Exercise 4.3: Egg or stone, Shoot 2
I conducted a second shoot using the same equipment and set-up as Shoot 1, with the intention of exploring the effect of colour a little more. I used two speedlights at angles either side of the object, and modified the colour of each with green, red, yellow and blue gels.
The change to the settings I made for these images was to set the camera to custom white balance and adjust that for an image of white card illuminated by both flashes. (The card can be seen in the contacts. The contacts for the shoot are at:
Results: Shoot #2 13/06/2020
With the custom white balance set, the object illuminated by two flashes without gels shows its “natural” colours.
I attempted to mix a white light with a blue and yellow light, using a yellow gel on one, and a blue gel on the other.
Separately these lights give this effect:
And together, there is a blue shadow to the right, and yellow shadow to the left. The central part of the object, where the lights overlap, is not quite as when shot is a white light, but is more like that than either alone.
The other image which I think is worth reproducing here is a similar arrangement with green and red light. The contrast between the colours here emphasises the texture of the stone and to me, does add a further dimension to characterising the roughness and granularity.
Next steps
Having read the notes for the course and for the later exercises, I am aware that Exercise 5.2 – “Homage” requires me to “Select an image by any photographer of your choice and take a photograph in response to it”.
I have already described the image “Pepper No 30” by Edward Weston found the lighting in this very unusual, rendering the pepper an abstract aspect.
Pepper No. 30, Edward Weston (1930)
I have used the set I have built and the lighting arrangements to photograph a series of peppers in response to Weston’s image and will develop these to form the basis of my images for exercise 5.2.
Andrew Procter 