Exercise - The Lighting Angle

In this exercise you are looking at the different effects produced by lighting an image from a variety of different sides and heights. All else is kept equal.

Lighting level and in front

Here the lighting comes from in front of the statue of the cats. Most of it is well lit.

Lighting level and from side

Here the light is from the side, only a small amount of the cats are lit, with most of the faces in deep shadow.

Lighting level and behind to the side

Here the cats are virtually unlit, other than a rim of light around the left side, little detail is visible.

Lighting level and behind

Here the lighting comes via the diffuser directly behind the cats, this forms a silhouette, with some vignetting effect showing the shape of the bulb.

Lighting 45deg. and from  in front

The lighting has now been raised and is coming from about a 45 degree angle above the statue. This shows the shapes of the heads and upper parts of the bodied well.

Lighting 45deg. and from the side

Here the side lighting is ineffective in showing the planes of the cats. The overall shape is shown, but with little detail.

Lighting 45 deg. and behind to the side

This is more successful and shows some rim lighting on top of the cats heads as well as showing the shapes of the bodies.

Lighting 45 deg. and behind.

I am not sure why this has come out with such a different colour than the rest. Here the lights almost give a silhouette, but her is some light showing on the cats heads, and just enough on the bodies to act to separate the two cats.

Lighting above and centre

Here the light is held directly above the statue, the top edges are lit, but the rest is in darkness.

Lighting above and in front

In this one more of the cat is shown in detail and the faces are modelled more clearly.

Lighting above and behind

Oddly enough this is successful - with enough light coming though between the statues to illuminate the body of the smaller cat.

In retrospect this exercise would have been better if carried out using a lighter statue, possibly one with colour. In the full images (not made smaller for the web) the changes in  light patterning are much more visible showing a wide range of possibilities.

Out of these my preferred image is the last one, although the first one shows most detail.