Project 2

Dates:

Prelim: Monday, 11/16

Final: Wednesday, 12/2

Create a body of work that explores the human form in some way. These can be portraits, abstractions of the body, nudes, theatrical, conceptual, or other. Work toward a cohesive group of images that are aesthetically and conceptually related. Plan to submit between 5-7 final images, in print form as well as digital (jpegs 1200).

Create most appropriate studio lighting design to support your images. 

Proposals should be 1 page, referencing the work of two established artists as inspiration

Work will be evaluated on the following criteria:

• Original, inspiring, and creative idea/vision/approach
• Quality of lighting design
• Quality of photographic design
• Technical (camera, lighting, file management, etc.)
• Deliverables (prints, files, etc.)
• Growth of the project over the course of the assignment

Proposals, prelim and final critiques will be graded.

Portrait Exercise #1

Due: 10/28

The first portrait project explores how size, quality and placement of the key light can affect the rendering of the face. This is one of the most important concepts of portrait lighting design. Please read pages 193-206 for further discussion and visual examples.

Take your time with it. Correct exposure, appropriate f-stop, focus are all important.

Create portfolio worthy portraits that explore the following:

• Fairly tight framing that features head and shoulders, without cutting them off.
• Low-key background with well-considered spot. Hint: create adequate distance between subject and background material so that wrinkles are not sharp
• Thoughtful styling...put in some planning with outfits, hair, accessories and go for it. Move beyond silly mug shots. 
• Use of single light source, no fill light. Reflector encouraged.

For each of the following, create both high and low contrast examples, positioning the key light as necessary. Explore how the use of a reflector can be important

1. Explore 45/45 lighting, sometimes known as Rembrandt, achieving what is referred to in the book as the "key triangle."
2. Short Lighting
3. Broad Lighting
4. Front lighting
5. Side lighting
6. Beauty lighting

Project 1

Proposal Due: 10/5, in class. Be prepared to discuss.
Preliminary critique: Monday, October 12th
Final Critique: Wednesday, October 21st

Write a 1-page proposal for a still life project. Your proposal should consist of:

• An overall idea or concept for your images...reflect on some themes or ideas you hope to communicate.
• A description of the subjects that will express these ideas
• A description of the background
• Any particulars regarding the set-up of the still life that you are considering that come to mind (e.g. need to build a stand to prop up objects, or create a GOBO for a certain effect)
• A brief description of at least two still life examples, by well-known, established photographers (choose two different artists) that serve to inspire the set-up and/or lighting design of your project. These examples should be properly referenced. Start with examples from the class blog.
• 1 page

Plan for several shooting sessions outside of class. Reserve studio time well in advance.

Over the course of the project you will be shooting many variations. Keep all of these, planning to turn them in. Create 5-7 strong finished images. Print all, letter size for critique. The strongest image will be printed full size to at least 16" x 20". Shoot RAW and focus carefully to ensure that the image will hold up through enlargement.

Assignment 6: Glass

Referring to class demo and the textbook, create expressive explorations of white-field/dark-line glass and dark-field/white-line glass. Be selective with glass choices, arrangement and lighting design to create something exciting. For this exercise, stick to transparent glass objects only.

Examples:

white field/black line

black field/white line

Assignment 5, Metal, Family of Angles

Work with the family of angles and the two lighting configurations to explore both Table-Top (flat) and 3-D examples. Be selective with materials, arrangement and lighting position to produce an expressive statement.

Assignment 4

For 9/14 (Monday)

Two plane still-life with horizon and two light sources

Goals to explore with your shooting:

• Gain understanding of how to balance intensities of main light and background light
• Incident versus reflective meter readings
• Explore background brightness
• Active versus passive background
• Quality and placement of horizon line
• Still life building and composition

Reveal this exploration in your images.

Assignment 3a&3b

top

front

side with fill

back/side with fill

45/45 with fill

45/45with fill and controlled background spill

Seamless sweep background:

The first still life exercise explored the use of a single plane table-top design. In other words, we were shooting from above, down onto the subject and the table. There was not a horizon line or a separate background plane (such as a wall)

The second design will be, technically, a two plane still life. It will have a table surface and a wall surface, perpendicular to it. However, the transition between these two planes will be moderated through the use of a sweep. As a result, there will be no visible horizon line. Instead we will have a gradual transition between the two planes. This set-up is useful, also, for exploring the use of light fall-off to create the illusion of depth, especially with the use of top-light. It is a "classic," and versatile set-up for photographing things like products, art objects, in a way that is clean, neutral, and perhaps a bit formal.

Exploring light direction:

Orientation of light direction to the subject can affect how that subject appears, in a major way. For your subject, explore the effect of the following light directions. Please use lower contrast light for this assignment, but optimize as you see fit. A soft box is recommended. Meter every time the light is moved.

• Top*
• Front
• Side
• Side/back
• 45/45
• 45/45 with controlled background spill

Variations: For each, shoot with and without fill

*Top light

The top-light design can be used to effectively illuminate many subjects with a good sense of volume. It is a fairly passive lighting design that calls little attention to itself, allowing the subject to be revealed in a faithful way. 

However, this elegant design has another great advantage...it can be used to create a gradient background, through the use of light fall-off. This can lend a sense of formal polish to the photography of objects. While it generally has more commercial application...it can also be used creatively. See chapter 5 in the book.

Due dates:

3a, shooting (in groups) due by end of class 9/2

3b, individual creative exploration due 9/9, beginning of class. 

Reading

Due:Wed 9/9

Please read: Chapters 1, 2 and 5 (through the end of "managing flare," p. 120)

Assignment 2a&2b

By Wednesday, 9/2. Turn in work from last week's assignments 2a and 2b. Here's how:

1. Sort through your work. For part A, identify the variations we explored from active to passive, with varied amounts of fill. 
2. For part B, do the same. Also identify which image you believe to be the most successful. 
3. Please do not perform any RAW adjustments on your images (except White Balance, if required). This will provide the most accurate sense of how things are working in studio/camera. 
4. Use image processor to create Jpegs, sRGG, Quality 10, limited to 1200 x 1200 pixels length or width of your RAW files. 
5. Name these the following way:

• Lastname_2a_001.jpg, Lastname_2a_002.jpg, Lastname_2b_001.jpg,etc.

Flate files in Drop box, under Assignment 2 folder.

Assignment 2a & 2b

How do the above images show a range of light contrast? What is the relationship between contrast and whether the light can be considered active or passive?

• Active Lighting—where the light itself becomes a "lead character" in the drama. Think: "light event." Use hard, direct lighting and shadow play. Use a "cookie" or cucoloris to cast patterned illumination or silhouettes.
• Passive Lighting—where the light simply reveals the subject and doesn't draw much attention to itself. Here the light is more of a "supportive character," rather than the "lead". Use soft diffuse lighting. Remember, hard, direct light can be softened with things like tracing paper. 

Part A: Shooting in class (8/26), with your group
Part B: Do the same thing on your own, taking longer to build a more personal, more meaningful image, with variations. Work with a partner and you can help each other out. Due Monday 10/31, beginning of class.

Bring in a visually interesting single subject for table-top work. It should be easily portable and of solid, non-reflective material. Avoid glass bottles and similar shiny objects for now, as these can be more difficult to work with.

Bring in a light colored material, lace, table-cloth, textured wood, etc. Something to serve as table-top covering.

Using a single strobe, create pictures of your object in the table-top format that explores contrast and how it relates to the distinct qualities of light: active versus passive.

Set-up steps:

1. On table-top, create an appealing arrangement that will be seen looking down onto the table from above (more or less)
2. Establish came angle, zoom and focus on the tripod. Use the ladder, if required.
3. Set ISO on meter and comer so that they match. Suggestion: 100 or 200
4. Set the camera to Manual mode
5. Choose an f-stop to use for the shot, considering depth of field considerations. For now, I suggest f11-f-16
6. Use the meter on incident flash mode to measure the light and adjust the light to "fit" the desired f-stop. Remember that the strobe will always power up to the last changed setting, so if you want to adjust the strobe power, you will need to discharge the strobe ("pop it") so that it charges to your new setting
7. Take a test shot
8. Optimize your image until you have the best one. Plan to stick with this same composition for the full range of light explorations
9. When exploring active options, use a "cookie" or cucoloris to cast patterned illumination or silhouettes. This can be made from cut paper, tracing paper, objects casting shadows, etc.
10. Use a fill card to control the tone of the shadows

a "cookie"

Note that you may need to move the light (generally closer or farther away) from the cookie to further alter contrast and/or shadow play. For the shadow play to be sharp, move the light further away, the cookie closer to the target (subject), or some combination of the two.

If you change the placement of the light, you will have to re-meter. Always re-meter, if you move a light

Variations to shoot

1. Low contrast/passive/no fill
2. Vary the amount of fill until optimized (1-3 variations)
3. Medium contrast, moderately active/no fill 
4. Vary the amount of fill until optimized (1-3 variations)
5. High contrast, very active/no fill
6. Vary the amount of fill until optimized (1-3 variations)

Like the examples above, this will result in very different lighting treatments, ranging from active to passive. The main difference should be how the light changes. Camera angle, composition, etc. should be basically the same.

Assignment 1: Light Events

For 8/24 (Monday)

Shooting:

Find instances of natural light that are truly unique events. Go beyond just recording subject matter. Look for interesting effects of light on surface, reflections, shadows, etc. Make pictures that isolate these things. Keep distractions out of the frame. Go on a visual adventure. Morning and early evenings (a.k.a. the "golden hour") can be nice times to do this. Prepare to discuss what you've found. Shoot many images (50+), plan to show 10.