Thursday, 12 November 2009

Different Light Sources - Bottle

This image was taken in the darkroom under the red light.


This was taken in a object tent, with the light from the window coming from the left. This lighting is quite flat since it's diffused through the side of the tent.


This image is also taken in the object cube, although this time the light from the window was coming from behind the bottle. This lighting doesnt work on the glass so well because of the two big highlights in the bottle and it doesnt really define any shape.

This image was taken on a window ledge, so using just natural light. We decided to use a bottle with frosted glass for this image. I think the lighting is quite nice, but the background is quite destracting. 

This image is the same as above, although using the clear glass bottle to see the effect window lighting has on this.

This image was taken using the light from the mac screens, i don't think this is very effective because there was interferring light from the window, if we had blacked out the room it wouldve worked better.

This image is the same lighting as above, we used the clear glass bottle because the lighting is perhaps more noticeable on this.

These images were taken in the darkroom, in the pitch black. We used a tripod with a slow shutter speed and a mini torch to make light trails around and behind the object. I think this is a really interesting effect that i will probably look into doing more of at somepoint in the future. I think the first and second images are most effective.

Monday, 9 November 2009

Fruit - Lighting Techniques

For part of the systems and processes brief we have to take pictures of a fruit using different lighting techniques, i decided i wanted to make it a little more interesting rather than just pictures of fruit, so.. inspired by my Little Apple Dolls i used an apple and stuck pins in it, i was originally going to use nails but only had pins at the time, but they work just as well. I'm going to redo this idea for the objects brief and incorporate it into a set, which helps since i've now tried different lighting so i know which works best.



High Key

Low Key


45°/45°

 Backlight

Top Light






This is another version of the Backlit image which i have edited in Photoshop, i decided to add a scratch texture (which you can find here) to add atmosphere. I think this image has a sort of Tim Burton feel!

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Fortnightly Picture Project - #1 Reflection

I decided i wanted to take a fancy looking mirror and put it somewhere completely out of context, after drawing up a few sketches i thought i'd shoot some with someone holding the mirror, to add to the sense of surrealism - it also works as a sort of mask or disguise.. and even camouflages the person. I was originally going to shoot this with a massive contrast between the reflection and the background - say stood on one side of a street that looks really posh reflecting the otherside of a street that looks rundown (there are alot of streets in Blackburn that look like this! haha) but i decided to shoot in the woods to add more of a camouflage effect rather than making it more conceptual and complicated. Here are some sketches i made when drafting ideas:


 

And here are the images i took:

This is the image i chose to use as my final image, i had a really hard time choosing between the four images but chose this since its the closest to what i had in mind.







Sunday, 1 November 2009

Cold, Warm and Grey Balanced - Adobe Lightroom

Open your chosen photo in develop (by selecting it and then clicking on the develop tab) which should bring up a screen that looks like this:
 

This is the original image straight from the camera. I think that this image is a little warm, so first i will demonstrate how to 'grey balance' a photo in Lightroom.

Select the white balance selector tool (quick key - W), if you hover this around the image you will see a box come up that says 'pick a target neutral', you will also see the white balance of the preview image change (under the navigator)



I have highlighted the preview image and where the white balance selector tool is situated in red. I decided to use a colour sample from the background, i feel these are the most neutral colours and if you look at the preview image to the left you can see the white balance in the image looks less warm.


After using the white balance selector tool i adjusted the sliders slightly and now i have my 'grey balanced' or colour corrected version of the image.


Now that i have a corrected version of the image it should make it easier to make a cold and warm image using the temperature slider.


By dragging the temperature slider slightly to the left (to the blue side) you end up with a colder image.


 
And by dragging the slider slightly to the right you should end up with a warmer image.



Here are the images:


Original







 
 Color corrected/Grey Balanced


Cold


Warm