Theory Notes - Shooting in Low and Sun Light

Shooting in Low and Sun Light

Low Light

Low light shooting is divided into two categories:

• Natural Light (Daylight)
  
• Artificial Light (Light from lightbulbs and lamps)

Natural light often comes from daylight, light from a sunny day, in a building in the shade or early in the morning. For taking pictures in low light using film with ISO 800 film is very good because the pictures become sharper, better contrast, and the colors are brighter. The ISO 800 film is better to use for low light compared to the ISO 400 films. Tools that help when shooting in low light is fast film and fast lense. As explained a bit earlier, using ISO 800 film gives you good result. If you're taking many pictures in low light it will help with a fast lense which gives a large aperture. Photojournalists who take many pictures indoors often use a combination of fast lenses and high speed films.

The picture to the light has been taken by using both flash and natural light. The flass makes the colors a bit brighter making the picture a bit warmer.

Artificial Light can give a 'warmer' effect to the picture. Often when you are using artificial light, which is lamps and light bulbs, etc, gives you more control over how much light you want. Artifical light helps with giving light where there is little natural light.

Using day light you get more of a natural look, but using artificial light you can get a 'warmer' tint in the picture.

Shooting in Direct Sun Light

Shooting in direct sun light can make give the pictures big contrasts, blown out highlights, lens flare and colors that may look over saturated. Some solutions to not have to shoot in direct sun light is to move in to the shade, make your own shade and use fill in flash.
Move into shade: Move the subject into the shade so the pictures won't get high contrasts.
Make your own shade: If it is not able to move your subject, then you have to try and make your own shade. You can use like an umbrella or something else that will block out the sun.
Use fill in flash: Shooting in the sun may make the subject very dark and so you could improve the picture by using a flash to fill in the shadows.

In the picture above you can clearly see that the subject have become very dark and the contrast is very big.

Image Bank

Image Bank
Eve Arnold
Eve Arnold is the photographer of this picture. Eve Arnold was born April 21, 1912 and is an American photojournalist. She was the first femal member of the Magnum Photos. Her interest in photography began in 1946 when she was working for a photo-finishing plant in New York. She learned some photographic skills in 1948 from Harper's Bazaar art director Alexei Brodovitch. Arnold is best for her images of Marily Monroe on the set of Monroe's last film (1961), The Misfits, and together they had a good relationship. Eve Arnold was the photographer Marilyn Monroe trusted the most. Eve Arnold has traveled around the world taking several pictures. I really like this picture, especially the way Marilyn Monroe is positioned. I like how the model is just laying down with closed eyes and looks very relaxed.

Lorenzo Agius
Lorenzo Agius took this wonderful picture of Madonna. I think the setting is really interesting and I really like it because it is a bit different and the setting is creative. I also like how the fashionable clothes Madonna is wearing fits in with the setting. Lorenzo Agius Art and Art History at the University of East Angli and moved to London in 1983 when he began to assist in photography. In 1989 he became a freelance photographer and specialized in fashion and portraits. He has published some of his work in Vogue, Vanity Fair and Elle and other magazines.
Lorenzo Agius is a very talented photogrpaher and on his website there are several good pictures of women, men, and fashion. He has also taken many good advertisement pictures.
Terry O'Neil
Terry O'Neil was born in July 1938 in London and is a successful Enlgish photographer. His success started when he took pictures of the celebrities and fashion in the 1960s. He began his photography career when he was working for a photographic unit for an airline at Heathrow Airport. He has taken pictures of several celebrities and bands like Judy Garland, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He has also taken pictures of the Royal family and several politicians. I really like the setting of this picture of the band The Beatles and I like how the band members are standing in different positions. This is one of my favorite bands so I really enjoy this picture and I think it is a really good shot.

Printing Compositions

Printing Compositions - Clothes, Accessory and Shoes

Taking these pictures was very fun because I had to try to focus on the shoes and the clothing and it was fun to try and position my 'model' so that I would get the best possible shots.

The settings for this contact sheet was:

Aperture: 8

Time: 68

Filter: No Filter

It went extremely quick to find the correct settings for this contact sheet. The settings are:
Aperture: 5.6
Time: 8
Filter: No Filter
September 2008
I like the composition of this picture and I like this shot. The lighting of this picture is soft because there are no hard shadows and the lighting is natural. This was my second print and this picture took a while to find the correct settings. It often turned out a bit too dark and I just couldn't find the correct settings. Fortunately though, I eventually found the right settings which are:
Aperture: 8
Time: 68
Filter: No Filter
September 2008
I really like this picture and the contrast in the picture. This was my first print and it went quick. The settings are:
Aperture: 5.6
Time: 10
Filter: No Filter

This is a test-strip for the picture below. The settings are:

Aperture:4

Time: (From bottom to top) 15, 20, 25 30

Filter: 2.5

These settings with time 30 looked good so I decided to use those settings for my final print.

September 2008

The settings for this print is:

Aperture: 4
Time: 30

Filter: 2.5

This print didn't take that long to make. I only had to make a few test-strips and then I found the correct settings. I like this picture because in a way it is a bit different from many other pictures of shoes, but I wish the picture had better contrast.

Diary Entry - Clothes, Accessory, Shoe Project

Diary Entry for the Clothes, Accessory, Shoe Project - October 3, 2008

For this project I was finished a week early! For the first time I did not have to stress about

finishing my photography project. For the lat project it took me weeks for me to find the correct

settings fro the contact sheet, but now it only took me a couple of classes. I was very pleased that

it went so quickly and so I got my first full print pretty early. The second print however, took a

while to find the correct settings for, but eventually I found the settings and gladly made my

second full print. This whole project for me quickly passed and I finished a week early which was

very nice. Since this project finished quickly and finding the settings for the different pictures 

wasn't very hard, not a lot of bad stuff happened to complain about like it usually does. 

For the last project most of my pictures turned out to be very grey but not for this project! 

Nope, nope. My pictures for this project turned out much better. I really enjoyed this project 

because I like to take pictures of shoes and clothes so it was very interesting and fun for me.

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

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.