shadows show some more of their detail.

With the white reflector held even closer it illuminates the objects even more making the lighting even across the whole image. It casts the light naturally without adding any extra colour tones or highlights.

By using the gold reflector a warmer feeling light is thrown over the scene.

The silver reflector adds more shine and highlights to the opposite side of the objects and increases the light overall.it makes the objects more defined with the addition of the extra highlights.

So I now have more options on how to manipulate the light I’m using as part of my images. White reflectors to lighten the shadows, silver and gold ones to increase highlights and warm the scene. Sometimes though the high contrast of having deep black shadows and bright white reflections can create a much more interesting and dynamic photograph. Depending on how I would like the image to appear and feel to the viewer I now have a range of options to create emotions with light.

Softening the Light

So I had a random morning where I splashed out on a flash kit! This is turning into a very expensive hobby! LOL

So I now have an Interfit 2 head kit, with reflectors, and umbrella and a soft box – perfect for the next exercise. Just to show the different effect diffusing the light would have by using the soft box, I took two photos of myself - one with just the the modelling lamp turned on, the second with the soft box attached.

1/13 sec, f/5.3, ISO 200 – Modelling lamp

1/10 sec, f/5.3, ISO 200 – modelling lamp and soft box

As you can see the first photograph has very deep shadows with a lot of contrast, the second shot it much softer, the light looks more even through out the depths of the frame and harsh shadows are reduced.

This is a brilliant technique to create a much softer image,  but it’s worth bearing in mind that sometimes the contrasting shadows can actually give an image more interest.

Outdoors at Night

This study really helped to show what can be done with artificial light at night time. There were instances where the light came out a completely different colour to what I could actually see and this meant that I could get quite creative with how I wanted the photo to appear. The only issue is that sometimes it could be quite random and hard to predict, but that’s what I loved about these photos!

1/3 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200

0.77 sec, f/4.8, ISO 200

You can see that with the first two photos the, slight change in exposure time means the difference between a very orange looking image and a much cooler blue one. What I could actually see was probably more in between the two tones, but I felt that both had good qualities. The orange image seemed to set off the colours of the lights very well as contrasting colours, but the blue one complements the overall hue and as it was a fairly chilly evening seems to get this message across.

In this shot taken in Guildford town centre you can see that the bright fluorescent lighting looks very unnatural, they cast a very clinical look over the street making the scene appear industrial with the stark shadows and reflections on the glass buildings. 

 

 

 

 

 

1/15 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200

1/100 sec, f/5, ISO 1250

1/8 secs

f/5

ISO 2500

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two city shots were taken in Melbourne, Australia. As I was shooting handheld I found I had to boost the ISO quite high to be able to use an exposure time that was quick enough to produce a shot without any blur as I didn’t have my tripod with me. The issue with shooting handheld is that you can’t use longer shutter speeds, and as seen in previous exercises higher ISO settings can make an image look grainy. Fortunately in both pictures above I was able to rest the camera on a bridge to help steady the shot so I could use a slightly longer exposure than I would have if I was just shooting by hand. I have also noticed that even though both images are very pleasing to look at, the one taken just after dusk retains more details in the outline of the buildings as there is still a small hint of colour in the sky as the sun sets. It was much harder to find the correct settings to make sure the dark buildings stood out on the pitch black sky of the second image, and I feel it may have lost some quality as the ISO had to be set much higher.

The above images were taken at ISO 2000, again for the handheld reasons, with an F stop of 3.5, but the first was taken at 1/60 sec and the second at 1/40 sec. Again you can see the difference in exposure times changes the colour of the lighting as more light passes through the camera. Also the cathedral was up lit by halogen lighting and you can see that it casts an eerie glow on the architecture, the spire at the rear is highlighted by them very well and the shadows in it become deeper giving vibrant definition to its shape, but it also changes the tones in colour of the brickwork and almost over exposes them. This could cause some problems and my need careful light metering to make sure the highlights don’t become washed out.

I next went out onto some of my local roads to play around with long exposures. As I had recently got my head around metering I was able to use this to my advantage to get shots that held details in the shadows and highlights and were true to the colours I could see in real life, without spending ages messing around with settings and not really understanding what I was achieving. Now I can see exactly how metering helps to determine the correct settings to use for a scene, allowing me to go ahead and over or under compensate with exposure for my desired effect.

 

2.5 sec, f/14, ISO 200

10 sec, f/36, ISO 200

I own a tripod but didn’t really find an awful lot of use for it until now. Now I can think of a hundred different things I want to use it for in the future! Because the tripod kept the camera dead still I was able to set the exposures to well over a second without incurring any blurriness to the composition. By using the light meter in my camera set to centre weight and aiming at the mid tones in the frame I took a reading and set my camera up accordingly. What I found with this is that was ok when cars were not passing below me, but the reading was out when they were as there lights obviously affected the cameras sensors. By taking a few more readings as the cars were passing I was able to take the first shot above where the tones appear as realistic as possible, and yet the longer shutter speed allowed for some light trails from the cars to appear. So taking this to an extreme and seeing how long I could make the trails I got the second photograph where I used a very long exposure of 10 seconds but the F stop had to be smaller to compensate for the amount of light the shutter speed would let into the camera. The ISO was set for just 200 for all of these, which is why a tripod is a definite must for this kind of shoot so quality is not lost. I also quite like the effect it has had on the street lamps, but if I had wanted an image that didn’t include this effect I would have had to use filters.

 

4 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200

 

4 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200

With these next two photographs, I used the same settings but tried panning with the vehicle as it passed to see what would happen. It achieved some interesting effects! There are many uncontrollable elements to shooting moving objects, such as the speed they travel at, the speed in which you are panning at and in turn this can mean that the aperture and shutter speed you are using may not quite be the right ones. I found it interesting the patterns that emerged whilst panning with the cars as it really did depend on how quickly I followed their movement.

30 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200

This was my favourite and most surprising of the photos I took by the roadside. I decided that I wanted to use the longest shutter speed available to me and see what would happen, expecting that the image would just be a completely over exposed mess in which not much would be visible. I was a little shocked when the camera finally clicked shut and revealed this! It was pitch black with no street lighting along this road, and I’m so pleased with the effect of the red streaking through to orange then white as the car moved along the road. I really couldn’t have predicted this outcome, but it has taught me a lot about how the camera processes light whilst using longer exposures, and the way that it can produce details even the shadiest areas even when no light is available. This has given me new scope for ideas in the future, and i can’t wait to experiment some more!

Tungsten and Fluorescent Lighting

Again I was asked to use different white balance settings to compare the results but this time while artificial lighting was present. My first shots compare tungsten lighting inside and how it looks against normal lighting from outside. The shots were taken when the light levels were approximately he same inside and out.

1/20 sec, f/3.5 ISO 200 white balance auto

1/20 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200, white balance daylight

1/20 sec, f/3.5, ISO 200, white balance tungsten

With the white balance set to auto, the camera deals with the light outside the window very well, but inside the orange glow from the tungsten lighting reflects sharply in the purple room. Also the bedding in the room is satin so this is reflecting the light too so there is a mix of harsh uneven purple and orange tones.

The daylight setting is a little better and has balanced out the tones more evenly outside and in, but is not a true representative of either.

The tungsten setting makes the inside of the room appear the correct colours,  but outside is now far too blue in colour as the camera is dealing with the orange hues inside, so the blue tones outside are heightened. This is interesting to note again that the cool and warm colours in a scene have to be dealt with separately or compromised over to get something in between. I guess this is where a lot of people turn to photo shop and merge two images together to get the correct balance of colour temperature from sky and foreground etc.

There were similar differences with fluorescent lighting in which the colour temperature is affected by the white balance settings:

1/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, white balance auto

1/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, white balance fluorescent

1/30 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200, white balance fluorescent 2

Again the colour tones range from cooler to warmer as the fluorescent white balance setting will compensate for the blue tones to the lighting on the shop floor, making this image appear more orange. Initially this was the image that looked closest to real life, but after viewing them on my laptop its actually the fluorescent 2 white balance setting that looks a much better overall colour as the white seem purer and less yellow than in the auto white balance setting shot.

it is very apparent that although sometimes these settings will help soften certain hues of colours in light that you may not want in the image, some times they can be used in an opposite way to enhance and change the overall feel of the photograph.

Variety with a Low Sun

These shots were taken just to experiment with low sunlight and see what effects and images I could produce with the sun from different angles etc.

The sun reflecting directly off the clock in Guildford makes it look particularly golden, and the orange glow on the white buildings casts interesting deep shadows over the architecture.

I like the tones in the sky that has silhouetted the trees in front of it. I wish I had used different setting so that I could have captured a deeper shade of orange to intensify the image.

This is a particularly cute shot, and the highlight of the low sun down the edge of Holly’s head and body really accentuates her shape.

Again the low sun cast sideways on this koala in Melbourne creates deep shadows and strong highlights which really shows off its cuddly shape. The orange tones in the tree are amplified and makes the image feel more authentically Australian.

This is a personal favourite of my shots taken in Melbourne city whilst on my holiday. It had been raining but the sun came out at the last moment of the day and shone directly down the street. It highlights the shapes of the skyscrapers  and adds interesting reflections to the water on the road. The lights from the vehicles also have added interest to the reflections which are picking up the oranges from the low sun in the horizon. Again I wish I had been able to pick up deeper colours to make it feel more dramatic, but it will take some more practice!

Light Through the Day

I spent the entire day today just going into the garden every hour to take photos of the light and how it fell creating different shadows and changed in colour over the time period. My aim was to look at how and when the light changed in colour and intensity an in turn what this meant to the over all feel of the images. Here is the day in photos below:

9am

1/50 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

10am

1/200 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

As with the judging colour temperature exercise, you can see that first two images taken early morning have a cooler blue look to them due to the time of day. 

11am

1/200 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

12pm

1/160 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

1pm

1/160 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

2pm

1/200 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

Between the hours of 11 and 2, the light stays at a very neutral colour, the tones of shadows and highlights stays roughly the same throughout and even the shutter settings used don’t have to be altered much during this period as lighting conditions stay constant.

3pm

1/160 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

4pm

1/160 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

4.30pm

1/125 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

You can see that more golden tones are seeping in as the light gets lower to the horizon. The depth of the shadows has changed and are a little lighter.

5pm

1/80 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

5.15pm

1/50 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

5.30pm

1/50 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

Now the sky has begun to turn to a more violet shade as the sun gets even lower, and the over all tone of the image is becoming darker in the shady foreground. Also the shutter speed as been reduced dramatically over the past half an hour as opposed to how often it changed during the middle of the day.

5.45pm

1/25 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

6pm

1/2 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

6pm

1/20 sec

f/8

ISO 200

 

In the last few photos the light becomes a much more intense blue/violet over the whole frame very quickly. Light changes very rapidly in its last few moments so there is scope to get so very interesting colourful shots. The second 6pm shot was actually what my cameras light meter suggested would be the correct reading for the scene, but I think it was recording the colour of the sky more than the foreground which has produced the very inky blue colour all over. This obviously shows I should take more readings before shooting to get it as accurate as possible!