Part 4 Light–Project: Photographic Lighting 1

For these exercises, I have used my selection of existing portable studio flash equipment. It is quite basic but includes everything I need to complete the exercises.

Exercise: Softening the light. The objective of the exercise is to compare two photographs taken with diffused and direct light. I set up the light as suggested and used a 60cm soft box as a diffuser. Camera settings for both shots: Manual 1/125s 52mm ISO100 WB: flash

8057: f13

8058: f9

I have noted the following differences:

1. The diffused light is slightly blue in colour.
2. The shadows are very deep and black with the undiffused light. The diffuser also softens the edge of the shadows.
3. There are reflections in the shiny side of  the bowl with undiffused light.
4. The undiffused light gives a contrasty image.
5. The diffusion in this case is an improvement. There are no harsh, distracting shadows.

Exercise: The lighting angle. The object here is to demonstrate the effects of moving the the light around the object. For the first four shots, the light is kept at the same level as the camera.
Camera settings Manual 1/125s f8 70mm ISO100 WB: flash (Silhouette f32)

8068: Light in front, next to camera

8069: Side, right of camera

8070: Behind and to one side (right)

8072: Directly behind (silhouette)

The next four shots were made with the light at a 45º angle to the set. Light position as indicated.
Camera settings Manual 1/125s f8 90mm ISO100 WB: flash (light to rear f16)

8078: Front 45º

8079: Right side 45º

8080: Right side to the rear 45º

8082: Behind (f16) 45º

The last three shots were made with the light directly overhead, slightly to the front and slightly to the rear.

8073: Above

8074: Above to the front

8075: Above to the rear

Conclusion:  The lighting position that reveals the form of this object best  is with the light at 45º above and 45º to one side (8079). This is because it is the most natural angle (ie the position of the sun in the sky) and one that we have evolved to use to interpret the form of objects. It makes them easy to understand visually. Frontal lighting gives a rather flat image although it shows the textures in the sculpture well in this case.

Part 4 Light–Project: Available Light - Outdoors at Night

Exercise: Outdoors at night
Objective: To explore the variety of lighting effects and colour in artificial light in a city centre.

I chose to travel to the city centre of Chichester where I knew that the cathedral would be floodlight although I was unsure of crowds on a Sunday night. While I waited for the cathedral floodlights to be switched on, I photographed the Market Cross. Although not floodlit, it is fairly well lit by the streetlights.

8146: 1/2.5s f4.5 48mm ISO400 WB Sodium Vapour Lamps (SVL)

I tried various WB settings, including  auto and incandescent.  SVL  gave the truest rendition of the colours and I have used it for all subsequent photos. The green cast within the structure comes from the lighting within the seating area.

8154: 2s f4.5 26mm ISO400 WB: SVL

8156: 2s f4.5 20mm ISO400 WB: SVL

8161: 8s f5 65mm ISO400 WB: SVL

After walking round to the south of the cathedral. I went onto an overpass to take traffic streaks on the ring road and traffic lights. Unfortunately, the traffic was very light and I didn’t get much in the way of dramatic images but I have demonstrated the principle. I may make another attempt from an overpass on the A3 near my home.

8164: 5s f11 80mm ISO400 VB SVL

After this less than successful attempt on the ring road, I turned round and concentrated on the traffic lights at the junction with South Street.

8164:  2s f11 90mm ISO400 WB SVL

8183: 2.5s f16 62mm ISO400 WB SVL

Next, I returned to the city centre to photograph brightly lit shop fronts and an inside scene with people:

8184: 1.3s f16 35mm ISO400 WB SVL

8187: 2.5s f16 35mm ISO400 WB SVL

8188: 1/15s f5 70mm ISO3200 WB SVL

There was no large indoor area in the city centre but I did spot this open fronted restaurant with the biggest crowd I had seen all evening. I racked up the ISO so I could grab a shot from across the street very quickly, hand held.(VR lens) What did I learn? Sunday is a good evening to be able to work quietly on the street with a tripod. Most people (except a couple of drunks on holiday) and even the police, ignored me. Comparing the colour of the images against the perceived colour on the street, I think the Sodium Vapour Lamp setting on my camera gives a reasonable approximation of what I was seeing. Low traffic density and speed rather sabotaged my attempts to record lights streaking on the road but I have learned that you need about 15-20 seconds to record a reasonably long streak. I will attempt this again before the end of the unit.