Assignment four: Applying lighting techniques

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The brief given for assignment four is to use one object to show the different lighting techniques studied in this unit. I had several objects in mind for the project but the one I felt held the most interest with regards to colour, form, shape and texture was an ornamental monk named Bud, belonging to my sister. 

The subject being human in shape directed me towards researching portrait photographers, particularly those who use interesting lighting techniques themselves. Yousuf Karsh, who shot to fame following his portrait of Winston Churchill; The Roaring Lion, has in his portfolio, images of many great heroes.  

Karsh’s images show great variety in posture and lighting to bring out the individual character of the subject. His portrait of Albert Einstein is lit from slightly behind so that the light skims across his face, highlighting the deep wrinkles which show great wisdom and character. French author, François Mauriac’s silhouette is given an aristocratic feel using edge lighting to highlight only the edges of his noble features. Karsh’s portrait of playwright, Bernard Shaw is lit from a high angle creating strong highlights and shadows in his face and clothing; Karsh has perfectly captured Shaw’s quizzical demeanour.

 

Although photographing an ornamental monk rather than a person, I still hoped to evoke feelings through my use of setting and light. Having considered the angles of light necessary to create my images, I then needed to think about the types of light I would use. Being the perfect time of year for stunning sunsets, I decided to start off my project using the natural light of the golden hour.

01 – Setting Sun: My first image shows the figurine sitting on the banks of the river with a beautiful sunset in the background; this being my lighting for the first part of my set, I thought it fitting that my first image should show it in all its glory. Placing Bud on a rock between myself and the setting sun, I set the exposure for the sky which had the effect of leaving the subject in total darkness, creating a silhouette to show the shape of the subject. The omission of detail reflects the monk’s meditative state.    

02 – Pink Prayer: In order to demonstrate colour, I moved around the subject and placed myself between it and the sun. This meant that now Bud was lit from the front, creating a flat but colourful image. In front lit images using neutral light, Bud’s colour is bright gold; however in this image, the colours of the sunset are reflected. The background colours are more down to luck than judgement as my main focus was on the direction of the light; however I am pleased with the resulting violet/green/orange combination of contrasting hues.

03 – Peaceful: Side lighting is used to show form as the highlights and shadows fall on the subject. This is most notable in the face as the rounded forehead casts a shadow across the eye.

04 – Glow: I positioned the subject so that the sun shone from a slight rear-side angle, hoping to show texture in the image. Although this wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped, I do like the effect the light has on the subject creating a glow to the side of the face. I have included this image although I feel that the main interest is its colour, rather than texture.

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For the next part of my project, I wanted to use artificial light while retaining the natural, outdoor setting for my images. I had the idea of using my car headlamps but as the figurine was so heavy, I needed a strong platform to raise him to the level of the lights. A nearby car park was edged with large rocks, perfect for purpose.

05 – Star: The headlamps gave me just enough focussed light to really enhance the texture in this shot. The rear-side angle enables the light to skim across the subject’s sleeve, trapping shadows in the sunken areas. The fading sunset adds colour to the opposite corner, adding movement and interest while the star remains the main focus.

06 – Cross-legged: This image also utilises the light skimming across the subject, creating dark shadows and drawing attention to the texture of the clothing.

07 – Golden Hands: In contrast to the deep lines displayed in the previous image, minimal texture is displayed in the subject’s clothing. The purpose of this front lighting, although flattening the image somewhat, brings out the golden hues in its surface. As noted earlier, this colour is very different from the oranges brought out by the light of the setting sun.

 08 – Rembrandt: Still using my car headlamps, I turned the figurine so that he was lit from the side. The acute lighting created a strong contrast image with hard shadows showing the form of the subject. Due to the triangular shadow under the eye, I have named this image ‘Rembrandt’. To enhance the depth of the image further, I used a shallow depth of field in order to soften the focus of the face.

09 – Wide: This image is also shot using side lighting; however the subject is turned to face the light and my lens is set to its widest angle of 18mm. The results is that Bud’s left foot appears much larger than his right; creating depth and therefore form in the image to compliment the effect of the lighting.

10 – Bedtime Prayers: My final image was taken using a diffuser to soften the glow from the headlamps. Again, shape is shown in the form of a silhouette, however in this image, the main subject is the backlit space between the face and hands. 

Although I have only used two forms of light in this set, one natural and one artificial, I have used them in a variety of ways to show the different physical qualities in my subject. As well as showing the given physical elements, I feel that I have utilised the lighting in a way which is sympathetic to the peaceful nature of the figurine.

All images from this assignment can be seen in the corresponding Flickr album.