Shoot 4 - Experimenting With Light

Shoot Plan

Ideas

Something which was discussed in a tutorial was the way I used lighting in my photographs. I was told to try and focus a little more on the way lighting captures the viewers as as well as the bold statement it can make in general.

- Close up compositions

- Large amounts of highlight areas to contrast

- Dark backgrounds to bring highlight out more?

Model

Myself - I just want to play around with lighting before planning a proper shoot so I thought I should just try it out on myself

When?

28th May 2016

Lighting Setup

In the diagram to the right it doesn't show the light I actually used as it doesn't have any representation for it on the website but when shooting for this project I will be using the LED Panel lights as they are good for taking around and easy to maneuver as well as producing a lovely clean light.

Of course, just like any shoot I complete regardless of the size I always create contact sheets as it's an easy method of sorting through the good and the bad. For this small shoot, there was only a few photos so my final ones were very minimal.

As you can see, below is my final image from this shoot. As a viewer you could look at this image and see the paint on the hand and come to the correct conclusion but at the same time it's not as clear as any of them could've been. I feel like black and white images are definitely the way to go as the contrast in tones can make an image look very bold. I like the composition of this first image as it's not overpowered by two hands. I feel like by having the hand come in from the left corner/side, it leaves space for a gradient. The far left corner starts off black and it gradually builds up to the major highlighted points. I decided to leave a small amount of negative space around the hand (especially on the right side) as it makes the hand more dynamic and stand out from the background. I got this to look more powerful by uses the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop as shown below.

One thing which would definitely make these photographs better would be to have a prop such as a paint brush or even palette or piece of work in the background to help the story and character come out a bit more. As I discussed in a previous post about hobbies and careers, props would most definitely help the viewer make up their mind on someones identity if their was a visual object as an aid.