Light and Dark - 5 Photos

For my theme I chose light and dark. I really like messing with the light levels within photos and furthermore controlling the light level altogether. That is why you will see in my five photos the immense presence of human light and the lack of natural as personally by using man made light it further emphasises both the subject of the composition and the depth of the photo in its entirety.

By manipulating the ISO, aperture and shutter speed I was able to entirely alter the amount of light that appeared in the composition and to what standard. More often than not it was a high ISO (1800+) with and wide aperture (f/5-f/6) and average shutter speed (1/80-100.) This did change but are the average settings that I will have used.

I wanted to capture depth, that is the whole reason for light and dark as I can really make the viewer either feel really small or really big or even isolated. That was my main aim with the photos anyway was to use light to give a sense of depth.

I called this 'Grey Night.' I used an aperture of f/4, shutter speed of 1/40 and ISO of 320 all being for the fact that the light I used to illuminate the composition was very bright and the camera found it easy to pick up. The idea was to illuminate the surroundings equally with the light originating from the centre and the further out the composition the darker it gets. This is to add volume and depth to the things closest to the light and give a idea of the shape and texture. I masked out the frosted glass to maintain the colour because it centres the subject and by only having one colour as the light then it gives everything a baseline for depth. Upon reflection I would arrange the objects to the right of the photo to more aesthetically pleasing ones - perhaps more reflective - or dynamic in shape to offer variation as there is on the left hand side like the cake tin, dying flowers and candle holders.

The idea behind this photo was to create an environment we the flowers were entirely illuminated by the candle to once again show depth. Taking it from down low allowed the flowers to tower and take up more of the composition and give a sense of over arching on the viewer. I cut and placed the candle below and to the side to only partly illuminate the flowers allowing a dynamically lit subject. If I was to retake the photo I would remove the bowl in the background and zoom into the flower a bit more closer to see the difference in light level more effectively.

In this photo it was all about capturing the face and its smoothness, roughness, curves and bumps as effectively as possible. To do this I only felt I needed half of the subjects face so I took the photo side on with the light slightly right of where the subject is facing. By doing this it cast a shadow across his face highlighting his dimples and parts of his skin. It is this immense detail I wanted to draw the viewers attention and the expression upon the subjects face. Upon reflection I would use a larger aperture to incorporate more of the subjects facial detail.

By utilising long shutter speeds I was able to create the lines of light in the image. Rotating the camera in certain directions also meant that I was able to manipulate the strands of light both in their volume and pattern. This separates the photo into different sections allowing variation and depth to the composition. 

The photo itself is abstract styled with deliberate light. I wanted to add depth to the composition while maintaining still and abstract shapes. The post on the left hand side of the photo is meant to draw your eye in both in brightness and shape, leading you further into the photo to reach the area of focus. By using unnatural light I was able to highlight certain aspects of the the photo for the viewer and add texture to the posts by creating shadows.