Busy flashing

Apparently not an offence done in the privacy of your own garage although you get some very funny looks from your neighbours. Actually been working on the images for Assignment 4 trying to think of 8 ways to light an object. Obviously there is sunlight and its variations during the day, cloudy and shade plus available light which gives four. I am hoping that using photographic light i.e. flash will provide the other four. There is the naked flash, diffused flash, spot flash using a snoot and variations on these themes using a reflective surface to bounce the light back towards the subject that in theory offers an almost infinite number of ways to light an object.

Looking at the results of my experiments (over 70 images taken of the one object) there is often only a marginal difference between some variations although some provide more definition than others and meet the needs of the assignment more closely. Shape was not too much of a problem as I found that using a diffused light close to the object gave a satisfactory outline whilst softening the details and shadows. Form was something else. In part this was because I knew it was a three dimensional object so I 'saw' what I wanted to see. What I did find was that keeping the object within context, in this case a statue against the backdrop of the garden in which it was situated and leaving the stand in the picture provided the most clues as to dimensionality rather than any particular lighting.

Texture provided no major problems.

I was surprised at being asked to provide a shot that showed the colours of the object most strongly. One thing I have learnt so far in this Course that the 'colour' of an object depends very much on the colour of the light falling on it and being reflected to the viewer's eye. Is there a true colour for the object with everything else being a variation on one theme? In the end I decided that the best way forward was to take the image with a gretagmacbeth colour checker in the shot allowing for an accurate white balance.

Now on to putting together the Assignment for submission to my tutor.