Discovering Light
These images were taken in a living room set up over two days and under various light conditions. I used a 35 mm camera with ISO set to automatic and aperture and shutter speed in manual mode. I used center weighted white balance. The lens is 35 mm on a full frame body. The backgrounds are papers bought at a hobby store. The finish of the paper is shiny rather than matte, and this influenced the images using the black background in particular. I would try a matte texture as a next step.
High Key Image. Ornaments photographed in Marshfield, Wisconsin on November 16, 2024.
ISO 400 f 3.4 1/25 35 mm lens
The green thread is on the ornament, and I left it there initially to see how it’s image came out.
Low Key Image. Ornaments photographed in Marshfield, Wisconsin on November 16, 2024.
ISO 200 f 2 1/8 35 mm lens
The reflection in the black paper adds unexpected interest.
Front Lit Image : Congolese mask photographed in Marshfield, Wisconsin on November 16, 2024.
ISO 200. f 5.6 2 s 35 mm lens
The flatness is evident in the facial details, the character is diminished by the absence of shadow. The dust was persistent and a disadvantage of using the shiny background.
Side Lit Image. Congolese mask photographed in Marshfield, Wisconsin on November 16, 2024.
ISO 200 f 5.6 ½ s 35 mm lens
The warm tones were present in the live setting, and I did not edit these out. This is much richer in detail than the front lit image. The facial details are beautiful.
Top Lit Image : leather gloves photographed in Marshfield, WI on November 16, 2024.
ISO 400 f 4 1/90 35 mm
The shadow details give texture to the leather. The zipper was the in target of focusing, so I am not sure why it’s out of focus, which was true for the entire series of the gloves.
Back Lit Image : Congolese mask photographed in Marshfield, WI on November 16, 2024.
ISO 64 f 6.8 8s 35 mm
The light is behind the paper in this image, and I like the subtle nimbus and soft shadows and highlights. I moved the center weighted white balance around the figure to find this balance of light and dark.
Texture Emphasized : Congolese mask photographed in Marshfield, WI on November 16, 2024.
ISO 200 f 5.6 8 s 35 mm
With editing, I adjusted the exposure and the contrast to highlight the braided hair, and the face also has lovely texture. This was part of the series of side lighted images with the hair more in focus.
Concentrated Light Image : Congolese mask photographed in Marshfield, WI on November 16, 2024.
ISO 200 f 6.8 11 s. 35 mm
The reflected light on black backing detracts from the image. Also, the hair was in focus in the range finder, and I don’t know why the face is not in focus with this f stop as the depth of field should include this plane.
Diffused Light Image : Ornaments photographed in marshfield, WI on Nov 16, 2024.
ISO 400 f 2.8 1/250
To create diffused side light, I used two or more layers of cheese cloth over a flashlight. The shadows are soft, but the light is still closer to direct light than I intended.
Light Painting Image : Congolese mask photographed in Marshfield, WI on November 16, 2024.
ISO 64 f 13 6s
This is one of many light painting photos. I created a snoot but the light beam was still fairly wide.
Reflections : I set up a studio space in my living room, which has a large southern facing window and a smaller east facing window. I kept the gauzy curtains closed to diffuse the sunlight. My camera was in manual mode except for ISO, which mostly was automatic mode. I worked with several objects and various sources of light including a headlamp, desk light, sunlight and flashlight. The shiny paper, particularly the black, posed challenges with reflection, and I would like to work with a matte background next round. I also tried a black woven cloth as a background, but so much distracting detail was evident in the images that I abandoned the idea. After all that, I appreciated that the white background called no attention to itself and did not detract from the objects themselves.
I am puzzled about the focus in some images as the depth of field should have included all details of the objects, so I’ll work on that.
I’m happy with the low and high key images, the white balance is good and the images are exposed nicely. The reflections in the black images are interesting and add dimension.
In general, I would like to experiment with more light sources with varying temperatures, beam widths and direct vs diffused lighting. I tried a few items for reflectors including foil cake stands, but these had textures that cast onto the background paper, so I did not used them for this series. Cheesecloth was a nice diffuser but still fairly transparent so shadows still rendered, so I would try other materials.
For light painting, I would like a narrower beam of light. The snoot helped somewhat, but the beam was still fairly wide for this object. With numerous trials, some of the images produced an intersting effct, but it was subtle. I am curious about how a laser light painting would look with the very narrow beam of light.