The season of lights.

Make:Canon
Model:Canon EOS 600D
Shutter Speed:1/49 second
Aperture:F/4.0
Focal Length:28 mm
ISO Speed:2500
Date Taken:Dec 25, 2011, 6:25:01 PM
Lens:EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Sensor Size:22mm

Make:Canon
Model:Canon EOS 600D
Shutter Speed:1/41 second
Aperture:F/4.0
Focal Length:25 mm
ISO Speed:2000
Date Taken:Dec 25, 2011, 4:52:04 PM
Lens:EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Software:QuickTime 7.7
Sensor Size:22mm

Make:Canon
Model:Canon EOS 600D
Shutter Speed:1/49 second
Aperture:F/4.5
Focal Length:29 mm
ISO Speed:1600
Date Taken:Dec 29, 2011, 4:20:40 PM
Lens:EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Sensor Size:22mm

Make:Canon
Model:Canon EOS 600D
Shutter Speed:1/25 second
Aperture:F/5.6
Focal Length:55 mm
ISO Speed:3200
Date Taken:Dec 29, 2011, 4:22:40 PM
Lens:EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Software:QuickTime 7.7
Sensor Size:22mm

Make:Canon
Model:Canon EOS 600D
Shutter Speed:1/49 second
Aperture:F/4.5
Focal Length:35 mm
ISO Speed:1600
Date Taken:Dec 26, 2011, 10:51:30 AM
Lens:EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Sensor Size:22mm

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year, especially because there are lots of great photographic opportunities. This year, I really enjoyed taking purposely out of focus pictures of the lights (for example, on a Christmas tree) as I think that it created a particularly effective soft blur which I thought looked interesting. I also really liked taking pictures of candles, as the flickering light created a warm glow to the picture, which I thought worked well with the theme of light. 

Light Painting : GlowDoodle

The following images were made using GlowDoodle.

This photograph was taken using CDs to create the technicolour effect, which I think worked really well 

and I like how it came out.

For this photograph, I used a red laser pen to draw lines on my face. You can pick up parts of my face (it also creates an interesting effect) as well as the light catching on my hair.

For this one, I used a blue UV light (which looks purple in the photographs). I placed the light under my face so it created an almost 'spooky' effect with the shadows, and I moved along the picture to create it 3 times. I then moved again with the light which creates the blurred light, which I personally really like.

For this one, I did the same as the one above, I just decided not to blur it to see how it came out. I like how the two left ones overlap slightly.

For this photograph, I used the same blue UV light as before, and quickly drew around my face, which brought with the line this interesting effect on my face. It makes my eyes look quite effective as well as how the light sits on my face. 

This photograph, however didn't work as well. The problem was that as I was taking the picture, someone else was taking one at the same time with a torch, which ended up overpowering the light I was  using, therefore not creating the effect that I wanted. 

Looking at artists: Patrick Rochon

Patrick Rochon

'Usher Tour Visual Light Painting' 

(part of a series)

CONTEXT

Patrick Rochon is a well known photographer best known for his light paintings. This series of photographs of a Jaguar XKR car were taken between 2010 and 2011, and were used to create visuals for the Usher tour.  However, these photographs were unfortunately not used, but they still remain as a collaborative collection of photographs. This technique of photography has been around for a while, but the bright colours that are lighting up the car make it look like a fairly modern technique. Rochon has been doing light painting photography since 1992.

AESTHETICS

In this series of photographs, blue and purple neon lights were used to create the dramatic effects. This was made by having the studio pitch black so that no other light would ruin or affect the picture. There were several cameras on the car each taking pictures from different angles and views as the light was painted (below there is a video on exactly how this series was made). The camera(s) were set to a very slow shutter speed (it might even have been on the B setting, where you can keep the shutter open for as long as you want), and as the shutter was open, people moved around the car with the purple and blue lights to create this effect. I think that it is really effective as the light shows the silhouette of the car, for example the curves of the car, and the rest of the photograph is pitch black, which draws attention to the car and the lights rather than anything that was in the background (if you could see it, that is). The composition has been structured well - there is a sense of a good use of the space, as the car takes up the majority of the photograph. There isn't too much black space, but the car isn't taking up all of the space, which works perfectly well.

MEANING

I'm not sure that there is any specific meaning to this collection of photographs. They were originally made for a tour, so that I think that they were created to draw attention, but nothing more. The car could symbolise something, but from the photographs or the artists comments about the series, it is not entirely clear if and what the message behind the series are.

PERSONAL RESPONSE

I personally really like this series of photographs. I like all of Patrick Rochon's work, as I am interested in learning more about light painting, as I think that it is a simple yet very effective way to approach photography. I think that the colours work well for this, and that the use of light has not been 'over used' in this photograph, as I think that that would spoil the simplistic theme of this. 

Click here to view the video on how this series was made.

Different Light Types.

Soft Light:
"refers to light that tends to "wrap" around objects, casting shadows with soft edges".
The softness of the light depends mostly on the following two factors:
Distance. The closer the light source, the softer it becomes.
Size of light source. The larger the source, the softer it becomes.
Soft light use is popular in cinematography and film.

Link here.

Hard Light:
Hard light sources cast shadows whose appearance of the shadow depends on the lighting instrument.That is, the shadows produced will have 'harder' edges with less transition between illumination and shadow. The focused light will produce harder-edged shadows. Focusing a fresnel makes the rays of emitted light more parallel. The parallelism of these rays determines the quality of the shadows. For shadows with no transitional edge/gradient, a point light source is required.
When hitting a textured surface at an angle, hard light will accentuate the textures and details in an object.

Link here.

Back Lighting:

Backlighting refers to the process of illuminating the subject from the back. In other words, the lighting instrument and the viewer are facing towards each other, with the subject in between. This causes the edges of the subject to glow, while the other areas remain darker. The backlight can be a natural or artificial source of light.

Link here.

Front Lighting:

Front lighting is where there is either natural or studio lighting placed in front of the subject. This can create shadows on not only the face but also in the background. It puts more focus on the front of the subject.

Link here.

Studio Lighting:

Studio lighting is where lighting is set up in a studio and the photographer can plan where they want the light to be, for example, on the left or right side, back lighting, front lighting, etc... It gives the photographer the freedom to experiment with lighting to see how the photographs come out.

Link here.

Link here.

Natural lighting:

Natural light is a photographers most accessible form of light. It can create quite magical effects (as shown in the example below) for instance, if the light is shining through the gaps in the trees. You can do all sorts of photography techniques: backlighting, front lighting and more just from using the sunlight. 

Link here.

Torch lighting:

Torch lighting is when the photographer takes a torch and places it where they want the light source to be. It can create good effects and also can be very dramatic, as shown in the example below.

Link here.

Laser photography:

Laser photography is mainly used for Light Painting. This is made by using a very slow shutter speed, and painting pictures with the laser pen. You can use different colours and make all sorts of pictures. For example, the light painting below is of Bambi, a famous Disney character.

Link here.

SLR Tests : Olympus OM 10

This series of photographs was taken in the dark, without flash, and only using a torch for effective lighting. This was a fun experimental project as we had control of our own lighting. 

This is the contact sheet that I created. I was sharing my camera (Olympus OM 10) with a friend, and we were taking the pictures of each other. I think that an improvement that I could have made would be to straighten up the film strips so they fit better on the photo paper. I perhaps should have split them up so that you would be able to see all of the photographs on the film strip. 

Unfortunately, the process of scanning this in doesn't do this picture justice. I thought that the contrast in this picture was really clear and good, and I think that the torch light made a really nice effect. However, I think that this photograph came out darker during developing then I had hoped.

This picture was originally the same size as the photograph below, but I decided to crop it to just the person, and not showing the torch in the photograph, as I think that this worked better and looked more professional. The contrast isn't so clear on this, but I still like the effect that it creates.

This is with a darker contrast, and I think that it creates a nice effect, as you can really see the light that the torch is creating. However, I think that I prefer it when there is less contrast and the photograph is lighter, such as the one below. 

I personally really like this photo, as I think that although it is supposed to be much darker, I think that it works. 

This is one of my favourite photographs that I took during the lesson. Although it is a little blurry, I think that it creates a nice effect. I think that how her face is just lit up and she's looking away from the camera, looks really good.

Snapshot Photography : Photographs from the past.

 This photograph was taken last year when I visited Cornwall. It was a fairly sunny day, and to me, the lighting seemed just perfect for this photograph. 
I actually edited this photograph on photoshop and added a picture of a passing train on top for my previous theme, Journeys, however I think that it also works for the theme of Light as the light from the train creates and interesting effect. The picture is shown below :

~

 This photograph was taken during a walk in the Spring. I found an apple tree and decided to take some shots - this is just one of them, but I think that the way the light is hitting the leaves and the apples is really pretty. 

This photograph was taken on Halloween. I had carved a pumpkin and when it became dark outside, I decided to take a photograph of it. I think that this works well for our theme of 'Light' as you can just see the light from the candle in the pumpkin and there isn't another light source, which makes this quite 'spooky' - perfect for Halloween! This photograph appears slightly blurry but I think that is because there isn't a lot of light available. I wanted the only light source to be from the pumpkin, to give the full effect. 

All of these photographs were taken by myself on a Fujifilm Finepix Z camera. This camera is only 7.0 megapixels but I think that it can take good photographs if you take the time to focus it, and good lighting helps.

Looking at artists : Pablo Picasso.

Click on the photograph to be redirected to the original source.

(Was not able to find a title for this piece)

CONTEXT

This light painting is by Pablo Picasso, a famous artist known for many of his abstract paintings. He isn’t as known for his light paintings but they are still styled towards his usual theme of abstract creations. 

AESTHETICS

This light painting photograph would have been made by using a very slow shutter speed. This would have most likely been taken using a film SLR. While the shutter is open, Picasso would have used either a torch, candle or something of that sort to create this abstract piece. In this, you can see two images of the artist, as the camera would have picked up him moving while the shutter was open, so not only can you see him standing still, you can also see him moving around with whatever he is using to make the light drawing. The composition in this photograph is good - there is a sense of the space in the setting being used well. The artist and the painting are pretty much central, but because there are objects around the centre in the background, all of the space is being used particularly well. The colour in this photograph, perhaps because of the time of day (this would have taken some time, so if the sun was setting, or rising, it would have had an effect on the lighting in the photograph), is slightly faded and there is a purple/pink gradient tint to the whole photograph.

MEANING

This photograph, I think, fits into the category of Portraiture, as the artist is included in the photograph, but I think it also fits into a category of Abstract, as the artist is best known for his Abstract paintings and work in general. I can’t quite make out what he has drawn, but to me it looks a bit like a figure. The thing about Picasso’s work, is that it can look like more than one thing, and can look and mean like different things to different people, depending on their age, gender or even at what point in time that they look at it.

PERSONAL RESPONSE

I personally quite like this piece by Pablo Picasso. Although it is not my favourite piece of light painting work that I have seen, I like the fact that you can see him drawing the painting, and that he is blurred and also that due to the slow shutter speed, it makes two of him appear - I think that this is quite effective, and makes it look like there is more than one person painting the image. The blurriness and the fact that there are two of him makes the image seem somewhat ghostly, which I think gives the photograph a nice ‘atmosphere’, if that is at all possible.

Looking at artists : Janne Parviainen

Click on the photograph to visit the artists' flickr page.

CONTEXT

This series of light paintings was done by Janne Parviainen. I have chosen the piece ‘Family Meeting’ from the collection. 

AESTHETICS

This has been made by having a very slow shutter speed (this one was 567 seconds long) and while the shutter is open, glow pens/lights of different colours are used to draw the skeletons. There are also real people sitting down at the tables, so I think that they drew skeletons with the glow pens makes the photograph become ghostly and mysterious, which I think is a good effect and idea. The time of day appears to be late afternoon, when the sun is setting, which works particularly well for the light painting to show up strongly in the photograph.

MEANING

I think that there is a meaning behind this photograph. There are real people involved in this photograph as well as the skeletons. The skeletons could be symbolising people or friends that they have lost, or even family members (as the title of the piece would suggest, being titled ‘Family Meeting’). It could also be suggesting that there is more to a family then just the people who are alive in it. I think that this is a strong and powerful meaning.

PERSONAL RESPONSE

I personally love not only this piece, but the entire series/collection. I think that it is a really unique and different technique to photography that I find really interesting. It has inspired me to try my own light painting as I think that it would be something new and different for me try. I also love how these photographs have not been edited - that they are straight from the camera.

Light Mood Board

Moodboard for the theme of 'Light'.

This moodboard involves light paintings, images of the moon and moonlight, candles (also candles in pumpkins), tree lights and natural light. 

Links to artists work :

1. Click here

2. Click here

3. Click here

4. Click here

5. Click here

6. Click here

7. Not available

8. Click here

9. No link available

10. Click here

11. Click here

12. Click here

13. Click here

14. No link available

Light Mindmap

This mindmap involves lists of artists related to the theme of 'Light' and also types of light photography. This will be good to refer back to during the project for help on what artists to analyse, and will also give me inspiration on different types of light photography. My favourite type of light photography at the moment is light painting, as it looks like an interesting and also fun project.

About Me.

Hello, and welcome to my blog. This is my Photography blog for college, and a lot of my work will be shown on here. I am currently studying Photography AS, Film Studies AS, English Literature AS and English Language AS at college. Please feel free to take a look around my blog!