Week 9: Practical

This week was our last practical in which our teacher was to show us how to use the studio equipment in places other than a studio. We were provided with artificial lighting and was showed how to set it up and synchronise it together on a subject. We were asked to experiment with the equipment on a model indoors, changing the brightness and using the umbrella's to alter the images outcome.

This first image was a sign of our early experimentation. It is clear that the artificial lighting equipment was too bright alongside an incorrect measure of aperture and shutterspeed. The outcome is that the image is hugely overexposed, leaving a large white cast over the subject. However, once we corrected the specifications on the camera, the rest of the shoot became a lot easier and more enjoyable.

This next image contrasts the one above. The aperture and shutterspeed are at a better level which meant that the image was correctly exposed. Looking at it now, the flash was probably not bright enough which has left the image to still be slightly darker than i originally planned. Despite this, the image is of good quality and had sharp detail, which probably would have not been captured without artificial lighting due to movement being a risk when taking images indoors, without any supporting light.

These next two images show the contrast of artificial light not being used and then being used to frame the subject. The first image below is without flash being used and as you can see it is dark, the composition hides the subject and so we cannot get a sense of detail in the image. In the last image below, the artificial lighting has been installed and it has made an increasing amount of difference to the image, the subject is completely in focus and the light bounces off her facial features and hair to introduce a lot more detail and brings the composition a bit more to life. I think in some cases, using a flash head at this stage is a lot more convenient to me and my project rather than installing a huge amount of equipment, but learning this now is really interesting to take forward in years to come.