In photography there are many type of lighting techniques that make your pictures stand out or add detail to them. These techniques are often use to highlight areas of your photograph for a greater effect on the outcome, but can also be used in multiple other ways too.

Flat light

flat light is when you have your light source at the front of your subject, making your subject well lit without any shadows showing.

This isn’t a technique highly sort after since showing shadows is important to bring your subject to life, however, it is good for hiding textures and imperfections in an image.

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Broad light

With broad light, the face of your subject is at an angle with the most well-lit side of the face is closest to the camera and the shadow on the back side of the face. This type of light can make a face look fuller so it’s ideal for those with very narrow faces.

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Short light

Short light is the opposite of broad light in the fact that the face is at an angle and the shadow falls on the side of the face closest to the camera. This type of light works well to a thinner a face.

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Split light

Split lighting is another type of side lighting, you can easily recognize split lighting in an image by half of the subject being lit and the other half in the shadows.

With a face specifically, you’ll see the shadow line straight down the middle of the forehead, nose, and chin.

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Backlight

Backlight is the light behind your subject. This is commonly seen in photos from golden hour, when the sun is low in the horizon and starting to set. This can be done by purposely having a light in the background or using natural lighting.

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Still Life describes works of art that depict inanimate objects often fruit and glass. The word still life is derived from the Dutch word ‘stilleven’ meaning still and motionless. It was used to describe the painting style popular in the 17th century – objects in different compositions and lights. Gradually the paintings got more complex through their compositions and and the objects within them often had allegorical meanings.

Still Life’s subjects were not free of societal influence however, when in the 17th century it became some what of a trend for Northern European painters to paint half peeled citrus fruits to display their abilities. That also meant there were popular themes for still life’s such as the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. These were known as vanitas. The term Vanitas is originally coined from the Bible, ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.’, telling us that everything we do is vanity, empty and short lived.

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‘Memento Mori’ is a Latin phrase directly translating to ‘remember death’. Memento Mori is closely linked with vanitas and was the idea of remembering life and that we will all eventually die. In still life this was connotated into paintings of skulls and extinguished candles, skulls are a very literal depiction of death, whilst candles are used to symbolise life eventually burning out. However vanitas depict many other objects such as wine and exquisite foods to further remind the viewer that pleasures are short lived and worthless. Purses, jewellery, and gold objects were used to display power and wealth. Sometimes even eternal life as shown by sprigs of ivy or other evergreens.

Still Life photography is used to depict inanimate objects similar to still life painting but in a different medium.

Matt Collishaw’s Last meal on death row series parallels the 17th century subjects and the dark and gloomy styles of painting but in a less metaphorical sense. The food implying the slow decay and certainty of death is switched to someone’s very last meal before being put to death.

Richard Kuiper’s photo depicts the same objects of symbolism used in typical vanitas paintings but adds a whole new modern context. The objects Photographed are all made out of plastic even the smoke from the candle. The excessive use of plastic highlights how much of it is in our daily lives and that in good old ‘memento mori’ fashion we will die because of it.

Different types of Lighting

–Natural Light: this is light from outdoors- the sunlight will determine how your photos will be lit up as it isn’t something you can control.

–Artificial Light: this is light from things that use electricity or halogen gas to glow. Light rooms are typically used in photograph as the lamps are easy to control.

–Continuous Lighting: this is light that is constantly on, such as a torch. The thing you are photographing is always illuminated by the light. Natural light is continuous however studio light can also be set up as continuous.

-Strobe Lighting: this is light that creates a very short burst of light just as the photo is taken, illuminating the thing you’re photographing for a very short time. Also known as monolights, strobes have a quick recycle time and a full power output of anywhere from 100 to 1,000 watts. The only natural light that is strobe lighting is lightening, as it is a quick flash in the sky. Camera flashes are strobe lighting.

Examples of different Lighting:

This picture was taken using natural lighting. The sun wasn’t really warm that day, causing the colours to appear as quite cool. This is also an example of continuous lighting as the shell was constantly illuminated by the sunlight.

This picture was taken using artificial lighting in the studio. I placed plastic coloured sheets in front of the light to cause the light to illuminate the objects in different colours. This is also an example of continuous lighting.

Follow the 10 Step Process and create multiple blog posts for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :

The Lightroom Classic software allows you to import your images and then select and filter them to narrow down your selection.

You can create a selection of photos that you know you like instead of a bunch of random photos, this will save time.

After importing my images, I learned how to flag them. This is a quick way of choosing photos that you’d like to keep or to reject the photos that you know you won’t want. To pick the flag you click on the photo, and then press the ‘p’ key. A white flag symbol will appear in the top left corner. To reject the photo you click on the photo, and then press the ‘x’ key. A black flag symbol will appear in the top left corner and the photo will dull.

I then learned how to rate and colour label the photos. You can rate them/5 and the colour labels can be chosen from a range of different colours. However I went with green, yellow, and red like traffic lights. Here is what the colours correspond to:

These selection methods allow me to rank my images and this way I can easily see which ones to use.

You can use the filter to hide your rejected photos and focus on the flagged photos that you like. By narrowing down the amount of photos you have, it is easier and quicker to edit less photos.

Here are some results from the photo-games we did in class:

Photography, by definition, is an art form that involves the capturing of light by chemical or digital means, through light-sensitive materials or image sensing technology respectively. First established during the earlier half of the 18th Century, the first commercialized ‘camera obscura’ invented by French artist Louis Daguerre and Inventor William Talbot, creating what they called ‘daguerreotypes’ and ‘calotypes’ – precursors to what modern photography is today.

However, photography also has its own individual definition to each viewer and artist, thanks to its fast-evolving history and ever-expanding versatility. In my opinion, I believe photography works as a physical time capsule, capturing a moment or memory in as clear a medium as possible – outlasting the deterioration of memories and the transience of life – and its power in the form of relating to each and every viewer uniquely, through a personal experience with a similar scene or colour palette, or a great feat of their own reminded by an intense, breath-taking piece. It functioned better than other forms of artwork in the sense that it captures the unforgiving reality of its subjects and their own unique imperfections, such as perhaps dull scenery or blemishes and marks that might be missed in painted portraits. Although, in today’s modern world, thanks to advances in technology, it’s a lot easier to manipulate photographs into something more idealistic, and to edit undesirable areas of images out.

Editing within photography became more and more common as the years progressed, the first processes involving painting over undesired sections of the image, later including something known as the ‘wet collodion’ process, followed by gelatin-silver (dry) process. One of the most iconic instances of early editing took place during the 1960s, when Yves Klein created his “Leap into the Void” works, where he would jump off of a building onto a tarpaulin held by his artist friends, and create composite photographs using the same scenery without his friends below, creating the illusion that he was able to undertake “unaided lunar travel”. This meant that photography was able to evolve more as an art form to depict unbelievable settings and acts, or, as it is often used today, to make a more appealing final product.

“Photographs confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel. They are unpredictable communicators”. – David Campany

This quote is direct from photographer David Campany himself, and his opinion on the art form of photography. His belief is that equipment and skill are irrelevant when taking photographs, all that is needed is a camera – something easily accessible in today’s world, even just from a phone – and a pair of eyes that can interpret images. Photography is a universal skill that allows anyone to administer their own message into a world that isn’t theirs, but a piece of work that is their own.

Evaluation:

I chose these to be my final images because I liked the arrangement of the objects and the range of colours that I used.

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