Lighting Technique: Incandescent, Flourescent and Halogen/tungsten

Incandescent

For incandescent light I have used a basis normal household bulb. The light is my bedroom light and is slightly dim so the figurine is slightly dark. The light was above the so the figurine has large shadows underneath area for example underneath its chin and ears. The household bulb and the tungsten setting on my camera is about 3200 degrees kelvin. Therefore the both neutralise each other showing is normal colour of the figurine. The fluorescent setting on my camera is about 4000 degrees kelvin so it gives a brighter feel and orange glow to Dumbo (the figurine)

Tungsten setting on my camera

Fluorescent setting on my camera

Fluorescent Lighting

Fluorescent lighting is mainly white and when using tungsten setting on my camera it make Dumbo look very look and cold and doesn't really show off the colours on the figurine. When using the fluorescent lighting with the fluorescent setting on my camera, Dumbo looks more grey but you can see the different colour on the subject more clearer.

Fluorescent with tungsten setting on my camera.

Fluorescent with fluorescent setting on my camera.

Side Lamp (Halogen/tungsten)

I used a lamp that you would use as a desk top lamp. I've noticed when doing this practical that when setting my camera to tungsten i thought it would be the same as using the house hold bulb but it doesn't. It has an orange tint to the image. With the fluorescent setting i thought it would look blue similar to the house bulb but instead its done the same as the fluorescent light with a tungsten setting. It looks very blue and cold.

Side lamp with tungsten setting on my camera

Side lamp fluorescent setting on my camera

Drop focus

Drop focus is more commonly know as selective focus. It can be achieved by dropping the front of the panel of the lens. For my drop focus I have used a lensbaby composer. As shown below.

This is an example of what a drop focus image is


















My version of drop focus using my lensbaby composer.


My aim was to everything out of focus apart from the top left courner and i managed it. i kept my camera where it was and dropped the lens down to get the area I want in focus and the rest out of focus.

Highly Reflective

For the reflective object, the aim was to take am image of something that is reflective to practise the use of lighting it whereas i thought we had to take an image of something that reflects an object. Below are some examples

Rotated so you can get the effect of the tree.

I like how the puddle of water forms around the tree and you see the detail off the tree like the thin stems co

ming of each branch. I have slightly under exposed it so you can more detail in the tree

I decided to use this reflective ball from a wind spinner (catches the wind and spins and it looks like the ball is moving up) It reflected objects into the ball.

I like using this reflective ball because it shows all the detail in object its reflecting.

I decided to capture the building because i like how youcan see the detail in the building e.g. the curtains inside the window etc... Also how you can see the clouds clearly in the sky.

The main aim for this section is to capture something that is reflective. Therefore I captured a microphone with a strip of light down the edge. I finally got the aim of what was needed to be done but the way i captured the image could of been better. There is a line in the horizon which distracts you from the microphone and the way the microphone is in the frame could of been more interesting e.g. a close up.

I retook the microphone this time i got closer to the subject to make it more interesting so you can see all the detail within the microphone.

Slightly blurred but the angle is better because the lighting stand outs more and you can see more detail.

Close Up

A close up shot fills the frame with what you photographing and makes it look bigger than it seems.

Below are some examples that I have done of close ups.

Digital Darkroom 3: White Balance

Using the white balance/temperature slider in Lightroom I made an image look different in colour.

Original

Bright and has a warm feel to the image

Cool, blue and has a eerie cold effect to the same image, just by moving the temperature you can get a different effect to the same image.

Grey

Camera/Lens Technique Telephoto and wide lens shot

I used a 18-55 mm lens. The lens is a much smaller zoom than I would of liked to of used but I was out in the park the other day and I saw this helicopter flying above me so I stood in the same position and zoomed in to my maximum and took the image then zoomed out as much as could so you can see the difference from telephoto and wide.


Telephoto you can get closer so you can see more detail

Definition of telephoto is when your camera is extended to the maximum to get a narrow closer shot.

(Researched:-http://www.mobileburn.com/definition.jsp?term=telephoto



Wide (helicopter) It looks like a spec in the clouds whereas on telephoto you can see more detail.

Definition of wide angle shot:- Camera lens to the minimum length to get a fuller view of the image.

Research:-
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wide-angle


I have taken a profile picture of a person, one we're my lens is zoomed out the maximum (telephoto) and some we're i have zoomed in the minimum making it wide angle.


Telephoto shot

I put my lens to the maximum zoom and took a portrait picture of someone

As you can see in the image it looks like any normal profile image. There's plenty of head room and she doesn't look to close to the lens.












Wide angle shot

I put my lens to the minimum zoom and got closer to the person so it was still a portrait picture.

As you can in this image the face looks to be more round and wider and much closer towards the lens. This is because i had to get closer to the person to get a profile image.

Camera/Lens Technique Slow Shutter Speed

The slower the shutter speed the more light can pass through to the sensor. Therefore if a subject moves you are more likely to get an image that's is blurry.

My image of someone playing the drums. The shutter speed is low so the lens is open for longer therefore his hands are blurred.

In photography and digital photography the shutter speed is the unit of measurement which determines how long shutter remains open as the picture is taken. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the exposure time.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/shutter_speed.html

Studio Photography: Perfume bottle

My aim was to light a coloured bottle to see which type of lighting showed off the bottle best. I used four different types of lighting, honeycomb, soft box, beauty dish and umbrella.

The reason why i used a perfume bottle is because most bottles that are photographed are perfume bottles for adverts etc and because perfume is expensive and needs to to photographed professionally with high quality style i decided to best the different lighting using a perfume bottle and see which lighting lights the bottle best.

Honeycomb without reflector

Honeycomb with reflector.

The honeycomb light is more narrow therefore the light is a lot brighter compared to the rest of the lighting. This means that there are harsh shadows from the bottle


A beauty dish bounces the light onto a reflector which reflects in back into the dish that reflect it back out making the light more soft and has a nigger surface area. Therefore the perfume bottle lit using a beauty dish are more soft than the images of the bottle when using a honeycomb.

Beauty dish with reflector.

With the beauty dish the light bounces out on to a the small in front of it and reflects in back into the big dish which then projects the light out making the lift very soft.

Beauty dish without reflector

Without the reflector one side of the bottles top is in the dark whereas using a reflector to reflect the light back onto the bottle top so it lights the other side.

With the soft box I masked part of it (covered sections of the light) and used a different perfume bottle to get a strip of light then replaced it back with my original bottle, so that I was using masked lighting to light my object. The bottle has lots of ridged shapes so I couldn't get a continuous strip like I would with a curved perfume bottle

Soft box with reflector

The soft box defuses the lighting making it softer. So this bottle is not as well lit as the others. Also because it is masked there isn't much light shone onto the bottle. I use a reflector to light the top but the other side is still quiet dark.

Soft box without reflector

The same was done but this time i didn't use a reflector to light the top so you can see how dark it looks

With the umbrella the light is faced away from the object, the light is reflected into the umbrella with reflectors ad bounced back onto the perfume bottle.

Umbrella without reflector

The bottle is bright and doesn't really highlight the shape of the perfume bottle. The top of the perfume bottle, is dark and the contrast between the dark top and bright bottle it doesn't really light the bottle in an attractive way.

Umbrella Reflector

I used a reflector to bounce the light back onto the top to highlight it. The perfume bottle looks better than the one without the reflector just because the top has more light but it still doesn't show off the perfume bottle.

I have found out what the different types of lighting does to the bottle but i feel that the bottle i used wasn't appreciate for this practical. Therefore if i do it again i will use a glass water bottle, which is bigger than the perfume bottle and as a curves that straight edges.

Below are some examples of other shots that I tried but I didn't like the way they are lite.

This image was lite using a softbox. I used fabric to mask sections of the light out so you get a long strip along the bottle. Unfortunately there is a long shadow from the bottle so if I was to retake the image I would use another softbox the other side so the shadow isn't so harsh. Also I had to look slightly down on the bottle so the long strip is continuous.

This bottle was lite using an umbrella light, because of the shape of the bottle you can see the right reflecting in two places. Also you can see the bottle reflecting on the bottom so next time I will use a light underneath to take that reflection away

This bottle was lite using a beauty dish and had the problems similar to the perfume bottle above with the reflection on the bottom and you can see the light reflected in the bottle. Also there is a shadow on the other side so next time ill try moving the light further away or try another beauty dish on the side to make it equal either side.

The last perfume bottle was lite using a honey combe with a diffuser on the front. The light was quite narrow therefore gave if it a shadow and is reflected on the bottle which look like circles.

Perfume Bottle (Seminar)

We had a seminar about lighting a perfume bottle to make it look attractive and show off its best quality. We set our camera to AV setting just for a test example of the perfume bottle and to show us what the different lighting's below are some examples of what we did that session and the different ways of lighting.


Lighting from underneath



















This is how the perfume bottle looks when lit.


There is a slight dark edge at the top because the lighting is underneath but towards the back









Behind.
















Highlights the edges round the bottle but makes it look dark.












This shot is lite from underneath and from above.

By changing the angle of your camera you can change the way the "Marc Jacobs" looks on top of the bottle top. You can make it looks white and by changing the angle you can make it look black. As seen below













Black

The way its lite makes the name look black and doesn't stand out.










White

The name on the top of the bottle looks white and stands out more.









This shot has lighting from underneath and two pieces of card either side so the light bounces off the card and on to the perfume bottle. The lighting underneath takes away the reflection of the bottle









A piece of paper is on top bouncing the light from underneath onto the bottle top so that it wasn't dark and didn't stand out as much.









This image has no reflector on top so the top of the bottle looks dark and stand out

Objects: Natural/Organic form

I decided to use this rose for my natural/organic image because roses are beautiful as this rose is starting to die.

I like how in the middle is still alive but because the outside is dead, it won't open up for you to see the beauty within.

I used a tungsten light but set my white balance to fluorescent to give it a blue, cold eerie effect in the background to symbolise death.