In order to describe the form and volume of the sea shell and sea-horse, I modified the set used in part 1 so that the tungsten lamp was pointed to the side of the subject, surrounded by a circular lamp shade diffuser.
For the background, I draped black velvet over the white board. The white mounting board by itself was a problem as I had no satisfactory means of lighting it separately from the subject.
In the initial sequence of photos I tried different placements of the subject
- Subject on table top - I did not like the contrast between the pale surface and the dark background.
- Subject on black velvet - the velvet surface was catching the light which was not attractive.
- Subject on black paper - the surface of the paper was almost as dark as the velvet. The surface was matte and I liked the blurred reflection of the shell.
I then varied the position of the shell and lamp, using a reflector to lighten the shadow areas. After reviewing the results on screen, I chose the three most interesting photos from this sequence.
Sea shell three dimensional form 1
Nikon 18-200mm at 200mm: Iso 200 f32 for 8 seconds
Sea shell three dimensional form 2
Nikon 18-200mm at 200mm: Iso 200 f32 for 8 seconds
Sea shell three dimensional form 3
Nikon 18-200mm at 200mm: Iso 200 f32 for 8 seconds
Observations
The camera settings were the same as part 1. As the subject is brightly lit, reflections from the ceiling and walls are minor, and hence I did not use boards to keep such light away from the subject.
I should have used a board between the lamp and my lens to reduce flare. It was only when I viewed the photos subsequently that I noticed some flare. Fortunately this was not close to the subject and I could crop this out.
- In Form 1, the shell is dominated by the foot opening in the top half of the frame. The edges of this opening are lighter in colour and smooth textured. The body of the shell is just catching the light revealing the spiral layers and rounded body. However, the body of the shell seems low key relative to the foot opening. There is significant foreshortening so that the elongated shape of the shell from front to back is less apparent. The shape of the shell in this position is quite square which I have reflected in the square frame. The overall effect is a relatively static image.
- In Form 2, the visual focus is on the spiral layers of the body of the shell. The "tail" of the shell is visible in the background, but this is less brightly lit. The sideways view has a more dramatic shape, this was clearly a snail with attitude. This is supported by the triangular shape in the frame. The depth of of the subject is emphasized by the perspective lines and difference in light from front to back.
- In Form 3, on the other hand, the shell appears to have a gently rounded surface. The spirals, steps and spikes are barely visible. Nevertheless, the vertical stance seems to make this a reasonably lively picture. This photo surprisingly stood out when viewed in an array of thumbnails when I was reviewing my results. There is a reasonably prominent diagonal from bottom right to top left. In addition, there is possibly visual interest in the contrast with Form 2 - it is not easy to work out that that both are photographs of the same object.
In these photographs, the surface of the shell adds visual interest for the viewer, but the texture is not the main interest in these photographs.
I took a similar sequence of the silver sea horse against a black background with the objective of modelling its three dimensional form. The figure is decorated with small humanoid figures around the head and on the tail, and I felt that it was important to show these as well as the physical shape of the ornament. As before, there is less freedom to position the ornament compared to the sea shell as this object needs to stand on its legs with the head pointing forward towards the lens.
I found that the most lively photographs were those where both sides of the humanoid figures were visible and the lamp was used to illuminate the far side, as below.
Sea horse three dimensional form
Nikon 18-200mm at 82mm: Iso 200 f32 for 13 seconds
The lamp was on the right hand side, illuminating the far side of the creatures head, neck and tail. A reflector on the left hand side is illuminating the near side. The strong side lights brings our the three dimensional shape of the humanoid figures and seems to give far more vitality than where the lamp is facing towards the figure:
Sea horse illuminated from the front side
Whilst the humanoid figures are visible in this photograph, they seem quite flat like paper cut outs in comparison to the previous picture.
Conclusions
The portrayal of three dimensional form seems to really enhance the vitality photographs.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment