Project 2
Exercise 4.2: Artificial Light
"Capture ‘the beauty of artificial light’ in a short sequence of shots (‘beauty’ is, of course, a subjective term). The correct white balance setting will be important; this can get tricky - but interesting - if there are mixed light sources of different colour temperatures in the same shot. You can shoot indoors or outside and the light can be ambient or handheld flash.
Add the sequence to your learning log. In your notes try to describe the difference in the quality of light from the daylight shots in Exercise 4.1."
Research
Sato Shintaro
Sato Shintaro is a Japanese photographer. His main area of work is photographing Tokyo at night time between dusk and night - also known as the 'blue hour'. His images are full of bright, brilliant colours and the frame is full of things to look at. His work demonstrates that night photography can be full of light with the use of artificial light.
Rut Blees Luxemburg
Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer whose work focuses around urban landscapes at night. She created the recognisable album cover for 'Original Pirate Material' by the streets - featured above on the right. The shot, aptly named 'Towering Inferno', displays a lit up council tower block at night. Using a long exposure allows Luxemburg to utilise the light emitting from the surrounding street lamps, windows lights and other artificial lights to give her photos a beautiful yellowy gold tint.
Brassai
Brassai, a Hungarian born French photographer was known for his images of Parisian life in the 1920's and by 1924 he had earned international fame because of his images. He shot mostly at night chronicling the city's night life of prostitutes, street cleaners, clubs and street sellers among many other characters. In 1933 he published his book, 'Paris by night'.
Brassai captured the grittier, seedier side of the city but also contradicted this with the likes of high society, the ballet and opera.
Shintaro, S. 1997-1999. Night Lights. [Online] Available at:http://sato-shintaro.com/work/night_lights/statement.html. [Accessed on 31st March 2020]
Luxemburg, R.B. 1998. Narrow Stage. [Online] Available at:https://www.rutbleesluxemburg.com/liebeslied-2.html. [Accessed 1st April 2020]
Luxemburg, R.B. 1990. In Deeper. [Online] Available athttps://www.rutbleesluxemburg.com/liebeslied-2.html. [Accessed 1st April 2020]
Luxemburg, R.B. 1995. Towering Inferno. [Online] Available at: https://www.rutbleesluxemburg.com/london%20-%20a%20modern%20project.html. [Accessed 1st April 2020]
Brassai. 1932. Place d’Italie. [Online] Available athttps://www.houkgallery.com/exhibitions/brassai-paris-by-night-vintage-prints-from-the-collection-of-madame-brassai?view=slider#21. [Accessed 6th April 2020]
Brassai. 1931.Rue Quincampoix. [Online] Available athttps://www.houkgallery.com/exhibitions/brassai-paris-by-night-vintage-prints-from-the-collection-of-madame-brassai?view=slider#9. [Accesses 6th April 2020]
Brassai. 1932. Gens du Milieu. [Online] Available at:https://www.houkgallery.com/exhibitions/brassai-paris-by-night-vintage-prints-from-the-collection-of-madame-brassai?view=slider#5. [Accessed 6th April 2020]
Response to the brief and research
I have worked with artificial light before but that was mainly with stage lighting (as you can see from my last assignment - The decisive moment). Although I had no control over that lighting, it just happened to be lighting the room when I was shooting many of the opportunities for that last piece of work. I recently did a portrait shoot for a friends business and purchased two soft box lights for the job. The location for the shoot was in a converted barn. A beautiful setting but very dark so I was lucky I had purchased the lights before hand. Below is an image from that shoot.
This is an unedited shot from the shoot. The use of the artificial lights for this allowed me to control how much light was on the subjects face and where shadow would fall.
Researching the photographers above gave me a new perspective towards street photography. Something I have not done much of. Shintaro's use of the bright city lights is so aesthetically pleasing. All the colours make his images so engaging and enjoyable to explore. Luxemburg's images with their golden hue themes work consistently well as a series and are so different to that of Shintaro's. They feel calmer and more subtle. Brassai's images feel a little classier then that of Luxemburg's or Shintaro's, even though some show an ailing view on Paris. This could be because they have been shot in black and white, which gives off that old fashioned Hollywood look.
The brief says to "capture the beauty of artificial light", but that 'beauty' is a subjective term. Is artificial light classed as beautiful? Does this depend on the type of light. How does it compare to natural light? All things to think about before I set out to take my shots for this exercise.
I also needed to think about how I could encapsulate what I had learnt from the research above. I knew I wanted to use a slightly longer shutter speed for night time exposure and experiment with white balance. I also wanted to explore the artificial light that is created by street lamps and other similar lighting.
The UK is currently under lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak so I also needed to stay very close to home for this exercise. I decided, because of this to explore the surrounding streets and the river front again like I had done in the previous exercise. This would of course result in a series of street photography images.
I set off with my tripod because of the longer shutter speeds I would be using and my 18-55mm lens. Below are my images.
This was one of the first shots taken. An empty eerie gleam coming from the street lamp that is followed in unison growing weaker by the identical lamps that precede it.
ISO 800 ~ 23mm ~ f/3.8 ~ 1/5sec
ISO 3200 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/20sec ISO 3200 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/20sec
Once I had experimented taking shots of the street lamps, I started to experiment with white balance. The image on the left was shot in auto white balance. The shot on the right was taken in the florescent white balance setting which I think creates a warmer more natural look. I also began by having ISO set at 3200 but later brought this down to 800 realising that it didn't need to be so high where I was using a wide aperture and slower shutter speeds. I also did not want to compensate on image quality.
ISO 3200 ~ 32mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/4sec. ISO 800 ~ 32mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/20sec
The shot on the left is full of light covering the frame, lighting the plants to the pathway. On the right, the shot of an underground car park has a dark vignette created by the artificial lighting spilling out from it.
ISO 800 ~ 32mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/10sec ISO 800 ~ 32mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/30sec
The shot of the steps above are lit by one single light which creates a barren, deserted look. The shot of the bus stop with its lit up poster seems isolated and uninhabited, which at the moment, during this time of lockdown, it is.
ISO 800 ~ 32mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/3sec ISO 800 ~ 32mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/4sec
The two images above are both aesthetically pleasing with pinky orange tones throughout. They create a feeling of warmth. Normally an empty tunnel might seem eerie in the night time but this one feels almost welcoming.
ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/2sec ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1.6sec
The two images above are lit with very different artificial light. On the left, the street has a white glow that seems to flood the whole frame. On the right, the image is brighter in the middle with the outer frame starting to disperse into darkness. The light is also a very bright orange.
ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/5sec ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/25sec
On the left I tried to capture an almost runway looking image with the lights leading down to the river. The glow from each light only covers a small area and has flared quite a lot in the image.
On the right I went for a closer look at one of the lights. This shot to me captures the 'beauty of artificial light'. The colours compliment each other and again, here a vignette has been created by the disappearing light at the outer edges of the frame.
ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/15sec ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/4sec
Again, here there are two very different types of lighting in the two images above. The brightness in the shot on the left has created a silhouette whereas the blue floor lights covering the house on the right have illuminated the area.
ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/10sec ISO 800 ~ 18mm ~ f/3.5 ~ 1/25sec
A very empty back entrance to Asda is displayed in the shots above. The shot on the left is lit with an orange street lamp. On the right there is more of a fluorescent lighting spilling out of the windows of the supermarket.
Reflection
I enjoyed photographing at night outside. It was a completely new experience for me and I found it interesting working out the best settings for the camera. I also found it so different from shooting in daylight - how different everything looks at night and how the artificial lighting illuminates and creates so many different atmospheres. It was also interesting how different the colourings of artificial light can be and how white balance can effect how 'natural' a photo can look.
I definitely noticed how the quality of daylight is better than that of artificial light. This is why I tried to keep my ISO at 800 for most of the shots above - the picture quality wasn't so noisy or degraded.
I would say that after carrying out these first two exercises that I prefer shooting in natural daylight to artificial light. I do find it easier but the picture quality is better and natural light creates a softness and sense of being organic whereas artificial light is what the word describes - artificial, although there are reasons for why you would use both types of lighting and both have their benefits and uses.
I am starting to get my head around using manual mode now and these first two exercises have assisted with that. Whilst out shooting for this exercise, I found that the hardest part was making sure the camera could focus on a point to allow the shutter to close. Obviously shooting in the dark at night creates a lot of black, so I made sure I used single point focusing for this exercise.
I am pleased with the images I have created for this exercise and enjoyed the experience of shooting at night time in artificial light. I feel that this exercise has also allowed me to see how artificial light can be beautiful.