Continuous lighting is the opposite of flash – the lights are constantly lit instead of only when the shutter is pressed.
Continuous lighting can be paired with a slower shutter speed, giving the photographer the opportunity to create shadow and even a chiaroscuro effect. With this slower shutter speed however, (anywhere under 1/100 of a second) the photographer would need to remain aware of any movement in the image, and to temper this with use of a tripod, if necessary. Therefore, a differentiation between the two will give different results.
There are different types of continuous lighting however, which I will show examples of here:
This image was taken with one key light to the right of the objects. There is no backlight here.
A Key light is the primary source of light in your images. The colour, strength and shape of your key light will affect the entire composition.
Here is an example of when we used colour screens to cover the key light and therefore create a more colourful image.This image, however, shows a good example of back lighting. This can be seen in the shadows – they allude to being lit from behind.
Backlighting involves having the main light source for a photograph behind the primary subject – this can create some interesting shadows and also eliminate ambiguity if the photographer wishes to.
(I didn’t use a reflector during my studio shoot so here is a stock image) This image is a good example of the use of light reflecting. As you can see, the subject is holding a white surface which will reflect the sky’s light on to her face)
Reflected lighting is a clever way of using the light in your environment to your own advantage and manipulate it to create different effects. In the above example, it is clear that by adding the reflection, the image will have far more depth and clarity, but will still have the same exterior background.
Flash lighting involves the use of a bulb that flashes when the shutter is pressed. This creates a high key light source and eliminates shadows. It is also mostly paired with a fairly high shutter speed.
Still life can either be art or photography and it depicts inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural or man-made. They are arranged in a specific way and always tend to portray some sort of message or idea.
Still-life photography’s origins reside in the early 20th century.
Still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe.
Vanitas
Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, 1628. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A Vanitas is a piece that portrays a meaning. It often suggests the idea of ‘now’- how pointless and inefficient pleasure is and the certitude of death. It creates a contrast between wealth and satisfaction with death and the idea of impermanence.
The term originally comes from the opening lines of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible: ‘Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Vanitas are linked with memento mori still lifes (memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’) which portray the shortness of life and how fragile it is. The idea of death is commonly symbolised with the use of skulls, burning/ extinguished candles and other inanimate objects. They also include other objects such as flowers, books, alcohol and other things that are seen as pleasure. These portray how worthless the ideology of pleasure is, as it always comes to an end and never supplies us with anything worthwhile.
Still Life Artists
Paulette Tavormina
This photographer was inspired by the work of 17th century painters such as Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian. Paulette Tavormina is a American photographer who creates still life pieces using many symbols of pleasure as well as the certainty of life, including things such as books and jewellery as well as extinguished candles. She uses dark backgrounds and bright lights to cause them to look as though they are surrounded in darkness while still bringing out the details of the objects.
Mat Collishaw
This photograph seemingly looks like a desert photographed in a dark room. however, this photo is from a series called ‘Last Meal on Death Row’. Despite looking like intricately arranged foods photographed in a Still Life style, the true meaning portrays something much darker. The contrast between the luxurious meal and sinister backstory, causes this to be a very interesting still life piece. The symbolism of pleasure is engulfed in the disturbing fact that this is the last meal of an inmate about to be executed. Through the use of chiaroscuro (the contrast between the dark background and light colour of the ice cream enlightened by a dull spotlight), Mat Collishaw caused the image to look quite dramatic and eerie.
Commonly used Metaphors and Symbols in Still Life
– Flowers: innocence as well as impermanence/ life and growth.
– Skulls: the certainty of death- commonly used to contrast with the other pleasures represented.
– Candles (mostly extinguished): the passing of time/ everything coming to an end.
– Books and Musical Instruments: warn of the futility of worldly pursuits (very expensive things at the time).
– Glass: life of luxury (very expensive at the time).
– Wine Glass: almost empty glass symbolises the brittleness of life.
Aperture can be defined as the opening in a lens through which light passes to enter the camera. in some other ways it can be describes as an iris as it work similarly like a human eye, where it can shrink or expand controlling the size or the pupil. in this example the pupil of the lens is named aperture.
When you control the size of aperture, you allow more or less light enter the camera sensor.
aperture can give a blurred background, which is usually used in portrait photography. This is because aperture has an effect on depth of field as it can add dimension to your photos by controlling depth of field.
For example, here is an image with a shallow depth of field:
Aperture can also control how clear the background is,(opposite). this means more objects in the first plan and background would be in focus. this is often used in landscape photography where photographers would like to make everything in focus.
aperture also effects the exposure of an image, the lower the aperture the lighter the image and the higher the aperture the darker the image.
As aperture is controlled through the lens, the wider the lens, the smaller the aperture meaning more light and less in focus elements. another way to remember this is: a large aperture results in a large amount of both foreground and background blur and a small aperture results in a small amount of background blur
Depth of Field is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects giving a focused image .In relation to depth of field the bigger the aperture, meaning the smaller the opening in the lens, the greater Depth of field , so more items are in focus.
Aperture can also be expressed as a number known as “f-number” or “f-stop”, with the letter “f” appearing before the number, such as f/6. This can be found on the top right corner of the cameras screen, like so:
Aperture affects in photography:
The brightness / exposure of your photos and depth of field, as discussed so far
Sharpness loss due to diffraction
Sharpness loss due to lens quality
Starburst effects on bright lights
Visibility of camera sensor dust specks
The quality of background highlights
Focus shift on some lenses
Ability to focus in low light (under some conditions)
Controlling the amount of light from the flash
I have experimented with different types of aperture , resulting in some images being brighter then others. This is because as the aperture, the lens opening is wider it lets more light in causing the pictures to become overly exposed, whereas in other photographs I have used already set up camera, where the IOS, Aperture and Shutter Speed were set up in a way that was relevant to the place and circumstances
These are the settings of the set up camera, where IOS, aperture and shutter speed can be seen on the top row.
When taking photographs of the objects we had a set up white background and another coloured paper underneath the objects.
Aperture means to open the lens of the camera to let more light into the lens. Aperture is expressed in numbers, the average camera aperture goes from f/1.4 to f/22. The bigger the number the smaller the hole in the lens letting in less light. The smaller the number the larger the hole in the lens letting in more light.
How Aperture effects Exposure
As aperture controls the the amount of light that reaches the camera sensor therefore effecting the exposure of an photo. meaning that a wide aperture can lead to over exposure as there is too much light and a high aperture can lead to under exposure as there is too little light.
How Aperture effects Depth of Field
Depth of field is directly effected by Aperture the higher the aperture, for example f/22 the more background that’s in focus. For wider apertures it lets in more light meaning less of the background is in focus.
Shutter speed is the speed at which the shutter of the camera closes. The size of the shutter speed effects how the image turns out. On a faster shutter speed, the image will be sharper and more clear whereas on a slow shutter speed, the picture will be more blurry.
For example, a slow shutter speed of 1/2 means the camera is letting light into the lens for half a second, whereas a fast shutter speed of 1/2000 means the shutter is open for one-two-thousandths of a second.
PHOTOSHOOT
For my photoshoot, I aimed to create as much movement as possible to show off the effects of a slow shutter speed. We started off by throwing balls into the air and capturing their fall before trying to create movement with our bodies. To do this we tried multiple actions including spinning, jumping, punching, etc.
BEST SHOTS
EDITING BEST SHOT
To start off, I knew I wanted to change the brightness as they pictures were way too bright, then I focused on just making the overall picture better. After that, I used the dodge and burn tool on photoshop to really define the areas that I wanted to pop out more.
Here are the adjustments I made:
THE FINAL EDIT
JOHN BALDESSARI RESEARCH
John Baldessari was initially an artist but began to incorporate photography in his canvas in the mid-1960s. He was born June 17, 1931 in California and attended Sweetwater High School and San Diego State College where he received his Master of Arts in Painting. He then went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1956, he started a painting class at San Diego State College, and he continued to teach along with creating his own works of art for the rest of his career. In 1970, he began working in printmaking, film, video, sculpture, and photography before moving into photomontage in 1980.
In 1970, John Baldessari and five friends burnt all of the paintings he had created in the time between 1953 to 1966 as a part of a new project he call The Cremation Project. He baked the ashes of the painting into cookies and placed in an urn. Throughout this process, Baldessari created connections between artistic practice and the human life cycle.
Aperture is how much light is being let into the camera, the larger the f/ number is the less light the camera is letting in , meaning you are able to focus more things in the image. If the aperture is a smaller number you will be able to focus on a smaller subject Aperture is one of the three pillars of photography the other 2 being shutter speed and ISO. It allows more or less light into the camera sensor, it adds dimension to photos by controlling the depth of field giving you a blurred background with a shallow focus effect. Aperture also alters the exposure of the photo by changing the brightness of the photo.
Depth of field
Depth of field is how much your image focuses s the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image captured with a camera.
Shutter speed is the speed at which the cameras shutter closes at, you can either get a fast or slow shutter speed, a fast shutter speed causes a shorter exposure-the amount of light taken in through the camera, a slow shutter speed gives a longer exposure.
Photography all started in 1822 when it was invented but it was only in 1826 whenJoseph Nicéphore Niépce took the first photo even though it got lost it still holds the title for the oldest photo.
first ever photo taken.
Photography is the art of light and how the use of light can form an image you are able to create it with recording light, digitally with a sensor or chemically (on film which gets chemically developed).
light photography
film camera and film canisters
Photography is highly mobile as you can take a photo at any time and at any place,
They can move over in time and have different meanings and concepts behind each photo.
With photography it is unpredictable, and you will never know the outcome of a photo until you take it, each photo tells a different story, and each story is also different as each person has a different perception of the image. In photography no two photos are the same.
no two photos are the same
A photo is instantly there, it can be difficult to understand causing it to be mysterious. You are able to give a photo a story by accompanying it with other photos or describing the photo whilst photographers may give background information about the photo, they are still giving the audience the creative freedom on how they view the photograph, there for you as the audience are able to take charge of the photograph.
Every photo capture someone’s attention for a reason because they relate to it, find it mysterious, are intrigued by it or you simply just like it. You look at an image more than once and each time you look at it more in depth and each time you pick up on the smaller details of the photograph. What a photo captures has the capability to mean something else as the meanings behind photos can be complicated. Photography is used to take advantage of the gift the world has given us; you are able to learn photography and the concepts behind it quickly but it’s mastering the art of photography may take up to a lifetime to learn.
Each photo is taken through the eyes of the photographer there for you see their concept of the world or topic they are taking photographs of, there for some people may find lightning destructive and powerful but other may find it majestical so those photographers may have two very different looking photos due to their opinion on the subject.
Photography can be seen as a form as art due to how you are able to manipulate photos into how the photographer wants the audience to view them. The purpose of photography is to communicate and document moments in time.
This photo uses David Campany’s quote “photographs confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel.” as you as the consumer of the photograph can’t understand why someone would photograph someone jumping off a building but at the same time its fascinating as to why is the man jumping, the photo is able to show a lot of emotion as to how the person might interpret the photo it also conceals how the photo was made and why the photo was made.
you can only find out how and why the image was made if you research it as the photo doesn’t tell the story behind it, the photo it’s self tells a different story.
Photography began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.
This is the first photograph made. It shows a view from a window.
The development of cameras:
At first, photography was either used as an aid in the work of an painter or followed the same principles the painters followed. The first publicly recognized portraits were usually portraits of one person, or family portraits. Finally, after decades of refinements and improvements, the mass use of cameras began in earnest with Eastman’s Kodak’s simple-but-relatively-reliable cameras. Kodak’s camera went on to the market in 1888 with the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest”.
In 1900 the Kodak Brownie was introduced, becoming the first commercial camera in the market available for middle-class buyers. The camera only took black and white shots, but still was very popular due to its efficiency and ease of use.
The first coloured photograph.
Coloured photography was explored throughout the 19th century, but it wasn’t till the 20th century when it became more commercially viable.
Photography became a part of day-to-day life and an art movement. One of the people behind photography as art was Alfred Stieglitz, an American photographer and a promoter of modern art. Stieglitz said that photographers are artists, the first photography art movement whose primary task was to show that photography was not only about the subject of the picture but also the manipulation by the photographer that led to the subject being portrayed.
How do you define photography?
The word Photography literally means ‘drawing with light’, which derives from the Greek photo, meaning light and graph, meaning to draw. Photography is the process of recording an image a photograph on light sensitive film or, in the case of digital photography, via a digital electronic or magnetic memory.
Whats the purpose of photography?
Essentially, the purpose of photography is to communicate and document moments in time. When you take a photograph and share it with others, you’re showing a moment that was frozen through a picture. This moment can tell someone many things, from the environment to what people are doing.
Why is photography important today?
Photography is important because we can document something and have it forever. Photography lets us see something we may never have noticed otherwise. Photography is a way to express your ideas for others to see.
This photograph is important to the readers intention as it leaves them confused/ questioning whether Yves Klein (the photographer and person ‘leaping in the picture) actually jumped. he described it as jumping into a void, to give the mysterious affect on his audience and keep them engaged and curious. The background story of this picture is actually that Yves had his friends to hold a tarpaulin to catch him as he fell, the other the surrounding scene (without the tarp)–were then printed together to create a seamless “documentary” photograph. To complete the illusion that he was capable of flight, Klein distributed a fake broadsheet at Parisian newsstands commemorating the event.
Yves main aim/ reason to create this photograph was to draw as many peoples attention to it so his work would be more advertised and recognised.
focus point in photography are zones on the camera sensor that are sensitive to changes in the imagine for example if you take a picture of a flower in a field the field will be blurry whilst the flower will be in focus, so the flower is the focus point.
what’s the point for focus point they help draw the eye to the interesting or point of the imagine and helps make the imagine “pop” choosing the right focus point is crucial in order to make the photo make sense you main want a different colour or light to be the focus point not a field or a dull wall.
