Art 338 Studio Lighting FA 2021: Assignment 1: Light Events

Due Monday 8/23:

Please bring images to class. Plan to share, discuss and submit files.

To develop a visual understanding of light is one of the best things you can do for yourself as a photographer. It starts with looking, seeing, and noticing the light. Then you figure out how to work that into your pictures.

Shooting exercise:

Find instances of natural light that are truly unique "light events." Look for interesting effects of light on surfaces or objects. Maybe the light effect becomes the subject, as with the patterns created by the crystal doorknob below. Or, alternatively, work with shadows, which are also a kind of light event, but inverted.

Make pictures that isolate the light event, by getting close to your subject ("in-camera cropping"). Keep distractions out of the frame. Get close!
Go on a visual adventure. Mornings and late afternoons ("golden hour") with a clear sky can be nice times to do this.
Prepare to share and discuss what you've found. Shoot many images (50+), from which you will choose your strongest 20.

Boring doorknob. Not a"Light Event"

A more interesting doorknob. Definitely a "Light Event"

Also, try to push beyond photographing the light source directly. The sunset picture below is okay (nothing wrong with the picture...it's nice), but what happens if you focus on the effect of the sun on the surface of the water. The result might be more original and surprising.

Think of photographing the effect of the light, rather than the light itself.