Tutor’s feedback for Assignment Four: Applying lighting techniques

I have been extremely busy at home, and have been unable to start any of my final assignment or projects (Number 5), but I am back now, and I am determined to work really hard on this last set of projects so I can get it formally marked.

I received my tutors feedback for Assignment Four a while ago and I am extremely pleased with her feedback and thoughts on my work so far.

I have posted her response below.

Overall Comments

Thank you for sending me assignment four. You have worked hard on this assignment and this shows dedication to your photography. This assignment was all about applying lighting techniques. You have demonstrated a knowledge of lighting a particular object to bring out physical properties of it.

Assessment potential

I understand your aim is to go for the Photography/Creative Arts* Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, and providing you commit yourself to the course, I suggest that you are likely to be successful in the assessment.

Shape  

This quality has to do with the outline of an object and should stand out against a contrasting background with minimal detail visible in the object itself. Your first image for shape has a little too much detail to be focusing solely on light. In the second image there is more focus on the shape of the subject as all other detail has been eradicated by the lighting that you have used. I like the fact that this isn’t just a silhouette, there is minimal detail  to give the image an extra dimension and extra interest.

Form 

This is another way of describing the volume of an object – how three dimensional it looks. Does it look as if you could pick it up from the page? I agree that you have lit the image very well with the shadows falling nicely for example how the light falls on the bear’s face. I think you have captured form very well here. The second image has also captured the object well to show its three dimensions. I really like the extra form and detail shown for example the fur on the face and the ears. I think going in closer has also made an interesting composition

Texture 

This is all about the surface detail, the angle of the light is important in bringing out the surface quality of an object. The first image has been lit very well to show the texture of the fur on the figurine. In the second image your lighting shows the smoother textures very well. You have shown very good control of lighting in these two images to utilize lighting to really concentrate on particular elements.

Colour 

You have shown colour in these two images, the second image works particularly well to show the richness of the tones of the colours of the figurine, particularly the colour of the hat and the plane.

I think that these photographs overall show your creativity in looking for different viewpoints and different compositions rather than purely using it as a lighting exercise. Well done.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays Context  

The learning log is all up to date with all exercises completed and well documented. I think that the amendments you have made to the previous assignment are also a good improvement.

I am really happy with her feedback, and I am pleased that she doesn’t feel that I need to change anything with this assignment.

Assignment Four: Applying Lighting Techniques

For this assignment, you will draw together the different lighting techniques you have been studying and apply them to one object. The idea is to use your new knowledge of lighting to bring out particular physical properties of the same object. It is also a test of your observation. Choose any subject that you can move around and take 8 photographs based on the 4 themes of this assignment. At the core of this assignment, you should aim to show the following qualities of your subject, one at a time, by means of lighting.

• Shape:

This quality has to do with the outline of an object- its edges. These are likely to stand out more clearly if they contrast with the background, and if there is minimum detail visible in the object.

• Form:

This is another way of describing the volume of an object, how 3 dimensional it looks. The modelling effect of the lighting, and the way you deal with the shadows is all important. Try to show as much depth as possible in the subject.

• Texture:

This is a quality of the surface detail. Fine detail, such as that on sandstone or skin. This stands out best with a pattern of small, hard shadows, so you will have to consider both the diffusion (Or lack of it) and the angle of the light.

• Colour:

Choose a kind of lighting and exposure setting that shows the subject’s colour (Or colours) as strongly as possible. In addition, you could photograph your subject in any other interesting, unusual or attractive lighting.

For this assignment, I used a small figurine as I was able to move it around and change the location and backgrounds easily. I used a mixture of outdoor lighting (Natural lighting), as the sun was shining strongly. I also used diffused artificial lighting with plane backgrounds, it depended on what theme I was trying to show.

Shape: Outline the edges of the object.

For this image, I decided to stand the artificial light, to the side of the figurine, but pointing upwards. It caused shadows to form, and I was able to see a strong outline of the figure and the clothing on the bear itself, whilst not loosing any details.

For this image, I decided to do the opposite. I decided to loose all of the strong details, and only focus of the outline of the figure itself. I stood the figure on a stand inside a light box I had. I left the artificial light outside the light box and it caused a diffused light as the sides of the light box are a white material. I positioned the camera inside the light box. I wanted a silhouette, and I was really pleased with the outcome. I managed to keep some small detail as you can see on the feet and the nose. However, the main focus was to cause a silhouette, which I managed to do.

Form: Describe the volume of the object. How 3 dimensional it is. Show as much depth.

For this image, I decided to use natural lighting. I positioned the figure so that the sun was shining down on one side, which caused a shadow on the other side. As the figure is quite small, I couldn’t use much depth, however, I positioned the camera quite close to the figure. With the help of the shadows falling in the right places, the figure became 3D. This is visible by the figures round belly.

For this image I decided to use artificial lighting. I positioned the camera quite close to the figure. I held the artificial light above my head causing only some reflection on the figure itself. I wanted to show the 3 dimensional shape of the bears face a lot closer than the other photograph. Moving closer to the figure enabled me to show the 3D shape more.

Texture: Surface detail, Fine detail. You may have to use hard shadows or diffusion.

For this image, I used a diffused light as I didn’t want harsh lighting. Harsh artificial lighting wouldn’t show much detail, and I wanted a more softer tone to the image in order to see all of the detail. I positioned the diffused light to one side of the figure and framed it almost central in the viewfinder. Using the diffused light worked really well, it caused shadows and shading in all the right places and I am really please with this image. You are able to see all of the fine detail on this figure. You are also able to see all of the texture on the figure especially the bumpy feet and hands.

For this image, I decided to use the diffused light again. I held it above the camera. I positioned the camera above the figure as I now wanted to show the smooth texture of the clothing, goggles and the aeroplane as these had hardly any fine detail on them, but instead, they had the smooth texture. The reflection of the light on the smooth sections caused a ‘shininess’ which helped show the smoothness of the clothing.

Colour:

For this image, I decided to use natural lighting as I wanted to show the difference between natural and artificial lighting for this theme. I stood the figure in the sunlight but not directly as I didn’t want the strong sunlight taking the emphasis away on the colour.

For this image I focused more closely in on the figure. I used the built in camera flash for this, and used the rolled up piece of paper technique I learnt in a previous exercise. I set the camera position and held the rolled up piece of paper so that it would flash only on the figure but mainly on the facial section. This turned out really well. The main focus is his bright blue nose, which wasn’t the main focus in the previous image. You are also able to see a large difference in the colour of the paint. The brown is a lot more darker with artificial lighting than natural lighting, and the same can be said for the colour of the aeroplane.

Overall Opinion:

Part four: Light

Before starting these projects, I researched more into shutter speeds, ISO’s and apertures as this would be essential for this set of projects. As I was still learning how to use settings on my new DSRL camera, I had to re-familiarise myself with the basics of lighting and exposures, and also how to change the settings or enhance the settings on my camera itself.

I enjoyed this set of projects. It was interesting to learn about the colour spectrum, and how lighting can effect the colour spectrum itself. Playing around with the WB settings on my camera helped understand this a lot more as I had never manually changed the WB setting myself until now, and learning that by changing it can cause a different colour temperature was really interesting and a technique which I will use in the future.

I have learnt a lot about how lighting can alter your photographs for better or worse. Learning new lighting techniques such as using reflectors, rolled up paper, diffusers and much more has helped me enhance my images along these projects and has helped me for the final assignment. I enjoyed the tungsten and fluorescent lighting exercise, as I never realised that different light bulbs can cause that much of a difference in a photograph. You don’t realise it until you do an exercise like that one and you understand that even changing the light bulb can help your image 100% more.

I do still have to update my research and photographer research as I haven’t been able to add that to the blog as of yet. I also have missed the Outdoors at night exercise, but I will also add the photographs one I have done that exercise.

Assignment Four:

It took me a while to think about this exercise as I was running a bit behind with the course as it was. When I read through the assignment, I was quite excited, as I would be able to use my home made diffuser again, and make use of my light box etc, as well as using the sun when it decided to show itself in my garden, as just lately it has been nothing but extremely dark clouds or rain. I really enjoyed this assignment and I am more than happy with my final results. Learning the new lighting techniques and applying them to the different themes helped much more. Looking back on some older assignments, I could have definitely used some of the lighting techniques I have learned here to help me. I did take a number of photographs with different lighting positions, angles, with diffusers and without, but the images I have chosen are the ones I believe portray the theme overall with the use of lighting only.

I will now await for my tutors response and post it on here. If there are any changes to be made, I will change them.