This exercise is all about revealing the form of an object. This can be done through the medium of natural or artificial light. I have used a fluorescent studio light (on some images I have used two) on an adjustable tripod, and natural sunlight with me as the subject matter and a plain light grey wall as a background. The premise of the exercise is, to reveal the form in different ways by varying the light quality, by creating contrast and altering subjects form by using a combination of quality, contrast, direction and colour through the use of light. The drawback of doing self portraiture is that it is impossible to measure the light and shadow to obtain the optimum ratio for the desired effect (not to mention framing!).
As always, the images are ‘as shot’ with no modifications in Photoshop.
The first image I have chosen is a datum point from which the others are manufactured, i.e. this shows the subject shot using the available natural light. I was stood 1 metre away from a window which was illuminating me with diffused light as the sun was above the house and not entering the window directly.
f4.5 @ 1/60 sec. (Manual mode) ISO 200
In the next image I have stuck with natural light but this time I am holding a black card close to my face on the left and decreased the shutter speed. The purpose of this is to increase the contrast slightly but avoid too much shadow. So you can see the effect of the slower shutter speed across the image, but more so to the right of the face and background. With the use of the black card i was able to reflect a little of the light back onto mt face without the risk of washout. The result is a quite well-balanced portrait. I would say that to improve the image I may have needed to increase the shutter speed to 1/30 sec. Due to the soft, bounced light coming from the left, the over all impression is quite flat, which for portraiture isn’t necessarily a good quality.
f4.5 @ 1/20 sec. ISO 400
With the image below I have introduced a studio light. I achieved the desired effect by Increasing the ISO to 400 and pushing the exposure by three stops. By doing so I was able to retain the shallow depth of field (and as a consequence create a high key image) at what is just about as slow a shutter speed as I dare use. The resulting image is quite ethereal, and contemporary, but lacks contrast. What it does do is concentrate the viewers point of vision on the subjects eyes.
f4.5 @ 1/8 sec. ISO 400.
In the next shot I wanted to create a definite split tone running down my face. I achieved this by lighting the wall behind me which would in turn bounce soft light onto my face and more importantly, not create ugly shadows on the backdrop. I held a black board very close to my face on the other side which created the shadow on the right side of my face. The board was just big enough to prevent direct lighting from the window but did let enough light bounce onto my face so as to retain some features. In doing so this has accentuated my profile, which in turn is giving the image a lot of depth and structure, bringing the facial form to the fore.
f4.5 @ 1/350 sec. ISO 400
This last image I decided to light from above. In doing so I have created heavy shadows under my eyes and also accentuated the effects of gravity over time AKA the ageing process! I back-lit this image to again, eradicate any distracting shadows cast by the light from above. Lighting a person from this angle is seldom complimentary, but this was what I set out to achieve.
f4.5 @ 1/500 sec. ISO 400
From this exercise I have learnt that setting up studio lighting is very time-consuming and (at this stage) I have take a lot of shots and fine tuning to arrive at the desired image. That said, when it finally goes right it is very rewarding. Natural light on the other hand takes a lot less preparation, but managing its intensity can be quite frustrating and involve the use of an extra pair of hands.
I see! 