7: Key and Fill Lighting

Studio set up 1

For my first studio set up I chose to use four studio lights; two lights at the back to be the fill lights and two key lights on either side in front of the subject. The back studio lights had reflector umbrellas and the front studio lights had soft umbrellas on.  

Using 100 ISO and 1/125 shutter speed, I used a light meter and measured that I would need F/20 aperture.   

The fill light is very easily shown in these photographs as the background is pure white with no hint of shadow or grey. 

Another reason why there is no shadow from the sitter is  because they are stood about 2-3 meters from the white backdrop.  

I like how the background is pure white, it gives the images more clarity and  more emphasis on the subject rather  than the background.

Studio set up 2

This time I only used two studio lights and chose to use soft boxes rather than umbrellas. I wanted to see what difference this type of lighting technique would make to the images I took on the other shoot.  

I still used 100 ISO and 1/125 shutter speed. I measure the aperture using a light meter. I chose to set the flash to 6 on the key light and that gave me an aperture of F/16 on the mid-tones of the sitters face.

With my fill light I chose to set the light level to 5. I used the light meter again and got a reading of F/11. There is a half a stop difference between the two apertures and because of this I rounded the aperture up to F/20.

(Sorry Charlotte)

These are two of the images I produced using this lighting technique. 

As the name implies (soft box) it produces a very soft lighting effect on the subject. The face isn't overwhelmed with light and you can clearly see the contours of the subjects face. 

But what I don't like is the dirty grey background. There may not be any shadow which I am happy about, but I would have preferred the white backdrop to appear white on the photographs. To get that effect I guess that I would have to use the other two studio lights with the reflecting umbrella like in my first studio set up. 

6: Gallery Visit

The White Cloth Gallery and The Leeds Gallery 

These are two art and photography galleries that are situated in Leeds. 

Along with the rest of photography course, on Thursday the 31st of October I visited these two galleries.

We firstly visited the Leeds Gallery where they were hosting an exhibition called YPONE. This exhibition displays photographs from a range of different Yorkshire photographers. All the work is produced in Yorkshire and are of Yorkshire.
It exhibited a large selection of different photographers from a range of photographers.
In total there are 15 photographers.
Andrew Goodall
Brian Larkman
Chris Hopkins
Chris North
Chris Oaten
Daniel Pape
David Speight
Graham Cook
Ian Beesley
Jerry Hardman-Jones
Joe Stenson
Karl Wilson
Robert Norbury
Sharon Harvey
Steven Cox

These are just a few of the photographs from the exhibition that I really admired.

 Daniel Pape - Ready to Go

Sharon Harvey - Pine 

Joe Stetson - Mansion Stairs

And this last piece by Brian Larkman entitled Repeater Station Paint Floor. We also got the pleasure in meeting Brian as he had come to rehang his work.  All of Brians work that is displayed in the gallery are images taken in old disused buildings. Brian talked about how in the photographs he takes he looks for uniformity and structures, for example a window frame. The work he produces is also printed out on a huge scale with immense amount of detail. Brian spoke about how he able to produce images in this way and said that he used a mosaic technique. He took pictures of each section and then using a computer software his stitched all the images into one to produce a large detailed image.

   

After visiting The Leeds Gallery we then went to The White Cloth photography gallery. At the white cloth they had an exhibition of work by Tom Stoddart called Perspectives.

The work exhibited are just some of the many impacting photographs that this photojournalist has produced. 

Stoddard has been on the forefront of many of the worlds most historical moment, such as 911, the fall of the Berlin wall and the HIV pandemic in Africa. 

His work as well as being documentary also supplies a huge amount of emotion. As well as the images he produces tell a story they also make you the viewer feel empathetic towards his subject.

911

The fall of the Berlin wall

    

5: Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly or Paramount is a type of lighting that first became popular in the 1930's in hollywood films. 

This lighting style was and still is used to define the cheekbones and elongate the face. This type of lighting works particularly well with female subjects, but not as much with male subjects as it can make the face too narrow and thin. 

This type of lighting can easily be distinguished by the butterfly like shadow that falls below the nose. 

This time I chose to use a black background. 

Using a canon 7D DSLR, 18-135mm lens, 100 ISO and 1/125 shutter speed I tried to recreate the butterfly lighting technique myself. I used a light meter to determine the f stop on each exposure.   

These two images were produced using a honeycomb lighting grid which fitted to the studio light. This grid narrows the beam of light but softens the edges to produce a softly litten photograph.   

Aperture f/5.6

The rest of these photographs were taken using a different studio light technique but still producing the butterfly portrait.
Instead of the studio light being shon directly towards the subject, actually the light flashed the light backwards and away from the model into a reflective umbrella which bounces the light back towards the subject.
With this lighting technique a greater volume of light onto and around the subject, which means that the background is also more illuminated.
    

Aperture F/8

Aperture F/8

For this last image I also used a light reflector to bounce the light into some of the shaded areas of the face.

Aperture F/8

The studio set up. 

4: One Day Brief

What a Gas

Moira dropped the unopened letter from the Gas Board into the bin.
She knelt, weary knees aching, to turn up the oven's temperature dial as she peeked inside. “Filthy.” she wiped away crumbs and debris.
House unkempt? Never.
Sorted now, she thought. Her sigh masked the hiss of the escaping fumes

Flash Fiction is a complete story in 1000 words or less. It is a story that  has been whitled down to its essence whilst remaining a complete story, with plot, narrative, characters, conflict, and resolution.

My one day brief was to produce four photographs using a DSLR camera that flow through the story that I was given. I was given the story "What a Gas" (Top of the page).

I chose to use a canon 7D and a 50mm lens on this project because I wanted to use depth of field in my images. The depth of field can be easily seen in my first two images. 

Set in my own kitchen I chose to produces images that first illustrate how Moira threw the letter away and peeked into the oven, then I produced abstract photographs which I wanted to represent the gas escaping from the faulty oven and entering the lungs of Moira.  

3: Experimenting in the studio

Personally I am more of an out-and-about photographer so studio portraiture work is a little alien to me, but neither the less enjoyable. 

Using a canon 7D DSLR plus different lighting equipment I produced these portraits.

Experimenting with different levels of light, light reflectors and different apertures and shutter speeds I have tried to get to grips with all the elements of this type of photography.    

Using a 50mm lens I used f2.5 aperture and 125 shutter speed to produce depth of field on this image. 

2: Featherstone Castle

From the 30th of September to the 2nd of October I stayed in Featherstone Castle which is in Haltwhistle,  Northumberland. 

Over the three days in which I stayed there I undertook different photography tasks, these included; working with a digital SLR to produce ghost like images, photographing the castle itself and its surrounding, and also producing images of a camera obscura. 

I also worked an SLR film camera in which I photographed both the surrounding and the castle. 

I very much enjoyed the three days that I spent in Featherstone castle, and I also learnt about the history and beginnings of photography. The camera obscura task really opened my eyes to how photography has progressed from when it was first discovered. 

A camera obscura in latin means dark room. In a dark room with a a small holes worth of light from the window produces an inverted image of what ever may be visible outside. This is then projected onto the walls and the objects in the room. 

If you look closely you'll see me stood on the wall.

Experimenting with slow shutter speeds and different light setting I also produced ghost like images which captured movement of a person. 

These kind of images have been produced since the Victorian era. They began as a hobby for photographers, but they were soon picked up by mediums and fakes to try and scam the gullible into making them believe that their dead relives had returned as ghosts.      

These are just a few images that I took at and around the castle.

1: Who am I?

 Hello there. My name is Isabelle (or Izzy if that's easier) and I am a first year student studying Photography at Leeds College of Art.
  

Interested in pretty much anything photography or arts related, whether that may be abstract, conceptual or traditional I'm all for it. 

As well as loving the arts I also love music, and especially the music of the 60's 70's and 80's. 

I enjoy collecting records, and currently I am trying to collect all the LP's by David Bowie. At the moment I only have ten (Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs, Hunky Dory, Lets dance, Pin Ups, Heroes, Scary Monsters, Lodger and David Live), it's slowly growing.    

Anything old interests me. Old vinyl players, clothes, jewellery, antiques, the past fascinates me.