Assignment 4: Applying lighting techniques

It was too difficult to get a real scull. I could get access to a laborotary if I had the time to wait a couple of  weeks.That was too long time for me to wait. They could however, lend me a copy of a scull in live size. I went for the copy.....

I have tried to use different lighting techniques to reveal shape, form, structure and colour.

The monochrome  images have been converted to have a TRI-X 400 look. I have always liked that film.

Shape

To light the scull in order to outline its shape, I wanted to show as little detail as possible. I chose to use one silhouette picture and one with a flat front light. The edges are more important then the detail in these images. The first photograph is lighted with a Speedlight and a small soft box.

The silhouette was created with a backlighted diffusion panel. The image was slightly underexposed in camera to get a dark enough shape.

Img.1

Flat, one source lighting

Img.2

Silhouette, back lit diffusion panel

Form

To show the form of the scull I tried to make it look as 3 dimensional as possible. I wanted to model the scull with light. I used One flash and mixed i with the ambient light. On one of the photographs I placed a small flash inside the scull to get a different kind of result.

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Balanced lighting, ambient light and flash with softbox.

Img. 4

Flash inside scull

Structure

To show the structure in the scull I decided to use side lighting. That will create shadows and highlights on the rough surface on the cranium. 

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Side lighting, flash

Img. 6

Side lighting, flash

Colour

The color on the scull is not very saturated. To make the colour stand out a bit, I decided to place it on a blue backdrop. I warmed the scull slightly with a cto gel.  The white balance in the camera was set to 2500 K. The warm colour on the scull is complementary to the blue backdrop.

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Side lighting, warm flash

Img.8 

Side/front lighting, warm flash