3 different people, 3 different windows - Assignment 2 (Part 3 of 5)

Photograph 7, Assignment 2

I wanted to meet the criteria of 'Indoor space in which the only avilable light is strong natural window light' for this set of high contrast images, while at the same time including different people. My reasoning for including a person for each scene was not only would it make the scenes more interesting but it would allow me to try to illustrate what each person was doing in each scene; in turn leading the eye around the scene. I planned to do this by using 'available objects' - an idea consisting of moving around objects that were already present in the scene in order to give information to the viewer regarding the scene/person.

   I found I had to work fairly quickly because in all three cases the Sun was either rising quickly (Photograph 7) or setting quickly (Photographs 8 and 9). It did however mean the Sun was streaming in throught the windows strongly, making the setting high contrast. I was still prepared to use live view, a tripod bracket my exposures and I'm glad I did because I chose the bracketed exposures carefully for each photograph when reviewing them afterwards.

Photograph 8, Assignment 2

 






















 


   I tried to vary the composition for each of the three images. With Photograph 7, I chose a low viewpoint, an horizontal level in Photograph 8 and a viewpoint looking down in 9. This was mainly to keep each photo different but also so that the different compositions showed what was happening in the scenes better. In my opinion the strong available light and the placement of the 'available objects' worked well in combination. Placing the important objects in the sunlight helped draw the eye to them as they were more obvious.

    Because I was using liveview on my camera I could tell quite precisely how the photograph would turn out before I took each photograph for this set. With strong, available window light for me the scene as I saw it and how my camera rendered it were, kindly, very similar. If there was one difficulty it was balancing the highlights with the shadows/midtones. However, I was satisfied with the finally selected exposures after I had decided which bracketed exposure to use for each scene.

Photograph 9, Assignment 2

   One side note was the useage of my camera's 'Dynamic Range Optimiser' feature. Where previously I had deliberately turned off this feature (which gently lifts shadows, while attempting to keep noise at a minimum) - in the set 'High Contrast Street Photography' - here I used it at one of its low settings. This was so the (important, I felt) shadow areas could be lifted slightly while the highlights were simultaneously kept 'in check'. Without this turned on I thought the shadows would be too dark.