For this project, I at first, had some difficulty in developing my negatives for my photos. In total, i shot 6 times. For many of them, no pictures turned out, but for the ones that did, they were very nice and pertained to the project on lighting. Although it had been a few months since I had last been in the dark room, I quickly got back into the habits of test strips and making full prints. Overall, my prints turned out quite well, and all show variations of lighting; both soft and hard. The only problem I seemed to have was dealing with the aperture on the enlarger, and when to go up on the aperture, like from 5.6 to 4, or from 5.6 to 8. Understanding this is key in getting the perfect time for my prints.
Theory Notes:
- Hard Lighting: Hard lighting is very intense and bright. It puts direct focus on the subject and gives harsh, defined shadows.
- Soft Lighting: Soft lighting involves the light on the subject to be rather dim. It creates soft shadows on the subjects face as well.
- Three-Point Lighting: It involves 3 different lights. The first is the key light, which is the most important of the 2 lights. This one is placed of to either side of the camera, pointing towards the subject. Next is the fill light which is on the side opposite the key light. This light is also not as bright or strong as the key light. Lastly, you have the back light, which goes behind the subject. This is helpful in defining the subject rather than it blending in with the background.
Printing Compositions:
Contact Sheet
- For my prints, I first had to develope contact sheets for my rolls of negatives. Out of the six prints that I am turning on for my project, I used pictures from these contact sheets. The first one, is for my landscape pictures, and I used the first and third picture from the third column. The aperture for the contact sheet is 5.8, and the time is at 8 seconds.
- For my next contact sheet, I dealt with still life. The time and aperture for it is 1.5 and 5.6, respectively. Not that many pictures turned out, but the ones that did,
were very useful in depicting the difference between soft and hard lighting.
- My last contact sheet was for portraits. The time was 2.5 seconds, and the aperture, 4. Much of the film did not come out, but these pictures of Josh did. Form this i got my hard and soft lighted portraits.
- For my first print, I worked on landscape.
The times for this print started at 10 seconds and went up by 2 at 5.6 aperture. My final time was 20 seconds at the same aperture and got this as my final print.
- For my second landscape print, I went outside my house and took a picture of the busy street corner. My test strip time ranged from 10 to 16 seconds at 5.6 seconds, and after looking at it, decided that my final print need more time. The outcome is 29 seconds at the same aperture.
Still Life
- For my still life lighting, I first tested with the hard lighting, and put focus on an African statue I have at my house. I placed another one beside it to give it a contrasty look so you could see the difference in lighting. The test strip started at 2 seconds and went up by two at 5.6 aperture. I tried 5 seconds, but it was too dark, so my final print was at 4 seconds.
- My other still life, dealt with soft lighting. I took a picture of a Chinese symbol, which means "to dance". I shined a dim light on it to give it a softer-tone to it. The aperture was 5.6 and the times started at 2 and went up by 1. My final was at 3.5 seconds. I tried it at 3, but it was too light.
- Lastly, for my portraits, I took pictures of Josh. The hard lighting print of him has a lot of light and focus on the top of his shirt.The light is not directed exactly on his face. This is a nice contrast with the black background on the picture. For the times, I tried 1 and 2 seconds at 4 aperture. The final print's time is at 2 seconds at the same aperture.
- For the soft lighting of Josh, I took a picture of him directly front. The lighting is more dispersed and gives him a small glow on most of his body. The times for the test strip starts at 3 and goes up by four, with an aperture of 4. The best time looked like 7 seconds, so that was the final time for my print.
Image Bank:
Soft Lighting Landscape - This picture was taken by Charlie Waite in Scotland.
Charlie was first an actor, but what really fascinated him was light, especially natural light and dealing with landscape. He has published 27 books just on his pictures. He specializes in landscape photography and is known throughout Europe. This picture has soft natural light, probably as the
sun is going down. This gives the picture a more subtle look.
Hard Lighting Still Life - Steve Chong was not always interested in photography. Not until after he took some pictures of his hometown for a website, did he find a passion and desire to take pictures. Now he says, "At this time I am concentrating on still life photography. I find it fascinating where the photographer has to come out with a composition from the genesis of an idea. It is a challenge to both the photographer's creativity and technical skill." In this picture, he focuses a strong light as well as a strong colored background against an apple. The contrast of the still life and background with light puts much emphasis on the apple.
Hard Lighting Portrait - On Flickr, his name is Cortez77_fr. He lives in France and loves to take pictures of models from there as well as Japan. Here is a self portrait of himself using hard lighting. There is extreme contrast on one side of his face compared to
the other.
