{"id":1496,"date":"2018-03-18T12:33:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T12:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2018-08-05T16:43:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-05T15:43:16","slug":"part-4-the-language-of-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/course-work\/part-4-the-language-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 4 – The Language of Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making  a start:<\/p>\n

This Part is going to focus on manual mode and how changing exposure can change the look and feel of your image.<\/p>\n

One of the exercises from 4.2, 4.3 or 4.4 will need to be expanded to fill the assignment brief at the end of the section, therefore, i will need to bare this in mind as I work through the projects.<\/p>\n

The exercises for this part are:<\/p>\n

Exercise 4.1 1<\/strong>. Set your camera to any of the auto or semi-auto modes. Photograph a dark tone (such as a black jacket), a mid-tone (the inside of a cereal packet traditionally makes a useful \u2018grey card\u2019) and a light tone (such as a sheet of white paper), making sure that the tone fills the viewfinder frame (it\u2019s not necessary to focus). Add the shots to your learning log with quick sketches of the histograms and your observations. You might be surprised to see that the histograms for each of the frames \u2013 black, grey and white \u2013 are the same. If there\u2019s not much tonal variation within the frame you\u2019ll see a narrow spike at the mid-tone; if there is tonal variation (such as detail) you\u2019ll see a more gentle curve. If you find the tone curve isn\u2019t centered on the mid-tone, make sure that you have your exposure compensation set to zero. You may see an unpleasant colour cast if you\u2019re shooting under artificial light, in which case you can repeat the exercise using your monochrome setting (a light meter is sensitive to brightness, not to colour). This simple exercise exposes the obvious flaw in calibrating the camera\u2019s light meter to the mid-tone. The meter can\u2019t know that a night scene is dark or a snow scene is light so it averages each exposure around the mid-tone and hopes for the best. But why can\u2019t the camera just measure the light as it is? The reason is that a camera measures reflected light \u2013 the light reflected from the subject, not incident light \u2013 the light falling on the subject. To measure the incident light you\u2019d have to walk over to the subject and hold an incident light meter (a hand- 78 Photography 1: Expressing your Vision held meter) pointing back towards the camera, which isn\u2019t always practical. If you did that each of the tones would be exposed correctly because the auto or semi-auto modes wouldn\u2019t try to compensate for the specific brightness of the subject. 2. Set your camera to manual mode. Now you can see your light meter! The mid- tone exposure is indicated by the \u20180\u2019 on the meter scale with darker or lighter exposures as \u2013 or + on either side. Repeat the exercise in manual mode, this time adjusting either your aperture or shutter to place the dark, mid and light tones at their correct positions on the histogram. The light and dark tones shouldn\u2019t fall off either the left or right side of the graph. Add the shots to your learning log with sketches of their histograms and your observations. Switching to manual mode disconnects the aperture, shutter and ISO so they\u2019re no longer linked. Because they\u2019re no longer reciprocal, you can make adjustments to any one of them without affecting the others.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Exercise 4.2<\/strong> In manual mode take a sequence of shots of a subject of your choosing at different times on a single day. It doesn\u2019t matter if the day is overcast or clear but you need a good spread of times from early morning to dusk. You might decide to fix your viewpoint or you might prefer to \u2018work into\u2019 your subject, but the important thing is to observe the light, not just photograph it. Add the sequence to your learning log together with a timestamp from the time\/date info in the metadata. In your own words, briefly describe the quality of light in each image.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Exercise 4.3<\/strong> Capture \u2018the beauty of artificial light\u2019 in a short sequence of shots (\u2018beauty\u2019 is, of course, a subjective term). The correct white balance setting will be important; this can get tricky \u2013but interesting \u2013 if there are mixed light sources of different colour temperatures in the same shot. You can shoot indoors or outside but the light should be ambient rather than camera flash. Add the sequence to your learning log. In your notes try to describe the difference in the quality of light from the daylight shots in Exercise 4.2.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Exercise 4.4<\/strong> Use a combination of quality, contrast, direction and colour to light an object in order to reveal its form. For this exercise we recommend that you choose a natural or organic object such as an egg, stone, vegetable or plant, or the human face or body, rather than a man-made object. Man-made or cultural artifacts can be fascinating to light but they also contain another layer of meaning requiring interpretation by the photographer; this exercise is just about controlling the light to reveal form. You don\u2019t need a studio light for this exercise; a desk lamp or even window light will be fine, although a camera flash that you can use remotely is a useful tool. The only proviso is that you can control the way the light falls on the subject. Take some time to set up the shot. The background for your subject will be crucial. For a smallish object, you can tape a large sheet of paper or card to the wall as an \u2018infinity curve\u2019 which you can mask off from the main light source by pieces of card. You don\u2019t need to use a curve if you can manage the \u2018horizon line\u2019 effectively \u2013 the line where the surface meets background. Taking a high viewpoint will make the surface the background, in which case the surface you choose will be important to the shot. Exposure times will be much longer than you\u2019re used to (unless you\u2019re using flash) and metering and focusing will be challenging. The key to success is to keep it simple. The important thing is to aim for four or five unique shots \u2013 either change the viewpoint, the subject or the lighting for each shot. Add the sequence to your learning log. Draw a simple lighting diagram for each of your shots showing the position of the camera, the subject and the direction of the key light and fill. Don\u2019t labour the diagrams; quick sketches with notes will be just as useful as perfect graphics. In your notes try to describe any similarities between the qualities of controlled lighting and the daylight and ambient artificial light shots from Exercises 4.2 and 4.3.<\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Exercise 4.5<\/strong> Make a Google Images search for \u2018landscape\u2019, \u2018portrait\u2019, or any ordinary subject such as \u2018apple\u2019 or \u2018sunset\u2019. Add a screengrab of a representative page to your learning log and note down the similarities you find between the images. Now take a number of your own photographs of the same subject, paying special attention to the \u2018Creativity\u2019 criteria at the end of Part One. You might like to make the subject appear \u2018incidental\u2019, for instance by using juxtaposition, focus or framing. Or you might begin with the observation of Ernst Haas, or the \u2018camera vision\u2019 of Bill Brandt. Add a final image to your learning log, together with a selection of preparatory shots. In your notes describe how your photograph differs from your Google Images source images of the same subject.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making  a start: This Part is going to focus on manual mode and how changing exposure can change the look and feel of your image. One of the exercises from 4.2, 4.3 or 4.4 will need to be expanded to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-course-work","category-part-4-the-language-of-light","category-project-1-exposure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9tN7f-o8","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1498,"url":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/course-work\/4-1-1-4-1-2-exposure\/","url_meta":{"origin":1496,"position":0},"title":"4.1.1 & 4.1.2 – Exposure","author":"Debra Flynn","date":"18th March 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 4 - Project 1 - Exercise 4.1 Exercise 4.1 1. Set your camera to any of the auto or semi-auto modes. Photograph a dark tone (such as a black jacket), a mid-tone (the inside of a cereal packet traditionally makes a useful \u2018grey card\u2019) and a light tone (such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Course Work"","block_context":{"text":"Course Work","link":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/category\/course-work\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Exercise-4.1a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Exercise-4.1a.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Exercise-4.1a.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Exercise-4.1a.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Exercise-4.1a.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Exercise-4.1a.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1567,"url":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/course-work\/4-4-ex-nihilo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1496,"position":1},"title":"4.4 – Ex Nihilo","author":"Debra Flynn","date":"15th April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Exercise 4.4\u00a0Use a combination of quality, contrast, direction and colour to light an object in order to reveal its form. For this exercise we recommend that you choose a natural or organic object such as an egg, stone, vegetable or plant, or the human face or body, rather than a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Course Work"","block_context":{"text":"Course Work","link":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/category\/course-work\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/contacts-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/contacts-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/contacts-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/contacts-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/contacts-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/contacts-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":308,"url":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/course-work\/part-1-from-that-moment-onwards\/project-1-the-instrument\/","url_meta":{"origin":1496,"position":2},"title":"Exercise 1.1","author":"Debra Flynn","date":"29th October 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"So the first exercise I've been asked to put my camera on Auto!!! Eeek I haven't used auto for about 3 years now, and in fact my camera doesn't even have an 'auto' setting!! I think the closest I can get to 'auto' is the 'P' button, but yet again\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Part 1: From that moment onwards . . ."","block_context":{"text":"Part 1: From that moment onwards . . .","link":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/category\/course-work\/part-1-from-that-moment-onwards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_0856","src":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_0856.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_0856.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1 1x, https:\/\/debraflynnphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_0856.jpg?w=525&h=300&crop=1 1.5x, https:\/\/debraflynnphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_0856.jpg?w=700&h=400&crop=1 2x, https:\/\/debraflynnphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_0856.jpg?w=1050&h=600&crop=1 3x, https:\/\/debraflynnphotographyblog.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/10\/img_0856.jpg?w=1400&h=800&crop=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1534,"url":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/course-work\/project-3-the-beauty-of-artificial-light-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1496,"position":3},"title":"Project 3 – The beauty of artificial light","author":"Debra Flynn","date":"6th April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographers review and research Sata Shintaro Night Lights Sato Shintaro These shots were taken in the streets of Tokyo and Osaka at night from 1997 to 1999, and in them I have avoided the more aesthetically pleasing locations such as seaside areas and the well-known \"subcenters\" in favor of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Course Work"","block_context":{"text":"Course Work","link":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/category\/course-work\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2017-07-23_13-33-14.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2017-07-23_13-33-14.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2017-07-23_13-33-14.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1577,"url":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/course-work\/part-4-the-language-of-light\/4-5-assessment-criteria-creativity\/","url_meta":{"origin":1496,"position":4},"title":"4.5 – Assessment Criteria – Creativity","author":"Debra Flynn","date":"20th April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Exercise 4.5 Make a Google Images search for \u2018landscape\u2019, \u2018portrait\u2019, or any ordinary subject such as \u2018apple\u2019 or \u2018sunset\u2019. Add a screengrab of a representative page to your learning log and note down the similarities you find between the images. Now take a number of your own photographs of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assessment Criteria"","block_context":{"text":"Assessment Criteria","link":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/category\/assessment-criteria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/tulip.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/tulip.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/tulip.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/tulip.png?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/tulip.png?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/tulip.png?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1559,"url":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/course-work\/part-4-the-language-of-light\/film-noir\/","url_meta":{"origin":1496,"position":5},"title":"Film Noir","author":"Debra Flynn","date":"7th April 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Film Noir Research researching Christopher Doyle's lighting, I came across the 'Film Noir' genre which was the name given to a series of films made in the 40s and 50s.\u00a0 Doyle's cinematography seems to contain a lot of the elements of film noir, but in a more modern setting. \u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Part 4: The language of light"","block_context":{"text":"Part 4: The language of light","link":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/category\/course-work\/part-4-the-language-of-light\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/film_noir_google.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/film_noir_google.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/film_noir_google.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/film_noir_google.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/film_noir_google.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/film_noir_google.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1497,"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions\/1497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debraflynnphotography.co.uk\/EYV-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}