A core element of a successful photograph is effective lighting and lighting used correctly. Although it can sometimes be digitally manipulated it is often more organic if it done correctly in the studio first time. Two factors that contribute to effective lighting are the direction it is coming from and the quality of the light.

Direction of light

Firstly, direction of light. Direction is shown by shadows in a photograph and without them images can come across one dimensional and shallow (Child, 2008). So what this means is that without lighting depth is really difficult to achieve, it may be useful to some  photographs to have little to know depth however most photos, especially portraiture depth is really important because the photographer wants to immerse the viewer into the scene.

© Natasha Djurdjevic

© Irving Penn 

The photo on the left by Irving Penn demonstrates a lot of depth due to the direction that the light is coming from, the left side of his face appears to have been sucked into the background because we see no significant detail on this side of his face, in contrast the right side of his face is highly detailed and is very pronounced in the foreground because of the light on this side of his face. On the other hand the Natasha Djurdjevic has used a light right in front of the models face so that there is limited depth to the image.

Quality of light

Secondly, quality of light, which refers to the harshness and hence the type of lighting used by a photographer and how that impact an image. Tarrant (2001, p.101) argues that the dominant light impacts how we perceive a subject or setting, for example the use of a tungsten light gives a scene a sense of warmth and homeliness, whereas if a white light is used, photographs can come across as more commercial or staged.

© Joel Meyerowitz

This photo by Joel Meyerowitz is taken in Times Square and is a great example of how the quality and harshness of light really matters to the mood of the scene. This photo has a dominant yellow hue coming from washed out artificial lights of Times Square.

My project

I aim to apply this to my own work by thinking carefully on how I can use the direction of light to create depth and make sure that my subject is always the main focal point. I will use quality of light to make sure that my photograph is lit well using natural lighting, because I doubt I will be using studio lighting in my project.

Bibliography

CHILD, J., 2008. Essential skills: Studio Photography. 4th ed.

TARRANT, J., 2001. The Practical Guide to Photographic Lighting 

© Marko Saviane

This image by Mirko Saviane is a great example of what I’d like to do with my image series as it is really well framed and is taken at the decisive moment because any earlier and the man would’ve been in the shade and any later he would’ve been out of frame. The aspect ratio is also something that really intrigues me because it’s not conventional to a camera and it’s not a 1:1 ratio, the photo is cropped to almost a  3:2 ratio which works well to use the entire frame to his advantage and have no wastage left over.

Theme and Name

The idea I am leaning towards at this early stage is based around the theme of journey and progress, I have a very specific set of shots that I am working towards but I also don’t want to tunnel vision on an idea this early, however I am confident I can make these shots work and convey a meaningful message. The basic premise is a man or woman walking across frame against six different backdrops and show a change in time across the six images this could perhaps be a change in time of day or time of year or an extreme change in location. I want the framing to stay consistent across the six photos but the subject to be moving from left to right in the photo series. As for a working title on these images I was thinking ‘An Ambient Amble’.

Genre

The genre will therefore be a mixture of landscape, portraiture and street photography. My main concern at this point is a lack of technical flair that might go into making the images, as it won’t be difficult to set up a tripod and move it to different locations and have someone walk across frame each time.  My technical skills will need to be shown in my choice of lenses, choice of outfit and choice of location and how they contribute to the message that I want to put across with my six images.

Inspiration

I do have a clear inspiration for my images and this is a short film made by Casey Neistat called ‘Make it count’ . This movie was made as a sponsorship for Nike in which Neistat travels the world on the budget that he is given by Nike and explores different countries and their culture. I am particularly inspired by a set of recurring shots that he uses throughout the movie in which he runs across frame and as he does he is transported to different exotic locations. Here are just a few examples:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Obviously, I do not have the budget to travel to locations of this exuberence but I do think I can recreate the style of the photos. What will set my images apart from Neistat’s is that my set will have more thought going into the fashion choices, my subject will walk across frame and not run and the framing will be tighter (smaller field of view) to accommodate for a slower subject.

In analysis of Neistat’s work, there is a great use of colour particularly in the first image which uses bright colours to reflect the culture of the location that he is in. depth of field is also something that is important across all six of these images because he uses a lens with a high f number in order to make sure the entire background is in focus but his shape is not compromised at the same time. I think these photos may have been taken on a wide angle lens because he manages to get a lot into the frame. I think the main message behind these shots in context with the movie itself is that you should always be pushing yourself forward and in general have a more positive mindset. My photos however may have a darker motif highlighted by the more laborious walking, the subject maybe someone who is just getting by rather than pushing themselves, however like I said at the start I don’t want to limit my self to one specific message this early on.

Another one of my more loose inspirations is The Beatles’ 1969 album cover of ‘Abbey Road’. An iconic photo that has been parodied more times than I can count. The photographer of the image is Iain Macmillan. According to the Beatles bible website “Macmillan used a Hasselblad camera with a 50mm wide-angle lens, aperture f22, at 1/500 seconds”. A 50mm lens is just larger than the human eye’s field of view, which is around 35mm, which does give the image a grounded aesthetic whilst still managing to get all four band members comfortably in frame, this is something that I would like to emulate with my photo set.

In analysis, the framing is perfect, however in my images I may want to use an aspect ratio more comparable to a 16:9 like Neistat’s, rather than 1:1 that Macmillan was limited to with this album cover. There are strong structural lines in this image from the zebra crossing in the foreground to the curb either side of the road and also the tree line at the top of the image. These lines lead your eye through the photo until the road disappears, this is also due to Macmillan’s use of an f22 which gives a deeper depth of field meaning more is in focus, something which I want in my photos. The shutter speed of this image is also useful information in the lead up to me taking my own photos because the Beatles are walking which is what my model will be doing, 1/500 seconds is a relatively fast shutter speed which results in no motion blur when the subject is walking.

Intentions

My intentions for the project at this stage is to plan ahead but not get too ahead of myself. The Abbey road album cover has given me a lot of technical insight on what camera equipment I will need to pull of my photos, therefore I will need: A tripod, A 50mm lens on a camera set at a f22 aperture and 1/500 shutter speed. At the moment I want to focus on location scouting, which will be an essential backbone to my six images and will be an element that will hold a lot of meaning for the images. Therefore I have shot at the following locations as a guide for the future:

8 Initial images

These 8 initial images seem very plain on their own, however I think this is because of a lack of an interest/subject. I wanted my initial photos to be like this though because I needed to first find interesting locations and backdrops, so that when I come round to shooting with a model I am not wasting time pandering on finding locations because I have already scouted for them.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sam