Project: Space and light

The use of light in portraying what’s going on in a space will have a huge impact. Consider the images used in the text for the previous project – the light direction in the room used in John Hedgecoe’s ‘Complete Guide to Photography’ relies on the light from the door to create the impression of depth and form:

The high contrast is obtained due to the bright light from the door which creates dark shadows in parts of the room.
Light from a smaller window could create a chiaroscuro effect which causes even greater contrast – see Michael Freeman’s ‘The Complete Guide to Light and Lighting in Digital Photography’. Here he states that the degree of contrast used in an image depends on three things:
· The amount of detail required in the shadows.
· The graphic design of the image.
· The atmosphere of the image
So using the light available at different times of day can change any of these three factors. Also the use of artificial light would affect the contrast.
The section ‘Lighting Spaces’ in the book is useful in describing what should be considered when making a lighting plan. The plan will usually involve different light sources. These could be from existing tungsten or fluorescent lighting, additional photographic lighting, flash, reflectors etc. as well as natural light from windows / doors. Obviously, before making a plan, the space needs to be assessed and the amount of contrast required.
Norman McGrath echoes the requirements for the lighting plan in ‘Photographing Buildings Inside and Out’ and emphasizes that the existing lighting should be assessed on a preliminary visit – it may be necessary to replace inoperative lamps or mismatched fluorescent tubes. Window blinds and / or curtains should be checked. He considers the types of available light:
Daylight changes throughout the day, not only with direction, but also intensity. Direct sunlight entering a space may or may not be welcome, depending on the type of image required, so the shoot may have to be rescheduled to suit the type of daylight.
This could be an area where HDR imagery would be used usefully, but for the sake of the exercise I won’t consider it.