Wednesday 10 April 2013

The Easter egg hunt - was my photography assignment achieved?

In between doing my work and looking after my family, I have been taking a few lessons from an amazing photographer - Georgina Cranston. I stumbled upon her work after watching on the Guardian website a video she had produced, that tells the story of a homeless woman - Lucy's story. 

At the last lesson we talked about light, the different types of light and directions and the effects light can create on a subject. So after the lesson I had to work on an assignment experimenting with different types of light. 

We had planned to go down to Wales for the Easter weekend something that seemed a perfect opportunity to take beautiful pictures and get on with my assignment. I had a plan about the assignment - take portraits of a model, my son and/or his older cousins - with the light coming from different directions. 

Side lighting - light that comes from a window is very good as it diffuses naturally on to the subject and creates a warm atmosphere. 
Here is Edward enjoying an Easter egg. The light is coming from his left and lights up half of his face. It is a shame for the distracting background of the highchair and the radiator. Next time I will use a piece of white fabric in the background but with children you never know where they will stand or sit so it becomes difficult to control every setting. 
Taking photos when the sun is high in the sky brings bout the issue of shadows and can be unflattering for the subject as it exposes unflattering details, wrinkles, shade under the eyes etc. But here as the models are my beautiful boys, even on a bright sunny day they look fantastic! 


The light coming from the side on these daffodils makes them look bright and colorful - what about the cream eggs hidden in the earth?? I can only see one of them properly ... 

This is another example of light coming from above but the shades and unflattering details are not an issue as I am not doing a portrait of someone. I like this picture very much because of the lines the path defines and the dog looking away at the man with a child on his shoulders. 

The rest of the pictures are landscapes taken at about the same time, around midday. The coastal path in Pembrokshire is spectacular.  



Front lighting - here my subjects are facing the window where the light comes from and apart from not being able to have the three of them concentrate on one same thing, the effect is pretty warm?! 

Back lighting - the light is facing me and the back of my subject and it creates a bright effect around him. I love this picture for the expression of my very cute nephew but I should have stood back a bit more as it feels that we are a bit too close to him. So what is the verdict? Did I achieve what I wanted on this assignment? I certainly did experiment with the light, back-lighting, side-lighting, front-lighting, lighting from above but as to the results, I am not an objective judge. I am looking forward to hear Georgina's views. One thing is for sure, taking photos of children is challenging, that is why my favorite pictures from this assignment are 'dog and man with child' and 'cute nephew' who is older and can sit still for a while. 

4 comments:

  1. Very impressive and very insightful comments. Love the very first one especially (so cute!) and the one with the dog, very well composed.
    Keep them coming!

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    1. Hi Eva,
      Thank you so much, I enjoyed this assignment, playing with the light and placing myself in different positions/angles to the subjects. I like the first one too and the dog. Looking forward to reading your next article :-)

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  2. Such beautiful photos with the sunshine. I am far from an expert but I love them!
    Delphine

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    1. Delphine,
      Thanks a lot. It was a lovely sunny day, which isn't great for photos as it creates lots of shade but i still enjoy it more than photographing in overcast weather.
      Laura

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