“Remember the egg”

“Understanding Light”

In this activity, we see how the direction, quantity and quality of light change the photograph and gives different effects. For this, we use an egg for our subject and position our camera on a tripod or steady surface and keep that position, only moving the light. Each lighting angle we take an image with both soft and hard lighting to see the difference that light quality can make in an image. Also, I moved the light closer and further away from the subject to see the difference quantity makes. Below are the results of this activity. The left images are shot with hard light. Hard light gives hard edges with clearly defined shadows. Hard light produces a lot of contrast picking up more texture. The images on the right are shot with soft light (the same light with a diffuser added). Soft light gives softer edges and less defined softer shadows. It is typically a lower contrast light resulting in less texture. Soft light shows more shape and volume as it tends to wrap around the subject.

In this first image, the light is above camera face on. Front lighting minimises texture and volume. It creates fewer shadows and lights the entire subject straight on.

In this image, the light is off to the side and slightly elevated above the subject. I found this angle gave some volume and just a little more texture than a front-lit image.

In this image, the light is off to the side and slightly lowered below the subject. I found this angle gave even more volume and more texture, even with the soft light.

The light is directly above the subject in this image. Having a white background, it will be reflecting and creating fill in the shadow areas. I feel the bottom would have more shadow on a darker background.

Sidelight enhances texture and volume. Depth has become more prominent and there is a lot more tonal contrast. Side lighting also helps to define the shape of your subject.

The light I used was a warm work light and the diffuser was a white glass light shade. There are different colours when it comes to light and photography. Warm being an orange tone and cool being blue tones. I opted to go with the warm light as I felt it showed better shadows and worked better with the colour of the egg. From this activity, I learnt so much about light from just an egg and a lamp. Moving the light just a fraction can change the image completely and then there is the colour of the light, if it’s soft or hard light, the combinations are so fun to play with and experiment with different outcomes. I really enjoyed this activity and look forward to learning more about lighting. It has also given me a deeper appreciation for natural light and the artificial light that is all around us.

Thanks for reading my blog and keep shining your light on the world 🙂