Assignment 4 : Applying lighting techniques

The purpose of this assignment was to apply different lighting techniques to bring out particular physical properties of the same object. I chose a small Janet Leach 'pot' as the subject for my photographs - small enough to allow me to move around and be able to take photographs from different angles and in different kinds of lighting. I also decided to use primarily photographic lighting as this proved to be the most challenging aspect of Part Four for me. In one photograph though, I chose to use natural lighting i.e. P412. The photographs are intended to show certain qualities  of the Janet Leach pot i.e. shape, form, texture and colour and were all shot with a Canon EOS 500D using a tripod.

Shape



P408: f9 @ 1/8  ISO 100  55mm  WB - tungsten




Looking for a silhouette to show the shape of the subject I placed a soft box behind the pot but found the diffused light though bigger than the pot was too bright ..when toned down by another diffuser placed in front of the soft box, a silhouette became more viable. I chose the tungsten white balance as I wanted a bluish tinge to help create a dark grey silhouette in P408.





P409: f5.6 @ 1/5  ISO 100  -0.7exp.  37mm  AWB

For the second illustration of 'shape', I wanted to find a way of presenting the shape of the subject by showing the complete outline of the pot which had not been achievable in P408.This meant introducing more light but not so much that the detail and texture of the pot became overly visible. To achieve this I placed a soft box at 45 degrees behind and above the subject part masked by a second diffuser.

Form





P410: f5.6 @ 1 sec  ISO 200  -0.7exp.  31mm AWB

For the above image (P410), I wanted to accentuate the form of the pot with some shadow and found that placing a desk lamp below and in front of the pot to the left of the camera achieved this. I like the way the circular ridges around the neck are highlighted by shadow which gives a three dimensional effect. The strong shadow running upwards across the bottom of the pot from left to right also gives a sense of 'roundness'.  




P411: f10 @ 1/6 ISO 100 0exp. 33mm WB - tungsten

This second image illustrating 'form' does convey a good sense of the volume of the subject. The shadows are relatively subtle but clear enough to show the dimensions and circular ridges of the pot which was lit from the left side using a soft box almost level with the subject.


Texture





P412: f5.6 @1/500  ISO 100  0exp.  41mm WB - daylight

I took some time to achieve the level of fine detail set against the terracotta backgroundshown above  in P412. The main  problem was getting the pot lit from the side to highlight the stone detail without getting the light shining back from the glaze surrounding this detail. Using photographic lighting in a variety of ways really did not seem to reduce the 'glare' sufficiently so I took the pot out into full sunlight mid afternoon to see what would happen with side lighting coming from natural light. The end result uses sunlight coming directly from the left of the camera i.e. at 90 degrees. I set the white balance to daylight to bring out the colour. There is still some light reflected but much less than before and the level of texture detail is what I was looking for.



P413: f16 @ 2 sec  ISO 100  0exp.  47mm WB - daylight

Again achieving the detail of these potter's marks without light shining on the surface of the pot to distract the eye was difficult. P413 was taken with the help of a diffuser in front of a soft box using a diffused daylight lamp placed opposite the pot and at right angles to the camera. 

Colour



P414: f5.6 @ 1/2 sec  ISO 100  -0.7exp.  42mm AWB

In P414 I wanted to bring out the rich shades of terracotta that I could see in the subject.  Having tried lighting the pot from in front of the subject, I achieved a better effect reducing the element of light shining back at the camera from the pottery surface through lighting from below using a desk lamp and bringing some additional light from behind from a soft box ( with a daylight lamp) behind a diffuser.I also darkened the exposure by 0.7.  I'm pleased with the richness of colour ..just what I wanted to arrive at.  



P415:f5.6 @ 1/5sec  ISO 100  0 exp.  180mm  WB - daylight

With the above image ( P415 ) I was looking to bring out the colour of the markings  on the inside of the lip and neck of the pot as these were so different from the rest of the subject. This proved more of a challenge than I expected  ( perhaps the hardest photograph to get right in this assignment ).. as I needed to reduce the amount of shadow within the inside of the neck without over exposing the rest of the image. I also needed to be able to focus clearly on that part of the subject which risked the rest of the subject being out of focus. I chose to use the macro setting on a telephoto lens and a remote controller to achieve the detail inside the neck. I set the white balance to daylight as I thought this would enhance the colour and placed a soft box opposite the neck opening  and another behind the base of the pot slightly higher and angled down by 45 degrees. This produced the above image which captures the colour of the green markings well though the focus is a little offset by a slight reflection of light which try as I might I could not remove.

In addition :




P416: f4 @ 1/5 sec ISO 100 +0.7exp. 28mm WB - daylight

I like the blend of shades in the above image and the edge lighting achieved by lighting behind the subject in a darkened room with the light of a desk lamp at the same height of the pot and shining through a backdrop and diffuser behind the backdrop. It gives a good sense of shape.. 






P417: f5.6 @ 1/5sec  ISO 400  0exp.  38mm  WB - daylight

In P417, I returned to defining the shape of the subject again, this time using a Mathmos table lamp placed behind the pot. I moved the camera around before deciding that taking a photograph  from an angle created an image where the light from the lamp and the lit shape of the lamp worked together to reinforce the shape of the subject. The colour comes from the lamp itself which changes colour and at the time of taking the image was actually light purple in colour. I settled on the daylight setting for the white balance to bring out the colour better than the auto or tungsten.