Tutor feedback was on the whole, very positive. There was a suggestion to alter how I presented my photographs so that there was a consistency between the example photographs and my own. I have reworked the assignment to reflect this. When I originally laid out this page my intention was to use a background that connected my images to the ‘era’ for want of a better word, that the images evoked for me. When I looked back at the photographs they strongly reminded me of roman fresco’s or medieval venetian buildings. However, I can appreciate the shift in mind set from the first section of the assignment was a bit jarring and the revised way of showing the pictures does add clarity.
Exercise 4.3: Egg or Stone explored the use of studio, or controlled lighting and I decided to develop this for Assignment 4. However, this assignment draws inevitably from across this section and extends to Exercise 4.2 Artificial Light and Exercise 4.4 – The Personal Voice in particular.
My decision on subject has been influenced by lockdown which created a limited area from which to draw on for photographic opportunities. In exercise 4.3 we were encouraged to use a natural object rather than a man-made one so as to focus on form rather than interpretation; I felt there was a natural progression to be made from this.
Light and Shade
Influences
Ideas for this series of images came from research for project 2 (Buchanan, 2021). I liked Brassai’s night photography, particularly his ‘Prison wall of La Sante, 1932’ because of the stark shadows created by the line of trees against the prison wall. I noticed how the glow of the internal light from the neon signs in Sato Shintaro’s work sent colour out into the dark and how objects take on or exaggerate colour spilt on them from lights from Rut Blees Luxemburg’s photographs. I explored how artificial light worked for exercise 4.2 ‘Light in the dark’ and was interested in seeing how this would translate into a studio setting.
Another source of inspiration came from examples of stain glass windows, particularly Raphael Seitz and Tom Fruin. I was intrigued by the way the filtered colours created ephemeral, intangible objects.
Fig 1. Tom Fruin Kolonihavehus 2010. 
Fig 2.Raphael Seitz Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral Liverpool 2009/10
Vilhjálmur Ingi Vilhjálmsson also provided inspiration in two of his works, one where the light inside the object becomes the source and the other where light through coloured objects creates coloured shadows.
Fig 3. Vilhjálmur Ingi Vilhjálmsson Color vision medication, 2008 
Fig 4. Vilhjálmur Ingi Vilhjálmsson – Light Study, 2007
What I did
I chose a selection of everyday objects, initially using solid rather than transparent ones, and placed them against a variety of backgrounds.
Set up 1 – I tried to exclude ambient light and after trying a large lamp that gave rather a diffused light, the results were a bit mixed as multiple sources no matter how slight, created double or indistinct shadows. I found that I got the best results by using the light on my mobile phone about 1 metre away from the subjects. I used the wall as a background and this brought a strong yellow cast to the images.
Set up 2 – I used the conservatory which, as the day was dull, gave a flat ambient light; the colour in the images came from the objects themselves. As the mobile phone light did not create a strong enough light in this situation, I used a small, snake head desk lamp instead. Fig. 11 I back lit the object and this led to an absence of shadows.
Set up 3 – I used the conservatory set up at night-time and even though the same artificial light was used, the colours became more intense. The same desk lamp used in 2 was used for set up 3 and I also added a light source to the objects themselves for some of the photographs.
In 2 & 3 I arranged a variety of back drops in a semi-circle around the objects as a way of controlling light coming in from the back and sides but allowing overhead light during the daytime.
Selected photographs
Selecting the photographs
Initially I went through the photographs, eliminating any that were technically poor for example out of focus or badly framed. I then looked to see if I had captured what I intended or if there had been any ‘happy accidents’. Once this process was over, I asked a family member to go through them and see which ones stood out for them. From this I chose the following:
Reflections on the assignment.
Distance from light source/ Strength of light source/ Size of light source.
These worked in combination to each other. Although moving the light source closer to the subject increased the strength of the light and therefore the depth of shadow, the large source initially used created a more diffused light, and the shadows are not clean.
In my first attempt (set up 1) I finally succeeded, using a small light, in getting the sharp shadows I was looking for. However, the images did not excite me and I turned to coloured glass objects, arranging them as a still life composition instead.
Fig. 14
The second and third set-ups were, to me, more visually interesting and it was from these sessions that I choose the final photographs.
The colour and texture of the background whether crinkled, hard, smooth, reflective or vibrant, influenced the photographs. The smooth surfaces (Fig. 5 & 6) gave a more even reflective light or in the case of thick paper absorbed light. The crinkled background surface gave some lovely effects, particularly the neutral fabric background which made the shadows appear like flames (Fig. 8 & 9) and was reminiscent of roman wall paintings. The folded red silk absorbed the shadows from the objects and instead reflected light back onto them.
Waiting until there was limited natural light created problems of its own as it produced a graininess to the photographs. Adjusting the ISO to compensate for low ambient light created super saturated images.
Neither of these things was wholly bad as some photographs had a soft, grainy, painterly look which I liked and tried to repeat and the other gave an ethereal look to the subjects.
I enjoyed using light as a subject and changed the shutter speed so that in Fig. 12 a longer shutter speed created a milky effect from the moving light source while in Fig. 13 the shorter shutter speed allowed the individual threads of light to be seen but the picture quality was poorer.
Weaknesses
This project was harder technically than I imagined, especially done within a domestic environment and with whatever ‘studio’ lights I could find. If only shadows are required, the angle at which you position the camera is important; you need to be able to get between the objects and the background. I hadn’t appreciated what kind of space I would need to create the right distance between the camera or lights and the objects, and the objects and the background.
I’m still not as technically proficient with my camera as I would like, or need, to be. A lot of my photography is trial-and-error and I achieve things I like by accident and although I have an idea and rough plan in mind, I sometimes stray from this. This means I take a lot of photographs in order to get some thing I like and I also feel it leads to a lack of consistency and cohesion between the photographs.
CONTACT PRINTS FOR PROJECT
References
Buchanan, K (2021) Lighting up the dark research Rut Blees Luxemburg, Brassaï and Sato Shintaro[Online] Available at: https://katie9.home.blog/research/lighting-up-the-dark-research-rut-blees-luxemburg-brassai-and-sato-shintaro/ (Accessed: 5/02/21)
Buchanan, K (2021) Light in the dark. [Online] Available at: https://katie9.home.blog/?p=1278 (Accessed: 5/02/21)
Image References
Fig. 1 Fruin, T. Steen, A. (2010) Kolonihavehus. [Photograph] At: http://tomfruin.com/kolonihavehus.html (Accessed 05/02/2021).
Fig. 2 Seitz, R (2009/10) Multi-coloured, glass steles installed at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral [Photograph] https://www.raphael-seitz.de/glass-sculptures/catholic-metropolitan-cathedral-liverpool.html (Accessed 05/02/2021).
Fig 3. Vilhjálmur Ingi Vilhjálmsson(2008) Color vision medication [Photograph] At: https://www.flickr.com/photos/villiv/3600373053/ (Accessed 05/02/2021).
Fig. 4 Vilhjálmur Ingi Vilhjálmsson (2007) Light Study [Photograph] At: https://www.flickr.com/photos/villiv/2097036691/ (Accessed 05/02/2021).
Katies Photographic Journey 