Part 4 - Exercise 12

Contrast and shadow fill

This exercise revolves around experimenting with reflectors. The light was placed to the right, at 90 degrees to the camera. Different types of reflector were used and at different distances - but each time at 90 degrees to the left, i.e. directly opposite the light. One of the key things to change here is the level of contrast in the photos - basically the reflector bounces light back into the picture, which lightens the shadows. By lightening the shadows, the overall level of contrast is decreased and amount of visible detail is increased. (However, potentially the dynamism and impact of the photo is decreased also).

In terms of ranking from high contrast to low it would be something like:

1, 5, 2,3,4,6, 5,7, 8,9,10

Essentially the closer the reflector and the more shiny the surface the more light is reflected. The scrumpled foil has the effect of diffusing and distributing the reflection. What's odd in my results is that 2 actually ha lighter shadows than 5 - this doesn't make much sense. However, I realised after that I was photographing with a white wall, fairly close to the left and this could have skewed the results somewhat.

1. No softener or reflector. The light here is pretty ugly and unnatural, it has a potentially dynamic effect, but would have to be used very careful otherwise it will produce unsigthly shadows - like it has here, all over the shoe on the right.

2. Softener, no reflector. The softener has an immediate effect in terms of making it more natural, reducing contrast and increasing detail, but still the bottom right corner is mainly in shadow.

3. White card - at 1m distance. The shadow in the bottom right is reduced a bit by the reflector, but it's still there.

4. White card - as close as possible without showing in shot. Overall shadow is now quite reduced, but at the price of flattening out the scene.

5. Silver paper with dull side - 1m. The silver paper here has picked out highlights in the shadows which is actually quite effective.

6. Silver paper with shiny side - 1m. The shiny side is effective adding light into the right side bottom corner

7. Silver paper with shiny side - 0.5m

 8. Silver paper with shiny side and scrunched up - 1m. The light is noticeably more spread than when not scrunched up. This means that once again, the scene is quite flattened out.

9. Silver paper with shiny side and scrunched up - 0.5m. The effects of the reflector as it gets closer.

10. Silver paper with shiny side, as close as possible. Here the reflector is at maximum effect in terms of lightening the scene.