DPC Mentorship - Natural Light - DPChallenge Forums

07/10/2005 09:53:33 PM · #26

everyone's doing fine, folks :-)

R.

Message edited by author 2005-07-10 22:15:50.

07/11/2005 12:24:54 AM · #27

We're gonna close "enrollment" at lucky 13, people. I think that's all we can handle. My apologies to others who may want in, we'll be doing it again I'm sure.

Final Class Roster

gibun, Jewellian, suprada, ShutterPug, chesire, Artan, xuan768, DustDevil, Too Cool, Rblanton, Evaan, kiropractic, jtf6agent

Robt.

TooCool

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

07/11/2005 12:55:11 AM · #28

Thanks for letting me in Robt.! And hello to all my new classmates.

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

07/11/2005 01:00:06 AM · #29

Originally posted by TooCool:

Thanks for letting me in Robt.! And hello to all my new classmates.

As a late enrollee you are required to finish your first assignment promptly, son...

:-)

R.

DustDevil

Canon EOS-70D

07/11/2005 01:00:25 AM · #30

Please note if I bring gum I will bring gum for all and I always use a no. 2 pencil for all scantron tests =).

07/11/2005 01:01:31 AM · #31

Originally posted by DustDevil:

Please note if I bring gum I will bring gum for all and I always use a no. 2 pencil for all scantron tests =).

NO GUM. Healthy appetizers are encouraged. Now go do your first assignment, kid.

R.

ShutterPug

Canon EOS-6D

07/11/2005 01:06:50 AM · #32

sorry if I am holding things up here - I'll be getting off work at 6 am - but wont get home until around noon. Once I'm there I promise to jump right on this and get my results posted.

xuan768

Casio Exilim EX-Z750

07/11/2005 03:20:03 AM · #33

07/11/2005 04:31:55 AM · #34

Taken at 9.00 am forgive the funny colours at the base, problems with PC and Memory card at moment

( corrected by using a different memory stick )

Message edited by author 2005-07-11 04:45:49.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

07/11/2005 04:34:35 AM · #35

tsk tsk tsk... That's why God gave us the crop tool, my friend. LOL

Robt.

rblanton

Canon EOS-10D

07/11/2005 04:41:05 AM · #36

Looking forward to this.. and the sun.. : )

07/11/2005 04:41:47 AM · #37

Originally posted by bear_music:

tsk tsk tsk... That's why God gave us the crop tool, my friend. LOL

Robt.

it happened after I edited the image.
I had to transfer to another PC to upload and the little beasties occured when transfereing to a memory stick..

07/11/2005 06:41:56 AM · #38

Class Roster for Summer 2005

Wise Council and Guide
bear_music

Willing Students
gibun, Jewellian, suprada, shutterpug, Chesire, Artan, xuan768, DustDevil, TooCool, rblanton, Evaan, kiropractic, jtf6agent.

Message edited by author 2005-07-11 14:48:31.

kiropractic

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

07/11/2005 07:25:20 AM · #39

Thanks for allowing me to be part of this. I think it will be very helpful and make all of us think instead of just snapping away.
I did my assignment, but I'm not going to post them unless needed. It looks just like suprada's but I used a shoebox. We all should be aware of the intensity, direction and the type of light reflected by the subject and I think this mentoring will help us all realize how important it is. Remember....without reflected light, there is no photography.

ShutterPug

Canon EOS-6D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

07/11/2005 09:48:35 AM · #40

ok, being that I was excited anout getting started on this, I decided to forget getting sleep after my 12 hour shift and get down to the business at hand. Here are my assigment photos in the order assigned by our mentor:

sorry - no bricks here but lots of ammo boxes

rblanton

Canon EOS-10D

07/11/2005 12:57:51 PM · #41

I had about 60 seconds of enough light to cast shadows so I ran out and snapped these in automatic mode. First shot was not in focus. Some interesting effects on the last one that was me facing where the sun is. The sun is above the ridge of the house, however clouds were moving back in and to my right and very close are some large trees which absorbed the light and so left the right side with less light. To my left an large yard with no trees. The effect was reflected indirect light from the left made the image seem to indicate there was a light source to my left not in front of me. Ah well, forecasts call for many days of rain so this may be my best shot at this for now.

07/11/2005 01:11:44 PM · #42

The best illustrations, thus far, for our purposes are these by xuan:

Originally posted by xuan768:

The first example, we will call flat light; the light is from directly behind us, more or less equal on both faces, and adds nothing to the volumetric perception of the mass. We only appreciate it as a solid because of its shape.

The second we will call strong light; the sense of volume is strong because the faces are either lit or in shadow, the contrast is as great as it is going to get. The shape of the solid is sharply defined by the light.

The third is raking light, and it serves us well both to depict volume and explore texture. On this particular subject, for descriotive purposes, it is clearly the light of choice.

The last is backlight and it is a specialty (or "niche") light, used to establish a mood at the expense of defining essential characteristics of the mass.

Pug's examples really show the non-descriptiveness of the backlighting, incidentally. Everyone's "wotk" is fine, no problems. I chose xuan's as the exemplar because of the aprticular texture of the subject, and mention pug's backlighting 'cuz i can see it right there as I type.

Alright, remember those terms: Flat Light, Strong Light, Raking Light, Backlight: we'll be using them frequently.

*******

So now we have started to get a feel for how the light affects a subject as it follow's the sun's path around it. Those of you who haven't shot your bricks, you really ought to, for hands on experience, but no need to post them here anymore, the point's been made by the early shooters.

One thing that follows obviously from this lesson, yet is overlooked by many people, is the need to plan your shooting based on the compass orientation of your topic(s). It is possible, for example, to plan a trip to India, google up the Taj Mahal, check the orientation of the reflecting pond, and deduce from that what time of day you want to be there to take that defining picture of the palace over the pond. You can look at topographical maps of wilderness areas you have never visited and get a REALLY good idea of what time of day you need to be at a particular site to shoot a particular view.

******

Alright, moving on from this: What we have just explored, basically, is the HORIZONTAL orientation of the light on a VERTICAL subject; but we also have to deal with the VERTICAL orientation of the light on a horizontal subject. For example, you're photographing a marsh, which is as horizontal as a thing can get. With the sun high in the sky, you're not gonna see any texture at all. With the sun lower in the sky, you'll see a lot more modelling of the nuances of the marsh. Backlighting and strong lighting come into play toone degree or anhother as you rotate your orientation within the marsh.

So let's do that: Go to a meadow, a marsh, a plaza, some other fairly large, flat place that is uniformly lit by the sun, in mid-morning or mid afternoon: stand in the middle of it and set up with a wide angle lens so the sun is directly behind you and shoot a picture. Rotate 90 degrees, shoot again. Rotate 90 more degrees, shoot a third image. 1. is flat light, 2. is strong light, 3. is backlight. Raking light can't be had in this exercise, the sun is too high to rake the meadow at this time of day. Midday is not a good time to do this, the light is the same in all directions you face if it's directly overhead, which it is at midday right now in the northern hemisphere.

Post these samples here (I like it when people combine all 3 into one image btw) and we'll discuss them next, as we finish up with discussing the first exercise.

********

Incidentally, what's the geographic location of our participants? Any southern hemisphere people here? If there are, we'll be able to deputize them to show us what we can do with winter light, and those of us in northern hemisphere (presumably most of us) can show how to use the summer light.

If you're in the tropics, you're basically, IMO, "out of light"... Just kidding, but my single most interesting piece of advice for good shooting is "go way north, or way south"; it's no accident that our Icelanders get such dramatic shots; when they have light at all, it's always dramatic light, very directional. You'll notice I followed my own advice, and retired from San Diego (not all that far north of the tropics) to Cape Cod, way much further North and a place that is famous for its sweet light. My gallery is called Cape Cod Light.

Let's get to it!

Robt.

Message edited by author 2005-07-11 13:13:49.

07/11/2005 01:47:58 PM · #43

Originally posted by bear_music:

Incidentally, what's the geographic location of our participants? Any southern hemisphere people here? If there are, we'll be able to deputize them to show us what we can do with winter light, and those of us in northern hemisphere (presumably most of us) can show how to use the summer light.
Robt.

Cape Cod is about 43 degrees North of Lattutude
I am in the UK at 51 degrees N. ) (We hit a high of 85 Degrees F today)
Gibun is in Seoul which is 37 degrees N

Farther north than all the US states bar Alaska

Its mid evening here so will try and pop out tomorrow to shoots some flat stuff

Message edited by author 2005-07-11 14:45:16.

Evaan

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

07/11/2005 02:43:22 PM · #44

Ran down to flat beach area as soon as I saw the assignment to try to catch mid-morning sun before it got too late. Took these at approximately 10:45 a.m. I am in Cambria, California...midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

I hope this picture format is what you had in mind, R. If not, please let me know.

ShutterPug

Canon EOS-6D

Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical HF for Pentax

07/11/2005 03:32:45 PM · #45

Originally posted by bear_music:

Incidentally, what's the geographic location of our participants?

I'm in the northern hemisphere - in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan about 40 minutes from the shores of Lake Superior

Since the lake is kind of a drive after being up all night working, I chose to shoot this assignment from my backyard which is fairly nice sized (1-2 acres mowed, the rest woods and swamp). The sun is still kinda high and not sure I got the effect you're looking for. Let me know and I can reshoot this when the sun drops lower if you like.

All were taken with a wide angle lens, ISO 100, shutter speed 500 - shot in the order assigned.

kiropractic

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

07/11/2005 03:49:43 PM · #46

Incidentally, what's the geographic location of our participants?
== == ==
I am at 33o 55'49.03"N/84o 30' 11.44"W or in Marietta, GA...which is just outside of Atlanta. Wow...i finally used used my GPS unit my brother got me for my b-day! Cool.

Jewellian

Pentax *ist DL

07/11/2005 05:48:49 PM · #47

I'm Located in the part of the country known as the great white north.... no not canada... Michigan. Detroit to be exact. As for the next assignment, what hours would be considered mid morning or mid afternoon? I work from 6:00 AM till 4:30 PM, so I'm kinda limited on my morning activities. Afternoon I may be able to do though.

suprada

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Sigma 18-125mm f/3.5-5.6 DC for Canon

07/11/2005 08:09:54 PM · #48

I'm live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Northern Hemisphere for sure, King of Prussia to be exact. And I'll be one another person who can post the assigment photos only tomorrow evening. Sorry about the delay.