Project 3
Exercise 4.3: Egg or Stone
"Use a combination of quality, contrast, direction and colour to light an object in order to reveal its form. For this exercise, we recommend that you choose a natural or organic object such as an egg or stone rather than a man-made object. Man-made or cultural artefacts can be fascinating to light but they’re already authored to some degree, which requires interpretation by the photographer; this exercise is just about controlling the light to reveal form.
You don’t need a studio light for this exercise; a desk lamp or even window light will be fine, although a camera flash that you can use remotely is a useful tool. The only proviso is that you can control the way the light falls on the subject.
Take some time to set up the shot. If you’re shooting an egg, you should think about emptying it first so that it will stand up. This is really a topic for advanced students at Level 3 but you may get some help from Google. The background for your subject will be crucial. For a smallish object, you can tape a large sheet of paper or card to the wall as an ‘infinity curve’ which you can mask off from the main light source by pieces of card. You don’t need to use a curve if you can manage the ‘horizon line’ effectively – the line where the surface meets background. Taking a high viewpoint will make the surface the background, in which case the surface you choose will be important to the shot.
Exposure times will be much longer than you’re used to (unless you’re using flash) and metering and focusing will be challenging. The key to success is to keep it simple. The important thing is to aim for four or five unique shots – either change the viewpoint, the subject or the lighting for each shot.
Add the sequence to your learning log. Draw a simple lighting diagram for each of your shots showing the position of the camera, the subject and the direction of the key light and fill. Don’t labour the diagrams; quick sketches with notes will be just as useful as perfect graphics."
Response to the brief
For this exercise I wanted to experiment with both hard and soft light. For the first collection of shots I used a small LED torch - this would result in a hard light. For the remaining shots I used a bedside lamp to produce a softer lighting state.
Things to think about:
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Quality - hard and soft lighting and how to differentiate between the two
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Contrast - creating shadows and using a reflector
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Direction - where I would place the light to create shadows, form, shape and texture
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Colour - whether I can create colour at home or need to use photo shop to add colour to an image
The image on the left is of my set up. I used an apple for the spherical and even shape. For the background, an off white table protector. I used my 18-55mm lens and secured my camera on its tripod to account for slower exposure times.
LED Torch
ISO 200 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/40sec
To create the lighting effect above, I held the torch directly above the apple. This created a hard light that produced a nice contrast and shadow, with light also bouncing off the apple slightly. The apple is lit quite aesthetically here in my opinion.
ISO 1600 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/40sec
My aim here was to shine the light above the apple at a 45 degree angle but only having one pair of hands meant that the light sat more in front of the apple. Although I think this created a slightly softer look and has allowed the apple to sit in a modest amount of shadow, producing a gloomier looking image
ISO 800 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/30sec
I find this shot quite pleasing to the eye. I held the torch on the same level as the apple at a 45 degree angle from the camera. This has created a mix of shadows and some nice contrast, along with nicely highlighting the shape and form of the apple. The right hand side of the apple is well lit but gradually falls darker towards the left.
ISO 800 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/6sec
Here I used a sheet of white paper to reflect the light from the torch onto the apple. This resulted in a brightly lit area and only slight shadow around the bottom of the apple.
ISO 800 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/80sec
I held the torch directly to the side of the apple here, quite close. The right hand side of the apple is almost completely in darkness. The light has bounced off the apple on the left hand side which has created an orange glow.
ISO 1600 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/400sec
Again, for this shot I held the torch quite close to the apple at a 45 degree angle from the camera. There is a dark blue hue to this image along with a deep contrast where the apple starts to disappear.
Bedside Lamp
I used a bedside lamp for the next three photos to see the difference between hard and soft light. The bedside lamp easily creates a soft light that lights more of the frame where as the hard lighting of the torch was more direct and a bit more easily controlled than the bedside lamp.
ISO 1600 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/200sec
Holding the lamp directly above the apple in this shot allows the viewer to observe the shape, texture and form of the apple. It has also created a nice contrast on the disappearing horizon line with a yellow hue.
ISO 1600 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/160sec
There are a lot of tones in this shot from holding the bedside lamp at an angle. The apple is nicely lit with some slight shadowing on it. The surrounding area shows a complementary depth of field mixed with the darker tones.
ISO 1600 ~ 38mm ~ f/4.8 ~ 1/160sec
The whole frame is quite equally lit here, with the bedside lamp being held above at an angle. It is a little dark but shows the form of the apple.
Reflection
I found this exercise quite fascinating and became ever more curios with how light can be manipulated to create differing looks and contrast. At times, however, this was also a frustrating exercise with trying to juggle camera settings along with holding a light source and executing a shot.
With this exercise, I preferred using hard lighting over soft. I feel it gave me more creative freedom and room to experiment with different aesthetics. I would love to try this kind of technique on a portrait shoot.