Project 3 Ex nihilo

Project 3 Ex nihilo

This project is about the use of studio lighting and the course notes refer to four aspects of lighting under the control of the photographer:

• Quality
• Contrast
• Direction
• Colour

The notes elaborate on some of this.

Quality

“at its most basic it can be described as the simple distinction between hard and soft light”

This is defined as whether the light casts hard or soft shadows, and in turn is controlled by the size of the light source relative to the subject.

I have thought a little about this and the diagrams below help me understand how this is. A small point light source is hidden from a large area behind the object – the shadow and the margins of the shadow are well demarcated. However a large light source, like a softbox casts a light across its entire length. Thus there will be an area of the shadow which is illuminated by increasingly greater amount of the light source, and the edge of the shadow area is therefore diffuse.

The notes refer me to the work of Jean-Baptiste Huynh. On his website (Jean Baptiste Huynh – Site officiel, s.d.) are examples of images created in the studio, illuminated by soft lighting. He has applied this technique to a range of subjects – plants, insects, parts of the body, nudes and portraiture. He also uses colour and monochrome for this.

In my reading about studio lighting for still life, I used a recommended textbook (Diprose and Robins, 2012), which in turn referred me to the work of Edward Weston and in particular his image Pepper No. 30. This image was apparently lit by placing it in a metal funnel, ((Weston and Newhall, 1961) as cited in (Wikipedia contributors, 2019)). It is this technique which results in the characteristic lighting effect.

The other artist referred to in the course notes is Irving Penn. The notes refer to his work illuminated by the light of a skylight only. Briefly researching his work I have learned that he was noted as one of Vogue magazine’s top photographers. His biography on website of The Irving Penn Foundation (The Irving Penn Foundation, s.d.) indicates that he developed a preference for “photographing in the controlled environment of a studio” although this was not for the management of the lighting but “where he could trim away anything that was not essential to his compositions and hone in on his subjects”.

That website also refers to him in 1950 photographing the haute couture collections in Paris for Vogue. Then he “worked in a daylight studio with an old theater curtain as a backdrop”. One of the images from that time is this one, presumably shot by daylight.

However I note that the model’s face is very evenly lit, in spite of being under the brim of a large hat. Creating an even lighting in those conditions with a light source from one direction presumably has required the use of extensive reflectors.

The other aspects of the lighting the notes suggest I consider are

Contrast

This is the difference in illumination between the shadows and highlights and depends on variable lighting to illuminate the shadows.

Direction

The direction of the light determines the direction of the shadows and this can significantly alter the appearance of the subject.

Colour

The colour of the light can be altered – either directly or by the use of coloured reflectors. I have previously referred to a workshop I did on the use of speedlights for studio lighting. In this I used coloured light sources to alter the background for the subject. This is an example.

My plan for the next exercise is to build on that workshop and do the exercise with speedlight flashes, reflectors and coloured gels. In this way I should be able to alter the four parameters suggested.

 

References

References to the works cited in this post are found in my separate post “References”