SparkyFizz

Book cover design...

My homework last week was to design a book cover for an already existing book.  I chose 'Oranges are not the only fruit" by Jeanette Winterson.  Looking through her work, I realised that I'd forgotten how talented she is.

Shadows...

This was our photography homework this week.  Shadows can be quite complex, it isn't always obvious how the shadow pattern is going to fall. It's difficult to get natural shadows at this time of year.  Today we have gales and rain, but when the sun does shine, the autumnal effect can be lovely.  In my house the sun streams in more beautifully now than during the summer months, due to the placement of my windows and the sun being lower in the sky.  So I chased shadows around the house...

The time of day makes a big difference to the image, even in autumn.  Long shadows in the morning and evening when the sun is very low, slightly shorter in the afternoon.  How far the object is from the light, and the height of the object make a difference.  Also, whether the light is diffused to create soft light or direct to create hard and crisp images.  The surface the shadow falls onto makes a huge impact on the result also.  Sometimes the shadow just doesn't photograph well, the reflection is too weak. This week I tried to create soft and crisp images.

I don't have one to show here, but I love the type of shadows that effortlessly bend planes and climb up walls.  Overlaying shadows can also give interesting results. Pictures of shadows can be quite abstract, especially if you don't show the source image.

Soft lamps can also be used to replace sunlight of course.  In this picture you can see that the shadow has been 'lifted' from the source image due to the placement of the lamp at the lower right.

I like the way the source image intertwines with the reflection

Copying Photographic Images...

Homework this week was to copy a photographic image, any published and printed image, with an emphasis on re-creating the original lighting.  I chose to copy David Loftus, the photographer who works on all the Jamie Oliver books.  I love lifestyle photography, so it seemed a good place to start...

I can't upload the original image, but you'll find it here under 'genres' and 'tastes'. It took me forever.  I spent a lot of time worrying about setting it up.  I wanted to copy it as closely as possible, and was very indecisive about angles, props and lenses.  I thought it would be simple... don't you think it looks simple?  

Trying to get the lens to capture this frame was hard work, but the tripod, (with which I'm a novice) nearly killed me!  This set-up ended up on the floor in front of a large window. Then I had to consider lighting, which was the main point of the exercise, I needed to get the shadows and highlights in the correct places -  almost impossible.  I managed to get the shadows almost in the right place, although they weren't deep enough, but I couldn't get the highlight on the cheese topped bread.

The depth of field was difficult to get with the angle of the photo, as for the colour of the soup... yeuk!  His was a sprightly bright green, he had more pea soup in his bowl than I did, and  bread floating just in the middle.  Mine looked like sludge pouring into the Danube, with an off-centre floating bread.  Actually my soup looked much more verdant before I took it to Photoshop to give the whole thing a 'blue hue' which seemed to exist in the original.  This was a mistake.  The chives were the easiest and I do like the reflections on the side of the bowl.

I ended up using a long 300mm lens, which weighs a lot, on a tripod.  I was convinced the tripod was going to fall over and smash my new expensive lens, so cushions everywhere and weights hanging on centre of tripod.  Also used my new remote control for the shutter which should have been easy, but wasn't.  No one has ever explained to me how to use all this equipment, so it's very much trial and error and lots of tantrums! Keeping the cats away from the soup was hard work too.  I thought my bread was going to sink...

Despite the frustration, it was a good assignment.  I think I learnt something and it squashed my idea that I might be able to do some decent lifestyle photography in the near future!  So much to learn...

So, I take my hat off to Mr Loftus, I think the simplest photography is possibly the hardest to copy accurately, and my plagiaristic tendencies endeth here!  My tutor told me that food photography was difficult to do well.  Although David Loftus tends to shoot his food pics naturally, probably no food dye for example, he may well have had his bread propped up on something, which I didn't even think of. 

By the time I'd finished I was very hungry.  The home made pea soup was delicious in reality (and much greener), as was the goat cheese toasted bread.  Of course for my photo the soup was cold and I didn't eat that particular piece of bread... just in case you were wondering about me!

Now, if I'd just moved that bowl a tad to the right....