Broken Lighting
My idea for broken lighting came when I was brainstorming different ways of portraying light and shadow, I believe that this style of lighting and photograph is the best comparison for light and shadow as it shows both of them together and its shows how light can manipulate shadows and the different ways photography can be achieved through this. When objects are blocked by light, they create shadows and with broken lighting, you get various patterns that are created through blocking this light.
|
Light can be manipulated in many ways and usually as a result, shadows can be created and this idea led me to looking at how light can be used to manipulate shadows and how patterns can be created through blocking out aspects of light and how natural light can also be effective. This type of lighting is called Broken lighting. This is effective because it creates patterns which is very bold and it is almost as if the shadow changes and sits on the shape of the object or features of the model.
In shadow photography, we concentrate on how shadows can be as - and sometimes even more - interesting as photographing the main subject. It is this absence of light we are after (though there can be no shadows without light) and how it suggests what is going on in the photograph. The interplay of light and shadow creates a strong contrasting element in your photographs. Sometimes, the inference of a subject through its shadow can be a powerful photographic element. Shadows are mysterious and can be a true representation of the subject.
In shadow photography, we concentrate on how shadows can be as - and sometimes even more - interesting as photographing the main subject. It is this absence of light we are after (though there can be no shadows without light) and how it suggests what is going on in the photograph. The interplay of light and shadow creates a strong contrasting element in your photographs. Sometimes, the inference of a subject through its shadow can be a powerful photographic element. Shadows are mysterious and can be a true representation of the subject.
(copyrighted images)
These photographs are the visual stimuli which led me to look deep within this specific topic, they have inspired me. The monochrome photographs are effective as it shows a literal contrast allowing the shadows to stand out more. Broken lighting is very clever and it shows how light can be blocked through covering it with opaque objects. I wish to achieve this style of photography and experiment with different ways of costructing this.
Experimenting
This is the first photoshoot that I have experimented with to see whether this style of photography is achievable. I used a cut out patterned material and blocked the lighting with it so that it creates shadows. The material had to be very close to the model in order for it to be focused therefore the compositions and angles that I could take the photograph in were limited but I still worked with it and tried out many different compositions. I kept the f-stop at 125 and the apeture low so that it doesn't get over-exposed and washes out the photograph however, this lighting led it to be blurred and grainy.
I used photoshop to manipulate this photograph as I feel that it didn't look as effective as I wanted it to be. As I found it difficult to take photographs in the dark due to the camera not focusing, the majority of photographs either came out blurry or grainy. I used different tool on photoshop to allow me to enhance this photograph. The first thing that I did was burn the background so that it goes black, the reason being that that I wanted my model to be the focal point and I believe that this was achieved through doing that. I then used the burn tool and kept the opacity on midtones so that it makes my models skin darker which allowed the light patterns to stand out more.
This is the first photo-shoot that I had planned wasn't as successful as I assumed it would be and this is because this is the first attempt at taking photographs with minimal lighting. I used a grater to create the broken lighting effect and I believe that the patterns that were created on the face looked aesthetically pleasing however, the lighting and settings on the camera produced poor quality dark photography, After changing the settings, I believe that the photographs became better but as a whole, I believe that this photo-shoot was not a success. The first photograph is very dark and blurry but I uploaded it as I wanted to portray the pattern that was formed on the models face with the grater. I believe that this utensil was practical as it is opaque and the other photographs that have been uploaded are a success. A versatile range of patterns were created through this grater and this was done by changing the position of how the grater was held or changing where the light is. There is no specific lighting technique that has been used for these photographs and this is because the patterns on the models face were really difficult to create if I had more than one light. I had placed the lighting extremely close to the models face as it got faint when it was further.
This photograph was the most successful from this photo-shoot and the main reason for this is that the lighting is solid and it makes the photograph look very effective. I like the way the lighting has a gradient across her face and begins really harsh from her chin and slowly fades out, I believe that this has made the photograph stand out. The model is not facing the camera however, I believe that this angle still engages the audience.
|
I believe that this photo-shoot was a success compared to the last one in terms of the shadows that were created. There was more shadow and this created more patterns. This effect was achieved through by using a translucent patterned basket. Although this photo-shoot was a success in terms of pattern and shadow, I believe that this photo-shoot lacked depth and it was also extremely difficult to maintain the shadows. As the photographs were quite dark, the cameras signal was hard to pick up therefore, the camera took longer to take the photograph. As I came across this problem, I tried different settings and then finally found the right settings on the manual setting. I changed the F stop to a lower number so that it allows more light in.
The next photo-shoot was better than the last photo-shoot considering the lighting as it was brighter and the models face is more visible. The prop that I had used to create this pattern was translucent basket therefore, it was quite difficult to use as I wanted the shadow to be as dark as possible. The shadows were harder to create as this basket allowed some light even through the solid areas therefore, I had to experiment and try various settings so that I could find the best way possible to portray this. I believe that this photograh wasn't the most successful however, when I used photoshop to enhance it, it looked much more effective. I also changed the background to black so that the model is the focal point and so that she stands out more. The first thing that I did on photoshop was use the spot healing tool which gave my model a flawless face, I then changed the brightness and contrast so that the patterns on her face created through light and shadow stand out and create an obvious contrast. After this, I used the burn tool on the shadow lines to darken then to make it stand out more.
This final shoot was a success as the object that I had chosen this time was opaque therefore, the shadow were harsh. The photographs weren't blurry this time as there was enough light to make it defined and sharp. The photographs were extremely dark but I believe this looked successful . There was no specific lighting that needed and so I decided to play around with the lighting and composition until I found something that I could work with. After doing so, I came to the realisation that the split lighting works well as it looks effective and makes it look mysterious as it covers half the face. I believe that this looked good as the patterned created went on one half of the face and the other half faded in to the darkness which allows you to draw your attention to the patterns and not get distracted with the other side of the face as that is not the main focus.
I chose to use this photograph to photoshop as it was very close u which meant that it was more defined and I feel that it looked more effective and it makes the light and shadow patterns the focal point which is the main focus of this photoshoot. The lighting that has been usede for this photograph is split lighting, the reason why I used this is because I felt that it allowed me to create the patterns on the face on one side therefore, making it more clear whereas the other half of the face is dark. In this particular photograph, you can not see half of his face, this was deliberate as I wanted to the focal point to lie within one side of his safe and I believe that I was successful in doing so. I used photoshopped to enhance this photograph as I believe that the raw photograph could have been better. I used minimal photoshop but it made a difference. I used the brightness and contrast tool to create a greater contrast between the light and shadow on his face, I then used the dodge tool to make the patterns more brighter. I used rule of thirds on this photograph as I felt that this was an effective rule and technique and I believe that it worked well.
|