Category Archives: Part 4A – Assignment 4 – Light

TAOP: Assignment 4 – Light: Tutor Feedback, Learnings and Ideas for Improvement

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This post provides a summary of my tutor’s feedback on Assignment 4; Light, as an easy reference on learning sto help me improve in future.

General Learnings

  • Overall a good assignment.
  • My tutor commented on my introduction that discusses an alternative idea for the theme which I discusses.  He noted that wile water isn’t technically an ‘object’ if I could use it to demonstrate my learnings then I should go for it – so long as I provide detail to justify my choice.
  • Again, related to the brief, if additional images are good enough then include them, which the extras I included are (and I did).  He added that the ‘smashed‘ image was probably the most challenging and the ‘rough‘ image the most abstract – so well worth including.
  • I shouldn’t be afraid to experiment and stretch the assignment boundaries in assignment 5.  It should also start to form the basis for ongoing work in showing more of ‘Phil’ than simply following the brief.
  • While I’ve avoided simply shooting an object in different light there’s no real theme – just individual images.  e.g. I could have drawn the images for a simple “day in the life of a bottle”.  Seeing the panel as telling a story would be good practice for the final assignment.
  • I should try and expand on lighting – making use of natural/ambient light and additional artificial sources and using multi-light setups.

Suggested reading/viewing

  • My tutor highlighted Neil Turner’s website www.dg28.com (the education and techniques section) for articles on experiments I could look at on different lighting setups.

The Photographs

This section looks at my tutor’s feedback on the assignment images.

1 – Shape

Link: Leffeset

  • Good experimentation in use of natural light.
  • As many do I’ve opted for still life – adding a hand would change this to a story (an advert, a celebration, etc.).  I agree I’ve tended toward shooting the brief – rather than creating a narrative between and within images.

2 – Shape

Link: Broken

  • Great experimentation with flash gun and homemade modifies – also a great narrative photo.
  • Suggested some experimentation – e.g. liquid beneath the glass, a different background (e.g. lined) to emphasise the shape through the distorted reflections.

3 & 4 – Colour

Link: Red and Yellow

  • Good examples of image sthat fit the brief but don’t add to the narrative.
  • While that’s the case, my tutor praised the “excellent” write-up of the execution.

5 – Form

Link: Shadow

  • I should include detail on how I’ve managed the lighting – i.e. E-TTL or manual.  Not all the images should include this level of detail, but for images that are essentially technical exercises it is worthwhile.
  • f/16 may introduce defraction so is something to be wary of.

 6 – Form

Link: Wide

  • Again, f/32 will introduce defraction and show every speck of dust on my backgroun and on the lens.  On a wide angle lens is it necessary, or would f/11 be enough?
  • The top fo the room is visible, white sheets and a top flash on low power would eliminate this and provide the highlight.   I should look to experiment with multi-light setups as what I’m doing here does require it.

7 & 8 – Texture

Links: Smooth and Rough

  • Good examples of “filler” shots.  Good technical shots with good descriptions which illustrate previous learnings.
  • Can be used anywhere in a panel to link or bridge the narrative.  Simple shots, done well.

TAOP: Assignment 4 – Light: Summary

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This assignment has tested my understanding of light, and also encouraged me to look beyond the course text – investigating different methods I could use to achieve my aims for each of the qualities defined.

The subject I close was challenging as – as well as needing to bring out it’s qualities – I had to use or limit the impact of one of it’s most obvious properties; it’s reflectiveness.  Knowing this would be difficult was why I chose it as a subject, but I haven’t always done a great job of managing this property – and the ‘Shadow’ image I think illustrates the effect of poor reflection management (though in the metal of the bottle top, rather than the glass of the bottle).

I’ve leaned toward using studio-lighting rather than natural or available light, because this was considerably more manageable, but two out of the core eight images do use natural light (sunset and general use of sun) and the ‘smashed’ image mixed flash and natural light; so this assignment isn’t just a product of pure “studio” work.

I do think, for the most part, I’ve ably demonstrated the qualities of the subject effectively and created pleasing images in the process.

TAoP: Assignment 4 – Light: Form – Two – Wide

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This is my final shot for assignment 4 – ‘light’ – and is the second using light to illustrate the form of the Leffe bottle.

Wide

ISO 100, f/32, 1/200s. Click to see large on Flickr

Shot on manual, with external studio flash pointing toward the bottle, with my trusty book of ‘evil plans and stuff’ acting as a gobo to reduce reflection on the top of the bottle, as shown below:

‘Wide’ Lighting setup

The intention here was to use the raised light to show the dept of the bottle while it’s lay on it’s side – with a highlight at the top and darker area at it’s bottom; reinforced with a hard shadow on the bright background.  I used a wide angle lens then to show the depth, front-to-back, which is emphasised with the drop-off of light – right-to-left – on the yellow background card.  Showing the depth also led to the composition decision to arrange the bottle diagonally across the frame (echoing the shadow arrangement in the first ‘form’ image).

Other shots

I did try with diffused light and a reflector initially – with the reflector intending to make a distinctive highlight on the bottle.  In the end the highlight was too low for the intended contrast between top and bottom:

Diffused with Reflector on left

Removing the reflector led to a fairly ‘flat’ image – with too-soft a shadow (as with the image above) and no real highlight along the top of the bottle – apart from the front right:

Diffused

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to arrange the reflector to get the highlight on the top – though even with that done I wasn’t happy with the soft shadow.  In the end I was happy that the direct light created a sufficient highlight at the top of the bottle with the angled light.

TAOP: Assignment 4 – Light: Texture – Two – Rough

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This is my seventh shot for assignment 4 – “light” – and uses light to illustrate the texture of the Leffe bottle subject.

Rough

ISO 100, f/11, 1/50s. Click to see large on Flickr.

This was shot on manual with the camera mounted on a tripod so I just had to worry about holding the bottle in the right place and focus.  The only editing I’ve done is to increase the sharpness in Lightroom.

This is basically a “found” shot; while I was sat out int he garden brainstorming ideas I held the bottle up in front of the sun and saw how clear the imperfections in the glass were.  I’d been wandering how to illustrate texture in a more-or-less smooth object and was looking at how light reflected off the shaped bottom edge of the glass.  I’d decided my previous bottle cap shot for ‘texture’ was more of an illustration of the shape of the bottle cap than a successful demonstration of texture.

Unlike the bottle cap image, I think this is a successful illustration of the object’s texture – with the imperfections being in contrast with the seeming-perfection in “smooth’.

TAOP – Assignment 4 – Light: Sharp

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This is an additional shot for assignment four – “light”.

Sharp

Sharp – ISO 100, 1/40s, f/18. Click to see large on Flickr

This was shot on manual, once more imploying my Pringles tube to direct the light.  I’ve increased sharpness and contrast in Lightroom and cropped the image.  The aim here was to use shadows and highlights to bring out the sharp edges, peaks and troughs, within the shape of the bottle cap – and contrast that with the smoothness of the top of the bottle in the first ‘texture’ shot.  On reflection, I think this is more of an illustration of the shape of the bottle cap; there’s very little evidence of texture – apart from in the white background I used.  I think to illustrate texture (there is a kind of scratched pattern in the metal cap, which is vaguely visible, but not so much as I’d claim it’s demonstrated well) I’d need to get much closer to the cap – and show the top.  I’d probably need a 100mm macro lens – which I don’t have access to.

I’ve used three caps to create a shape in the image (roughly a triangle, with another triangle of ‘space’ within) and to show cap in different ways – inside and out.

Taking the shot

I started with two caps and the light directly at the side, 90 degrees to the camera.  I found the shadows too hard and the left cap was reflecting the light to the camera too much.

Hard shadow and harsh reflection

I introduced a reflector opposite the flash and this softened the shadows, more to my liking, though the shadow was too long.  It’s also horizontal which makes for a fairly static and boring image and it ends out-of-frame.

Softer shadow but still too long

I adjusted the angle of the camera, so the shadow created was diagonal and finished in-frame.  It still looks a little dull, but is better:

Better angle but still a bit boring

I added a third bottle cap to create a shape.  I also increased the height of the flash to shorten the shadow, so it wasn’t as dominant-an-element within the image.  This was how the lighting setup looked around this time:

The Lighting setup

And here’s the shot:

Nearly there…

Apart form being under-exposed, I wasn’t happy with the cap arrangement.  I found the writing on the cap distracting, reminding me of the cigarette packet writing from one of my assignment one shots.  In some shots in this assignment the label is unavoidable (and in the case of the first ‘colour’ shot, I feel it enhances the image), but in this case the writing was avoidable; it wasn’t adding anything.

I rearranged the caps for the final image, making a more interesting shape and removing the distraction of the writing.