Lighting: The Basics

Flash

The flashgun is a versatile light source for when taking pictures with poor lighting. Their light can be bounced or diffused and is balanced at daylight colour temperature. There are disadvantages of using flash, however. Exposure is only correct for a set distance which can produce dark backgrounds and overexposed foregrounds. Shiny surfaces can also produce bright reflections.

Guide Number and Exposure Calculation

This is given by the manufacturer. The number relates to lens aperture and distance to the subject for a particular film speed or ISO (usually ISO 100). It gives an indication to what effect the flashgun will have in standard conditions.

Guide number = aperture x distance

To work out the aperture, the distance to the subject needs to be measured by the lens scale. The guide number is then divided by the distance to get the f-number.

45(GN) to subject distance of 8m away: GN/FD 45/8 = F/5.6

To work out flash distance, the guide number is divided by the aperture to get the flash to subject distance.

FD = GN/f  45/11 = approx. 4 metres.

To check the guide number of an unknown flash unit, set the camera to manual and the flash meter for ISO100. Place the flash 1 metre distant a take a flash reading. The aperture will be the guide number.

Raising the ISO also make it possible to achieve optimal exposure. It allows for  subjects to photographed at a greater distance, without risk of the image being too dark.

Flash Synchronisation

Flash sync concerns the correct timing of the flash to illuminate the whole digital sensor. It's timing the brief burst of light (usually between 1/2000 and 1/10000th second) to appear between the opening and closing of the camera shutter. In flash modes, the flash fires as the shutter opens.

Rear-Curtain Sync

In this mode, the flash fires just before the shutter closes. This will ensure that light trails from moving light sources will appear to follow a moving object.

The 3-Point Lighting Technique

The technique compromises of three lights: key light, fill light and back light.

If you have one light it becomes the key light, if you have two the other is either the fill or the backlight.

The key light is the the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed on one side of the camera and subject, so that this side is well lit and the other has some shadow.

The fill light is secondary and is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is less bright than the key light and is used to fill the shadows created by the key light. this can be done by placing the fill light further away from the object. In some situations, a reflector can bu used as a fill light instead of a lamp. The will produce as softer effect.

The back light is placed behind the subject. The purpose of the back light is to provide definition and highlights around the outline of the object.

Final Images for Submission

In this image, I wanted to convey how our relationships are changing due to the emergence of new technologies and how social media has invaded the space of personal interaction. Two subjects sit in a social setting opposite each other. The lack of communication is shown from the subject on the right being preoccupied with his mobile phone, while the reaction of the subject on the left is hidden behind a profile picture; an image that represents her 'idealised self'. The viewer doesn't get to understand her attitude towards being ignored.

In this image, I wanted to convey how we use social media and picture sharing websites to create an 'idealised self' offline. The inspiration for this image was taken from a friend of mine who explained to me how she used Pinterest, an image sharing website, to look up examples of other people's make up to copy on herself - and then upload an image of herself back on to the internet. Here, I have used technology to literally reconstruct her face out of facial features I found on the website. This is a reflection on the notion that her identity is hidden by the 'idealised self'.

I have called this image Two Friends Shopping. The image conveys the superficial nature of friendships online, where we can only tell that these two individual's are friends from the presence of a blue tick on their profiles as confirmation. I wanted the two hands of the subjects to be touching, which is a nod towards the fact that friendships offline are complex and personal for the individuals; a Facebook profile would never be able to convey such complexity to someone looking on.

This image takes the Facebook 'Like' icon from the internet and places it in the real world. I chose only to show the hands of the subjects in this image, firstly, to demonstrate that online we never can see any further expression about what it is an individual likes about another's post and, secondly, to show how the symbol is an extension of our real hands that reach out to other's online in order to show satisfaction about something. The image intends to highlight that we now consider a quantity of 'Likes' online to base an opinion on whether our content is enjoyed by others, rather than the quality of actually seeing someone express their enjoyment for something in person.

This image attempts to show how the 'emoji' is now becoming the main way we express our emotions with apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger growing in popularity. Here, two individual's are taking a 'selfie', but the viewer cannot see their true emotions. The image attempts to convey the absurdity that a selection of emoji's online, uniform to every user, are enough to express the complexity of an individual's emotion.

The above images convey how human interaction online is less personal and less meaningful than having a genuine conversation. Both of the images show how we express laughter online, even though the subjects are not actually laughing at all. This again references the 'idealised self', the ideal person we wish to portray online, not actually being a true reflection of the individual in the real world.

From Here On: Neo Appropriation Strategies in Contemporary Photography

“NOW, WE’RE A SPECIES OF EDITORS. WE ALL RECYCLE, CLIP AND CUT, REMIX AND UPLOAD. WE CAN MAKE IMAGES DO ANYTHING. ALL WE NEED IS AN EYE, A BRAIN, A CAMERA, A PHONE, A LAPTOP, A SCANNER, A POINT OF VIEW. AND WHEN WE’RE NOT EDITING, WE’RE MAKING. WE’RE MAKING MORE THAN EVER, BECAUSE OUR RESOURCES ARE LIMITLESS AND THE POSSIBILITIES ENDLESS. WE HAVE AN INTERNET FULL OF INSPIRATION: THE PROFOUND, THE BEAUTIFUL, THE DISTURBING, THE RIDICULOUS, THE TRIVIAL, THE VERNACULAR AND THE INTIMATE. WE HAVE NEXT-TO-NOTHING CAMERAS THAT RECORD THE LIGHTEST LIGHT, THE DARKEST DARK. THIS TECHNOLOGICAL POTENTIAL HAS CREATIVE CONSEQUENCES. IT CHANGES OUR SENSE OF WHAT IT MEANS TO MAKE. IT RESULTS IN WORK THAT FEELS LIKE PLAY. WORK THAT TURNS OLD INTO NEW, ELEVATES THE BANAL. WORK THAT HAS A PAST BUT FEELS ABSOLUTELY PRESENT. WE WANT TO GIVE THIS WORK A NEW STATUS. THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM HERE ON…”

Clement Cheroux, Joan Fontcuberta, Eric Kessels, Martin Parr, and Joachim Schmid, Joint Manifesto for From Here On, Rencontres d’Arles Photography Festival, Arles, France, 2011

From Here On was an exhibition that consisted of the work of 36 artists who appropriate images from the internet using sources such as social media, search engines, archives and surveillance technologies. The exhibition was presented as manifesto that declared a change in our understanding of photography as a result of the digital revolution.

Example: Jens Sundheim

In his series of photographs, The Traveller, Sundehim put himself into the frames of surveillance cameras that can be accessed through online streams and used his collaborator, Bernhard Reuss, to take the picture from a remote computer screen. 

The images highlight the ubiquity of surveillance cameras that the wider public tends to largely ignore. By facing the camera head on, Sundheim is acknowledging the fact he is being watched and challenges the viewer to acknowledge this fact too. In each of the images that are taken in different places around the world, Sundheim wears the exact same clothes. As a subject, he presents himself as omnipresent which highlights the fact that these cameras are always recording and always watching him. As a viewer I was left feeling uncomfortable. We commonly regard these surveillance cameras to provide society with security, but Sundheim's work challenges this notion. The images raise questions of who set these cameras up and why? Who views these images and what purpose do they serve that person? 

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Throughout this module I have developed an interested for appropriation art and found photography. My photo-essay attempts to challenge the notion of how emergent technology is changing the way we interact with each other, which I can parallel with the work of these artists. 

I plan in future projects to incorporate some of the methods of found photography that are used by these photographers, as I believe i'll be able to explore my chosen subject matter for this photo-essay further.