Applying lighting techniques

This assignment was the hardest for me. I used the natural lights before that. This assignment took twice as long as, in the past. But I feel that I have learned to use and handle the lights.

For this assignment I use the house of a see snail - of course it's empty :) It has nice color, detailed surface and special shape.

Sometimes the lighting was very difficult because the object is asymmetrical and different thicknesses.

SHAPE

First time I used a white reflector. It did not give satisfactory results. Then I thought that I placed the soft box behind the object. First, the top of the shell got too much light. I set the lamp lower - and I get the nice shape.

FORM

The shell spines are very characteristic -  I wanted to show. I tryed many settings, but all too many seemed to object. I wanted to emphasize the thorns. I used a hard light to highlight the forms. I put a spot light above and behind the shell. The node of light is very restricted. The hard shadows present the form of the object.

TEXTURE

For this image I used a spotlight on the right side of the lens. This resulted in a beautiful picture, but the shadows on the dark side are very hard. I used a white reflector to give light to the dark parts, but the shadows do not lose as completely.

COLOUR

The shell side is white with yellow and brown stripes. I placed two soft-boxes next to the camera, in same level of the object. It was a very schematic picture. I placed a warm light spot over the shell. This give a nice sparkle to the top of the object.

ATTRACTIVE LIGHTING

When I was experimenting in the spot light, I saw that the shell is translucent in the bright light. I tried to find a situation where the light is not distracting but illuminating the shell.

INTERESTING LIGHTING

This image is interesting from that I used a torch for illumination. I used long exposure time, and I quickly moved the torch around the object. I made a lot of pictures, but it's the most balanced.