ASSIGNMENT 7 - DISCOVERING LIGHT

It took me quite a bit of time to get these photos but I'm actually quite pleased with the final photos. It is very rewarding to see how different the positioning and concentration of light can make an object appear. My partner is a geologist and collects rocks so I had a couple of interestingly textured rocks to play with and I found that the extreme lighting really played up the rocks' textures. It was also a great exercise to practice different exposure settings to see how white and black backgrounds and light affect the exposure.

The hardest types of lighting to get, I found, were the concentrated and diffused lighting because I couldn't seem to find many materials that would create the diffused effect so I had to try that multiple times. My diffused lighting image has softened shadows but they almost look blurred so I'm not sure if that is exactly correct. I also had some issues with the white balance on these two. The cloudy, grey weather outside didn't help with this!  I think perhaps having some proper lighting infrastructure or some extra hands to hold things would help but at the same time, it was quite cool to see what could be done with some simple lamps/flashlights, and black/white paper. The light painting exercise was also very cool! I wanted to get dramatic lighting over all of the vegetables so passed the light over the tops primarily to get this effect. I like how it also ended up emphasizing the reflection oft he objects in the black marble counter.

This assignment definitely taught me the importance of patience and how meticulous positioning can be, but it also shows how it can pay off in such a simple, but effective way. I hope to keep implementing these approaches in future assignments.