Exercise 11: Contrast and shadow fill.

"Set up a simple still-life shot, fix the light at right angles to the camera, about two to three feet from the subject and at the same level.  With the camera on a tripod, take the first photograph without a diffuser in front of the lamp and the second with the diffuser.  Follow these with a series of five exposures, the light and camera must remain unchanged.  Take a white card and place it three feet from the still-life on the opposite side to the light and facing it, take a photograph, move the card closer to the subject, approx halfway, take another photograph.  Repeat this procedure with the following, a sheet of aluminium foil, dull side towards the light, next the foil shiny side towards the light, finally crumple the foil, then smooth it out again and with the shiny side out take two more photographs.  Compare the results and arrange them in order of contrast, from the one with the biggest difference between the lit and shaded parts, to the least."

My first subject was the ornament above, it has good texture and lots of detail but I felt it was too thin, because of this the difference between the light and shadow areas would be difficult to see.  The plate of partially eaten fruit was my preferred choice for the exercise it has lots of shape, form, texture and colour, the requirements for the assignment to follow.  I used the same set-up of a flash gun with my home made diffuser for lighting.

Following the guidance in the coursebook, I have arrange the images in order, starting with the picture with the greatest contrast and finishing with the least.  I'm not sure if its the fault of my arrangement or the lighting set-up, but apart from a couple of the images most seem to be evenly lit.  The top of the apple, which was nearest the reflector shows the most variation in reflected light.  This has been a very satisfying exercise to do, I will from now on make use of a diffuser, in most lighting situations.

There are several photographs of high contrast images in the coursebook, two are portraits of Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston taken by different photographers.  They are both quite dark, only a part of there faces can be seen clearly, this adds drama and an element of mystery.  In the picture taken by Dorothy Norman of Stieglitz his eyes are staring out from the image, his look is menacing.  The photograph of Weston has been taken from a low angle, with the light coming from above and behind, his eyes are therefore in shadow, and cannot be easily be seen.  I find myself looking hard at that dark area trying to see his eyes, I assume this was what the photographer intended.

Exercise 10: The lighting angle.

"With the use of a diffused single light, experiment using it from different directions.  Find a subject that is no larger than the diffuser on the front of the lamp, the important thing is that it should have a variety of planes to show the differences in shadows and light.  With the camera in a fixed position, on a tripod, aimed horizontally at the subject, there needs to be room to move around the object with a light.  Take photographs as the light is moved around keeping it at the same level as the subject.  Beginning with the front, then sides, rear to the side and finally with the light directly behind making a silhouette of the subject.  Then raise the light  so that it points down at about 45 degrees, move it round again, taking photographs in similar positions again.  Finally, with the light overhead, pointing down, take three pictures, directly overhead, from slightly in front and from behind.  Look at the photographs, study the differences in order to become familiar with the effect of moving the light.  Certain qualities of the subject are revealed better by some lighting directions, which position gives the best three dimensional affect and of all them, which do you prefer, and why?"

I chose an old twin lens Yashica film camera as the subject for this exercise, flash was used for the light source, eliminating the white balance problem I had in the previous exercise.  For clarity I have included a photograph of the home made diffuser that was used.

All the photographs taken are below, I've identified the angle of lighting on each one.

If I had to choose a favourite photograph from the above set, it would be "light above front left".  Had this been product photography, then this angle of lighting shows off the camera to best advantage.  The texture on the side shows up well along with the majority of the camera's controls, I feel it looks imposing and important.  This impression might have been strengthened had the camera angle been lower so removing the table and stand it was on.

Exercise 9: Softening the light.

"Set up a still-life arrangement, with any object or group of objects.  The lighting direction will depend on the subject, if in doubt, fix the naked lamp more or less overhead, pointing down.  Take two photographs, one with just the naked lamp, the other with a piece of translucent material held between the lamp and the subject.  The two exposure settings will be different, look at the results and note what differences can be seen, for instance, at the strengths (blackness) of the shadows, their extent and hardness of their edges.  Look also at the highlights and at the contrast, finally, was the diffusion an improvement?

The ornament was chosen for it's shape, when I shone a light down onto it the shape of the shadow looked interesting, white card was used, it would make the shadows easier to see.  The light used was an angle poise lamp fitted with a Tungsten bulb and white tissue paper for the diffuser.

Naked light.

Diffused light.

I tried to correct the white balance in the raw converter of Photoshop, which was successful with the naked light image, however the photograph taken with a diffused light has a slight colour cast.  The shadow in the first image is, as expected, darker and clearly defined with quite sharp edges also the naked light picture has more contrast.  The diffused photograph has an overall softness about it, not just the shadow, if I could remove the colour cast, this would be my preferred image.

Exercise 8: Outdoors at night.

After the Sunset.

The aim of this exercise is to explore the variety of lighting effects and colour in artificial light, try to include the following subjects:-

• A floodlit building.
• A brightly-lit store front.
• A large interior with many people, such as a shopping centre.
• Light streaks, such as traffic on a busy road.

I have tried to take a wide variety of lighting types, having learned quite a lot while doing the exercise on Tungsten and Fluorescent lighting.  The majority of images were taken with the camera set to Daylight white balance, any that were photographed using a different setting have been so marked.  The first three were taken through the car windscreen and were originally intended for a previous exercise, cloudy weather and rain.  I had been taking the lights and raindrops as we drove down the A50,  at Mere on the outskirts of Stoke, the road goes through a tunnel.  The three images, before the tunnel, one while going through it, and the last after exiting, were taken within seconds of each other, all were taken in different lighting.

The next photographs were taken in Nantwich, I looked around the town centre, but could only find buildings that were lit by Sodium lights, I've included two as an example of this kind of lighting.

Next I tried my local railway station, Crewe, from past experience I knew there was a variety of lighting on the platforms.  The first two photographs were taken on different white balances as shown, the one using Auto is closest to the light I remember when the picture was taken.

Next, two photographs taken with the ISO increased to enable me to hand hold the camera, also attempting to stop subject movement.  This part of the station has a type of sodium lighting, similar to the lighting in the pictures above, I selected Auto white balance in the raw converter of Photoshop, the result seems better than the camera's Auto setting, unless the lights were of a different type.

    ISO 12800 1/45sec f8

    ISO 25600 1/60sec f8

For the remainder of this exercise I used the Daylight white balance setting on the camera, the first picture shows the interior of a train, the light appears almost white.  The remaining photographs were taken at other parts of the station where the lighting was a lot brighter, the images taken there appear more natural.  The course book says that Mercury vapour lamps give off a blueish white light, I assume that some parts of the station are lit with them.

Having tried my local area I went to Liverpool to look for more examples of lighting, I was not disappointed.  I made for the area around the Pierhead where I knew there was a variety of old and new buildings.  The older buildings are floodlit so made excellent subjects for photography, combined with the brightly lit interiors of the newer buildings.  I also found L.E.D lights set into the handrails of steps and fluorescent lights built into the concrete backs of seating along the river side path. The following photographs are just a sample of the ones taken.

The next two photographs are an example of how fluorescent lighting can alter the white balance in a scene. Both images were taken without changing position, I simply turned the camera round 90 degrees, the first picture includes the Fluorescent lights whereas the second does not.

My final photograph was taken after the twilight had gone from the sky, it is proof of how much better pictures taken with some light in the sky are. The tops of the buildings have almost been lost because the contrast has been increased so much after it went completely dark.

I've learned how important it is, to be aware of the different kinds of lighting and to know how it can change an image, the advantage of photographing in raw is something I have known about for some time, doing this exercise has reinforced this.  However I did not fully realise the effect that Fluorescent lighting has on a scene and the changes it makes when mixed with other types of lighting.  Finally I have learned how important it is to have some light left in the sky when photographing the exteriors of buildings, for example, in particular the contrast can be kept in check by that small amount of twilight.

Aunt Win's last day at home.

Saturday 17th November 2012 was a sad day for Winnie Wood, 'Aunt Win', it was probably the last day she will spend in her own home.  Of course she doesn't know that yet, she believes her stay in the care home will only be temporary, just a few days is what she keeps saying.

She was born on the 14th January 1922 in Bishops Frome, a small village close to Bromyard, in the county of Herefordshire.  I'm not going to go through her life history at this point except to say that she has worked hard most of her life and has been very independent.  The loss of independence, for her and most old people, must be a very difficult thing to come to terms with.

I have photographed Aunt Win on several occasions, she has never refused and has always been a very good and willing subject.  The same was true last Saturday, for even though she was facing so much uncertainty in her life, she sat patiently for me.  She has a face that in an instant gives you a look that could kill then a split second later give you the most amazing smile, she can be deep in thought like the picture above then be smiling and quizzical like the photograph below.  I hope she can settle in her new home and will allow other people to look after her for a change, after all it's for the best, or so they all keep saying. For my part I hope to have lots more photo sessions with Aunt Win!!

Exercise 7: Tungsten and fluorescent lighting.

"Find a room lit fairly brightly by tungsten lamps, wait until just after sunset, when there is only a little daylight left.  With the curtains open, stand close to the window and look out for about a minute, until your eyes become adjusted.  Turn and look into the room light, what colour does it seem to be in the first instant that you see it?  After your eyes become adjusted to the room light, about a couple of minutes, turn back, now looking out of the window at daylight, what colour does it seem to be.  It is important to do this test when the daylight is weaker than the room light".

I did the above test and found that after looking out at the daylight, for a brief moment the room looked quite yellow.  The reverse happened when I then looked back outside the daylight was blue and cold looking.  The effect is similar to images taken in tungsten light with the white balance set to daylight and of course the opposite, with the white balance on tungsten taken outside in daylight.  Using the camera's light meter I measured the amount of light within the room.  I set the lens at it's maximum aperture of f2.8 and the camera to ISO 100, the average reading within the room was 1/20th sec.  As I was hand holding the camera and wanted to avoid blurred images, I adjusted the ISO to 1600 which enabled a shutter speed of 1/60th sec at an aperture of f5.6.

This is an example that no matter how good camera's are, they can be fooled.  The first image where the white balance was set to auto has been influenced by both light sources, the outdoor brickwork has a blue cast, the inside, lit by tungsten lights has a slight yellow tint.  The second picture has the correct colour outside but a pronounced yellow tint to the room.  Last taken with tungsten white balance, this image is very blue outdoors in daylight, however the colours inside the room look about right.

"For the second part of the project find two interiors lit by fluorescent lamps.  If possible make one of these an interior lit by small CFL lamps, take two or three photographs identically composed in each location.  The first image should be with the white balance set to auto, the second to fluorescent, compare the results and note the differences.  One thing should be obvious, the overall colour quality in all of them looks in some way unsatisfactory, fluorescent lamps do not emit a full colour spectrum".

The first pictures were taken at Jack & Irene's small holding where we buy our fruit and veg, I've taken photographs there before and knew that in Irene's shop and Jack's workshop they had fluorescent lighting, perfect for this exercise.  There are more than the required photographs, because I have included images from both the shop and workshop for comparison, also, there is a picture taken with daylight white balance.

As expected none of the images are exactly correct as far as colour is concerned.  The fluorescent lighting is responsible for this but also the fact that I had to use a high ISO of 12800 might have made a difference, it is certainly the cause of noise in the photographs.

The next three images were taken in my kitchen, where I believe we have CFL lamps fitted in the ceiling.

The photographs of the kitchen taken using the camera's white balance settings have various degrees of a yellowish colour cast to them.  The image taken with Auto WB was adjusted using the white balance correction in the raw converter of Photoshop. I used the eye dropper tool to sample the sink knowing this to be white.  I've included the finished photograph above, for comparison.