The lighting angle

In a previous exercise I had worked out my method of diffusion that I would be using. This takes the shape of a shoot through umbrella mounted on a light stand. The light source is a camera flash. The flash is mounted on the light stand and fired by a radio trigger.

I have been visiting car boot sales on the lookout for interesting things to photograph and found this little statuette. It stands about 8" tall and is made of resin but has a very realistic bronze type finish. The object needed to be shaped so as to have plenty of rounded contours. We really want to be able to see the effects of light and shadow in this exercise.

The first four images were taken with the light source diffused and set at the same hight as the subject. See below each image for my notes.

Images lit from the same hight as the subject

Shot with the light source next to the camera and pointing straight at the subject, the statue is well lit. The lighting is very flat though with most of the shadows filled in. There is not much 3 dimensional shape in this method of lighting.

This shot is lit directly from one side. The more contrasty light has made the subject much more interesting and well shaped.

If you look at the rim of light on the left back edge of the figure you can see that the light has been set up behind and to camera left. We lose a lot of the detail from the front of the figure as it falls into shadow. This makes for an interesting and very dramatic shot.

In the last image of the first sequence we are lighting the statue from directly behind.This is giving us a silhouette of the statue. Technically there are a few issues with this shot I am not happy with. Firstly I don't like the fact that you can see the spines of the umbrella and I would be prone to Photoshop them out if this wasn't an exercise. Secondly I think the light source may be just a little too powerful and is etching away the edges of the figure.

For next sequence I have raised the light stand so the light is angled down towards the subject at about 45 degrees. I follow the same pattern as above, photographing from the front, the side , three quarters round and behind the statue.

Images lit from the same higher than the subject

The first photograph is lit from in front and high up. There is a subtle difference between this and the directly in front shot above but it is difficult to see. If you study the two carefully you will see that flat surfaces facing upwards such as the tops of the arms, have more light falling on them.

Similarly this set-up with the light to the side and from higher up, has lit the figure more than just the side light. This has made for a 'gentler' rendering of the shapes.

The same applies yet again. More light is managing to lighten the front of the figure, bringing out a little more detail than the level light in the first sequence. Important note! There is nothing wrong with most of these pictures. The lighting has just given the statue a different feel.

Finally the shot from behind and up high. You can see that more light is falling on the figures shoulders and back in this picture. There is less etching in of the light on his legs.

The final three shots have the light hanging directly over-head. It is then moved just in front and just behind the statue.

Overhead lighting

The light is above and slightly in front of the statue. Everything is well lit but still has a reasonable amount of shape.

Directly above. This has given more modelling than the shot above.

Finally above and behind. Again slightly dramatic lighting with a little rim lighting on the figures shoulders.

The photograph that I think gives the best 3 dimensional shape and is also my favourite is the one below. This is lit with the light coming from the side at the same hight as the figure. The light is strong and dramatic with strong shadows and clear highlights.I am very pleased with the exposure but think there may be room to improve on it a touch with half a stop more exposure to just pull back the darkest shadows.

All the above images were taken with the camera mounted on a tripod and fitted with a 24-105mm lens set at 105mm. I manually focused and set the camera to manual at 100 ISO. The shutter speed was set to 1/160 to keep it within my camera sync speed and I made adjustments to the aperture to keep the exposure as close as possible. This was judged from the histogram on the  camera.

Light through the day

Due to my working hours and location it wasn't possible for me to carry out this exercise to the letter. I did not want to skip it though, so I made do with the next best thing and used my back garden as opposed to a landscape. The object is to record and observe light hitting an object throughout the day.

I set my tripod up in my back garden and started a sequence of shots that ran from ten am to ten pm. A photograph was taken every half hour.This was done with the aid of the Canon remote timer (Canon TC-80N3) which I had purchased some time ago to try time-lapse photography. This handy little gadget can be set to take an image every so many seconds, hours or even days.

The camera was set to aperture priority, with an aperture of F8. I didn't need to worry about the shutter speed becoming too slow as the camera was tripod mounted. The white balance was set to daylight. Here are the images...

As can be seen from the images there was the occasional cloud passing overhead.

It is interesting to see the transition of the colour of the light from morning through midday and on to the evening. This is something that was not so obvious when actually observing the scene.

My favourites are the two left hand images on the one but last row which were taken around 7 - 7.30 in the evening. The tones are warm and the colours vibrant. The orange flower pot is particularly strong in colour. I was expecting this to be a good time to get a nice image due to my previous exercises but also the time I spend in my garden in the evening.

Judging colour temperature 2

My cat garden ornament has stepped in again to complete part two of this exercise. This is a  repeat of part one but with some white balance variation. Each little sequence is shot in the same order, that of Daylight white balance, Auto white balance and Shade white balance.

Right so the first group of three was photographed under the midday sun. Clearly the images show a neutral colour for the daylight balance , slightly blue tint to the auto white balance and a yellow cast to the shade white balance. Note also the harsh shadows, btw. Which is nicer is really a matter of preference. The auto white balance shot is a little too cold for my liking but the shade balance has a nice warm feel to it. I am glad to see that the sun white balance on my camera has reproduced the colours very well.

Three cats in the midday sun

The next three cats are sitting in the midday shade. Notice how the cats have the same colour tints but on a much lesser level. Again I favour the last image  (shade white balance) for it's warmer tone. The difference is minimal though and I quite like all three shots.

Three cats in the midday shade

The last three are evening sun shots. Again the colours have become more pronounced. Now we can see a slightly yellow cast on the first cat (daylight white balance) as well as on the last (shade white balance). The middle auto white balance till retains it's blue cast.

Three cats in the evening sun

This exercise has made several very important points. First, the white balance on your camera can make quite a difference and when accurate colour temperature is required, it might not be wise to rely on auto white balance. Secondly, we are able to use what we know about white balance to our creative advantage. We could for example take a shot in full sun in the middle of the day but use the shade white balance to warm it up. By using daylight white balance during the setting sun we should be able to cool our photo down.

Softening the light

Wow, there sure are a lot of exercises in the chapter on light! In this part I am looking at the effects of softening photographic lighting.

There were many different ways that this could be handled depending on what equipment you have or were prepared to borrow or buy. I am working with off camera flash and shoot through umbrellas which I already have available. For this exercise I have a flash mounted on a light stand with a radio trigger to fire it. The flash is aimed down at the subject within the limit of the umbrella which is preventing a full 'top' down position.

So, here are the two images I took.The top one is with the umbrella softening the light and the bottom one without.

Light being softened by umbrella

Hard, unmodified light.

 I have tried to get the exposure as close as possible on both shots. Lets take a look at the differences.

The first thing that is obvious is the shadow cast on the table. The hard light example has a strong, clearly defined edge. Compare this with the soft edge of the modified light. The second point to observe is the shape and intensity of the bright  highlight on the cat. In the hard light version, there is a fairly intense specular highlight. Note also the transition from highlight to the more natural looking light - it is fairly instant. Now look at the same area on the cat with the modified light. The transition from the specular area is much smoother.

Now this is really important. The cat in the lower picture is very close to losing detail in the highlights. We are actually dealing with five areas of light here. There is the highlight where the light is hitting the cat directly and bouncing straight back. We have the shadow area where no light is hitting the cat. In the middle is a diffused  area where some light is hitting the cat in a neutral sort of way. Between the highlight and the middle area is the 'specular edge transfer' and between the shadow and the middle ground is the 'shadow edge transfer'.

What is happening in the hard light example is that this band of  'light blending' is much more compressed. This is giving us a much harsher and to some extent 'sharper' image.

A final factor with the diffused light source is that it is bigger. This has given us more light 'wrap' around the subject. The result of this is that the darker areas are not actually as dark as the hard light example and is also responsible for the softer shadows. The bigger the light source, the softer the shadows!