Here are my tutor's comments on Assignment 4 :
Overall Comments
You demonstrate a very good
understanding and approach to lighting in this assignment and, following your
thorough preparation through the exercises for this part of the course, and
additional experimentation prior to the assignment, you chose to use (for the
most part) artificial lighting for this set of images.
The object you chose, a small
terracotta pot, small and mobile, has the potential for some interesting
studies, as well as presenting a technical and creative challenge.
You explore each element in a well
informed way in this set of eight images, and your supporting documentation
provides a clear insight into your thinking, and reflection on the
outcome.
You don’t mention in your reflection,
or in your Blog, if you carried out any specific research for the assignment,
and I think it’s always worth doing this, especially when you’re working with a
new technical area. One of the areas that you might have considered would be
lighting for advertising for example, where a good deal of though goes into the
production of the ‘pack shot’, the image that defines the product and brand.
Shape
 |
| P408: f9 @ 1/8 ISO 100 55m WB tungsten |
This
opening image of the set, a silhouette of the vessel, works very well, with the
lighting source illuminating the background to clearly define the shape of the
pot. Only the base of the pot remains indistinct in the deep shadow, using a
low rim light could help further define the outline of the pot. Interesting
that you should choose to set the white balance to tungsten to achieve the
bluish/grey tones for the silhouette.
 |
| P409 : f5/6 @ 1/5 ISO 100 -0.7exp. 37mm AWB |
The
following shot for this element, where you use a secondary reflected fill
source to balance the backlight, produces a clear outline of the vessel with
just a touch of detail on the surface, and crucially, enough to reduce any
heavy shadows from the background source. This works very well. It’s a good
exercise to look at the variation of key to fill ratio and the impact on the
way the subject is rendered. In both
cases the background is nicely illuminated, soft and even.
Form
 |
| P410: f5/6 @ 1 sec ISO 200 -0.7exp. 31mm AWB |
The
low angle desk lamp from the front left of the camera casts a hard shadow
around the base of the pot and while it does the job of defining the curved
form, it’s not very pretty. Maybe a diffuser over the light, or the source
bounced from a reflector in the same position, would produce a better result.
You can see how the shadows at the top of the pot, where the direct source
falls away, are much softer. Another
option would be to use a softer fill source from the right. The lower level of
illumination on the background works well with this set up.
 |
| P411: f10 @ 1/6 ISO 100 33mm WB Tungsten |
The
second image is much better, and this is partly down to the way you position
the subject, on its side, as much as the use of a softer source and fill. If you positioned the lamp a little further
back, this would reduce the illumination on the background, and then a focused
light on the opening at the top of the vase would offer some detail of the
interior. This you could achieve using your desklamp with a ‘snoot’ made out of
tin foil.
Texture
 |
| P412: f5/6 @ 1/500 ISO100 41mm WB Daylight |
This
first close shot for ‘texture’ is good, with the angle of light, from the side,
picking out any surface detail and casting enough shadow to bring out the
texture, and subtle markings on the surface. Because the vessel is round and
glazed, it’s going to be very difficult to reduce any glare. The softer the
light the better, but that reduces shadow detail and thus texture, using a
polarizing filter is another option to reduce glare, with the light at the
right angle, and finally the use of a ‘dulling spray’, which is a fine spray of
oil, and not recommended for use on anything valuable. The other option of
course is to go for much closer detail. I wouldn’t have known this was shot in
daylight.
 |
| P413: f16 @ 2 sec ISO 100 47mm WB Daylight |
The
second image also captures the detailed marking on the pot, but this might be
better in a closer shot, where you would have much more control over the angle
of shadow, reduce the glare and the blue light, and use the depth of field more
effectively to create a strong focal point.
Colour
 |
| P414 : f5/6 @ 1/2 sec ISO 100 -0.7exp. AWB |
You
can see the impact of using mixed light in this first shot for ‘colour’. The
auto white balance is reading the tungsten light from the desklamp (which I
presume is an ordinary bulb?), and the background soft fill from the softbox,
with a daylight bulb, is quite cool. This enhances the warn tones of the
terracotta, which is what you set put to do. It might have been worth exploring
some of the manual white balance settings to see what difference this made to
the final image – but that is something you’ll have explored in the exercises.
 |
| P415: f5/6 @ 1/5 sec ISO 100 180mm WB Daylight |
The
follow up shot works very well, with your intention being to pick out the
lovely greenish markings at the top inside) the vessel. As you point out in
your notes, this presents something of a challenge because you have to light a
smaller area with a stronger more direct source, and avoid over exposing the
rest. You do that very well here, and the colour is nicely rendered. The
background is a touch on the bright side, and you could probably bring the whole
exposure down a little to get a better result on the lower lip without losing
the good detail or saturation.
The
two additional images offer a variation in approach to lighting (for the
‘shape’ element), the first with a pool of light on the background which
creates a nice compositional balance with the dark body of the pot. In the
second, you use a practical light positioned behind the pot, which again
produces a different balance to the composition – and a strong use of colour. I
noticed that the prints for these shots look a bit on the soft side.
 |
| P416: f4 @ 1/5 sec ISO 100 +0.7exp 28mm WB Daylight |
 |
| P417 : f5/6 @ 1/5 sec ISO 400 38mm WB Daylight |
The
prints are good, but look a little on the dark side, and the colours are a bit
muted. It may be worth selecting one shot and making a series of bracketed
adjustments to the contrast and sending off for a test print. Alternatively,
you could do this with a series of thumbnail images but they may be too small
to judge the results well.
Learning
Logs/Critical essays
Your
Log is complete with all exercises very well executed and providing a strong foundation
for the assignment. It’s good that you continue to engage with a range of
photographic issues and research beyond the course with good reports here on
Foto8 and using Google Streetview – Michael Wolf’s work is very interesting.
Suggested
reading/viewing
The
next assignment is Narrative and Illustration. I would recommend that you
choose a subject or theme, which is local and at least semi-permanent, which
gives you both an opportunity to research the place/setting, and a chance to
return if you need to reshoot any material.
or
even the audio visual slide shows in the guardian.
