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.

Experimentation with Flash

While I had the flower pot in place I experimented with using the 'on camera' flash both directly and bouncing it of a multi-surface reflector, that gave a variety of possibilities, white, black, silver and gold. I also tried this using the AWB and the camera 'flash' white balance.  None of the images have been altered in photoshop.

AWB - direct flash

AWB and direct flash, This gave a very similar effect to using a direct single undiffused bulb, although the shadow edges are slightly less harsh and are directly behind the plant. The colour is too blue

Flash WB - direct flash

Here the white balance was set to the camera's 'flash ' setting. The colour is much too yellow and seems slightly overexposed.

AWB - silver reflector

Here the flash is bounces off a sliver reflector placed to the right of the flowers. The shadows are considerable softer, and the overall image less blue.

AWB - white reflector

Here the colour is again slightly blue, but the shadows are nicely softened, and the leaves show very well.

AWB - black reflector

Using a black 'reflector' to bounce the light off interestingly gives much deeper shadows, and more detail in the pot, with less reflection from it, however the image is too cold

AWB - gold reflector

As would be expected the gold reflector gives a much warmer image, and overall a very pleasant effect. The plants leaves are probably slightly too yellow but the pot is not over-exposed with a blown highlight, and the table is the correct colour.

I did repeat all the variations with the camera's flash setting for white balance, but they were all unpleasantly yellow, and there was little difference visible using the various reflectors.

In this instance I prefer the picture taken using the silver reflector, but I think the gold one is equally pleasing, just a less accurate colour rendition. 

This is certainly worth exploring further, especially when taking pictures of people using flash either inside or as an adjunct outside.

Exercise - Measuring Exposure 1

The object of this part of the exercise was to produce some photographs that are  either lighter or darker than normal.

Light.

Inchmahone Abbey ISO 125, f/13, 90 mm efl, 1/60 sec

This is deliberately taken lighter then usual to allow you to see detail on the pillars in the background , though the archway.

Light though the Trees.  ISO 125, f/3.1, 75 mm efl, 1/100 sec

Here the image was lightened to enhance the look of sunlight pouring down over the trees, and also to allow some detail to show though in the trunks.

Alice. ISO 400, f/5.6, 112 mm efl, 1/50 sec

This image was taken in very poor light conditions (needed high ISO), but I liked her expression, and felt that it warranted a high key approach to emphasise the already pale skin and fair hair.

Old Railway Cars. ISO 320, f/4.5, 42 mm efl, 1/30 sec.

This very broken down old railway car was awaiting repair at the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway Museum. I wanted to be able to see some of the detail under the carriage as well as the colours, so increased the exposure to allow this.

Dark.

Unwanted?  ISO 100, f/3.8, 34 mm efl, 1/30 sec.

This is in direct contrast to the image above. Here I wanted to show the darkness and decay of the whole carriage, and show how difficult it was to see things in the museum.

Doune Castle. ISO 160, f/4.9, 50 mm efl, 1/80 sec.

This contrasts with the first image in the 'light' section. Here I also wanted to show the view through the archway, but it was drenched in sun and very bright compared with the inside of the castle. I therefore deliberately decreased the exposure. Even so the scene in the background was too burnt out and I had to bring the colours back by adding a second layer in photoshop to the background only, erasing it over the stones to avoid darkening them even more.

Tailfin. ISO 100, f/13, 28mm efl, 1/640 sec.

This was taken from directly under the plane. I wanted to show the shape of the tail silhouetted against the swirling clouds. A lighter exposure would have shown the detail in the tail, but lost the drama in the clouds.