Thursday, September 11, 2008

Image Bank

Image Bank

Andrzej Dragan
Andrzej Dragan was born in 1978 in Poland, and studied in Warsaw. On scholarship he studied in other schools in Amsterdam, Oxford and Lisbon and has a PhD in quantum physics cum laude. He has gotten many physics awards and is important in that area. He started to become involved with photography in 2003 and has published his pictures in several magazines and books. He has been awarded several golds, silvers, and bronzes from the KTR ad festival and he won Photographer of the Year 2007 in Digital Camera Magazine, UK. He has worked with several different agencies like Energizer, Brain, Radio Eska and several other agencies.




This picture by Andrzej Dragan is an example of hard light because there are some edgy and dark shadows at the right side of this models face. I like this picture because even the effects of the light makes the picture a bit more dark, I think this picture is simple and relaxing to look at.



Aneta Kowalczyk



Aneta Kowalczyk is a photographer from Warsaw in Poland and she is based in both Poland and Sweden. Kowalczyk used to be a model and that was when she discovered that she liked to take pictures and she liked to be behind the camera as well. Kowalczyk likes several types of pictures but she likes fashion photography and portraits best.













This picture by Aneta Kowalczyk is more of an example of soft light I think. Even though there are some shadows/darker light on the right side of her face, the shadows aren't very edgy and the lighting looks more natural.




Jakob Krechowicz





This picture was taken by Jakob Krechowicz and I really like this picture, unfortunately I didn't find any information about the photographer. I think the lighting is hard because there is a clear difference between the light and the shadows. I really like this picture because there is light in the middle and then darker around the edges. I think it's a nice picture to look at and it is very calming.

Hard and Soft Light Prints

The assignment was to create 6 prints. Two portraits (one picture with soft light, and one with hard light), two landscape pictures and two still life pictures. Unfortunately, I only had enough time to create one of the two landscape pictures.
Contact Sheets

Contact Sheet for Portraits -This contact sheet took me forever to create. I spent a lot of time trying to find the correct settings, and the best settings turned out to be
Aperture: 8
Time: 14
Filter: 2

Contact Sheet for Still Life -
This contact sheet didn't take too long to find the correct settings to.
Aperture:11
Time: 22Filter: NO FILTER

(Contact Sheet) Contact Sheet for Landscape -
I was running out of time, and luckily I found the corredt settings pretty fast.
Aperture:
Time:
Filter:
Portraits (Test-Strips and Final Prints)
Hard Light




The settings for this print was:
Aperture: 8
Time: 11Filter: 2
This is a picture of Faith and it was easy to say that the picture turned out way too dark. I had a lot of trouble with this picture. The picture turned out either too grey, or too dark. I decided to try with another filter and less time and so then I found the correct settings for the final print.






This print is an example of hard light because you can see the shadows on her face and you see a clear border between the light and the shadows. The settings for this print was:
Aperture: 8
Time: 8
Filter: 5





Soft Light


This test-strip of Almu turned out to be too grey.
The settings are:
Aperture: 4
Time (from bottom to top): 4,6,8,10
Filter: NO FILTER
For the final print I decided to put in a filter, and then less time.












This print is a example of Soft Ligh
t because the shadows aren't so hard and the light looks very natural. The settings from the test trip turned out to be pretty grey, so I added a filter of 5 and used less time. The settings are:
Aperture: 4
Time: 2.5
Filter: 5





Still Life (Test-Strips and Final Prints)



The settings for this print didn't take too long. The settings are:
Aperture: 11
Time: (from bottom to top): 40, 42, 44, 46
Filter: 3

For the final print I decided to add more time becasue this test-strip was still a bit too grey.










This picture is an example of soft light because the picture is lighter and 
not that dark. 
After a few changes of the settings from the test-strip, I found the correct settings for the final print which are:
Aperture: 11
Time: 50
Filter: 3

("Mama's Porcelaine" September, 2008)





The settings for this print was pretty similar to the settings of the picture above, so I used the sam
e settings only I used less time. The settings are:
Aperture: 11
Time: 13
Filter: 3


This is a picture of hard light because
 the picture is pretty dark and you can clearly see the shadows in the back ground.


Landscape (Test-Strips and Final Print)



The settings for this print are:
Aperture:
Time (from bottom to top): 14, 16, 18, 20
Filter:
(Landcape print)
This print is an example of soft light because there aren't any edgy shadows and the light is soft and natural. Unfortunately though, this is my only print for landscape and it took me some time to find the correct settings. The only change I made from the settings of the test strip was to use less time. The settings are:
Aperture:
Time: 11
Filter:







The setting for these prints are:
Time: 11 seconds
Aperture: 11
No filter was used.












This contact sheet had a time of 12 seconds
Aperture was 11 and no filter was used

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Theory Notes: Soft, hard, and three point lighting






The effects of lighting can make a picture look very different. The picture can look more intense with a stronger shadow, or the object in the picture may have a more natural shadow using softer lights. Some different lighting effects are Soft Light, Hard Light, and Three-point Lighting.






Soft Light






Using soft light, it creates shadows with soft edges and the light isn't so intense.






The light depends on these factors:



- Distance: The closer the light source, the softer the light becomes.

- Size: The larger the light source, the softer the light becomes.

- Angle: The angles between the object and the light source. The larger the angle, the softer the light is.

Soft Light can also reduce shadows and an effect of soft light might be that wrinkles may be less visible using softer light.

Soft Light does not show any shadows which gives away that extra light aources are being used. Soft Light seems like more natural light.


In the picture above soft light has been used and the picture looks more natural and it doesn't have edgy shadows.



Hard Light






Hard Light creates shadows that are more intense and have rougher edges and creates a big contrast between the highlights and shadows.


Using hard light a picture can become more edgy and intense as oppose to using softer light the picture isn't as edgy and it is more calm.

The picture to the left is an example of hard lighting. The shadows are more rough and it give the picture a more edgy look.




Three-Point Lighting



The Three-Point Lighting is a method which is used in many visuals like film, video and photography. It is the system which forms the basis of most lighting.
The technique uses three lights called the key light, fill light, and back light.



Key Light is the main light and it is the strongest light. It is placed to the side of the object so there is a lot of light and shadow.



Fill Light is places on the opposide side of the key light. It is less bright and not as strong as the key light.



Back Light is placed behind the object and a bit diagonally. The purpose of the back light is to subtle highlights around the object's outlines. This helps separating the object from the background and giving the picture a more three dimensional look.



Here you can see an example of a set up of three-point lighting. You have all of the three main lights.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Diary Entry

September 8, 2008

My time in the dark room has been disastorous. The settings for the contact sheet was not easy to get. My pictures always turned out very grey. After a long period with trying to find the correct settings for the contact sheet I decided to move on. I still don't have a complete print and I'm running out of time. My first print is now turning out too grey or too dark. I'm really struggling with finding the correct settings and I do not have a lot of time left. I hope that a miracle will come around and that I get to finish my 6 prints in two classes. I am stressing very much and I hope that I will get this completed. I don't really understand why my pictures are turning out so grey and it is really bothering me but there's not much I can do apart from keep working and do my best to find the correct settings.