#lightingthedark

Moonlight

‎The moon is so bright

‎The moon follows as I walk

‎Giving me the light.

Reflection: This is about a moon shines brightly, lighting my way as I walk through the dark. With each step, it feels like the moon is guiding me, never leaving my side. I trust its light, knowing it will lead me through the night.

So back to Pollok park and a bit more prepared this time.

checked on time of sunset

makeshift snoot for Rotolight

darker clothing for model & photographer

homemade mask

dog securely out of way

head torch for adjustments etc.

bribe (beer) for model

This was the latest I had been outdoors since the lockdown and to be frank I was a bit nervous, but I had dog walking as my reason to be in the park and, surprisingly, there were several dog-walkers there! I wasn’t confident I could explain the tripod, light, and camera if someone came along halfway through the shoot.

I used the “live comp” setting on my camera set at 15 second intervals and started by illuminating the ruined tree. First of all the grassy hillock in front of it and then the trunk itself. Next I lighted a pathway between the trees and then the second tree and the stick structure around it. Lastly I introduced the masked figure and illuminated him using an old flashgun triggered on my other camera.

Some of this went well, the trunk in particular, however I did still get some bleed from the LED on the back of the light which I had to sort in edit.                      The flash on the figure only partly illuminated him, fading off towards the feet, but I was quite happy with this effect as it added to the overall eeriness. 

This post is an initial rough edit. 

In an ideal world I would have had at least one other person to assist and that would have made all the difference. In an ideal world I would go back and do another shoot. However ,at the moment, this is not an ideal world, so I may shoot something else closer to home, or submit this less than perfect shot as my final submission...

Lighting The Dark - Images Selected + A3 Test Canvas

The top image is all the selected images I have picked out from the round of shooting I did and I put them into one folder to keep it tidy.

I selected these images out as I like how you can see the park bench and the foreground of the image.

I decided to use the first image I think, as I felt like it as the best potential to edit and look the best out them all.

Test Canvas 1 - I like this image but I feel like it’s a little bit dark and it’s hard to see what’s actually in the image.

Test Canvas 2 - I re-edited the image to make it lighter and bring out more of the hided details within the images.

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson a American photographer born in Brooklyn , New York, 1962.

He joined a photo 101 class in Purchase College, State University of New York. It was taught by Laurie Simmons. He soon grew a passion for photography and went to study the medium. He then received his MFA in Photography at the Yale School of Art, where he is now a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Photography. By 2012 he was the feature of the documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters, it was about his collection Beneath The Roses. Crewdson has been awarded the Skowhegan Medal for Photography [8] and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. His work has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum

He creates detailed sets that often take weeks of planning with full crews of people. Hes even had roads shut of in town for some of his shots. He uses large light panels to create his images

Todd Hido

Todd is an American photographer born in kent, ohio, 1968. He graduated in 1991 with a B.F.A. from Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts and School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Between 1991 and 1992 he studied at Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. In 1996 he gained an M.F.A. from California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California.

 He photographs urban and suburban housing across the u.s.

  He often uses light that is already in the sene. Hes got an eye for spotting where therer is intresting light.

Troy Paiva

Troy Paiva is a Photographer that specialises in light painting. He uses light painting while investigating ruins of lost America. “I love the surreal feeling of wandering through an abandoned subdivision, alone, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. Your senses become heightened and you feel the weight of time.” Troy has written a few books about his time spent light painting in these forgotten places called “Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration”.

Tory Paiva adds his lights to the scene. He often uses contrasting colours that adds a surrealist twist on the abandoned places. The contrasting light almost makes you feel uneasy.

Plan

my location will be at my local country park (Calderglen country park). I wanted to shoot natural subject matter (trees).

Contact Sheets

Best Images

Worksheets

Final Image 

i shot this image using a torch and tripod. i painted in the bench in such a way i wanted it to look as if the light was coming from above the subject. 

Overall Evaluation

I was very inspired by the photographers in the ‘Lighting the dark’ presentation. I really liked the work that included coloured light such as Troy Paiva and Barry Underwood’s. However I can't recreate something similar to this because I don't have the equipment to do so. A photographer's work that I am able to learn from is Tim Simmons. He uses a large format camera photographing natural landscapes and combines natural and additional artificial light to create his scenes.

Another photographer I am interested by is Heather Yates, and her Shinrin Yoku project. She also happens to be a lecturer at the college, I wish I had reached out to her and asked her about her process. However, from her images I can tell they were shot at a very slow aperture because stars can still be seen in the sky, and her quality of light was strong and wide because of the range in which it covers. 

Constructed image: The idea behind a constructed image is the photographer creating what is captured in front of the camera rather than just photographing what is already there. Narratives can be communicated using this technique. An image can be constructed using lighting, props, styling, colour, and the combining of multiple images. 

Task:

Research some of the photographers we have looked at on the adobe spark relating to the project that you were given. Choose one and collect some their images in your blog/workbook. Tell us why you have chosen them and note their approach and methods of creating their works.

My research on Tim Simmons:

This is a quote by Tim Simmons - “

My work aims to explore our relationship to the landscape, exploring the themes that link our lives with the natural world. Working with photography and film, my practice considers the constancy of the land, while simultaneously exploring the concept that landscape is the link between what we were and what we have become.”

I have collected 4 images from 2 of his project that related to lighting up an area of landscape. The first one is called Snow and the second one is called Iceland. I chose these images as I personally like them as you can see the area as you wouldn’t normally see it at night / after dark and you can see the technique of lighting up an area really well.

Project - Snow

How has Tim Simmons achieved these shots?

He captured these images of the Snow in Norway, on a large format camera, from part of an ongoing landscape project / series he started in 2004.

Why did I choose these images?

I choose these images from his project called Snow, I really like them as you can use a simple technique and a touch or light to create something beautiful, and something you wouldn’t normally see in the dark.

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Project - Iceland

How has Tim Simmons achieved these shots?

He captured these images of the landscape of Iceland, on a large format camera, these image are from part of an ongoing landscape project / series he started in 2004.

Why did I choose these images?

Lighting The Dark - Contact Sheets

I shot this project in one evening, at Barshaw Park. 

I had an idea of shooting this project in another park but another classmate of mines already shot the object I was going to do, so I decided to go with my second idea, with a bench in Barshaw Park.

Shooting this project was easy to do as I have already done lighting painting and lighting up an object before, so it was good and fun to go back and go it again but in a different way.

My Research on Lighting The Dark

Research Photographer - Tim Simmons

Information on Tim Simmons:

Tim is a landscape photographer and focuses on the details and precise visions of the landscape. His work accordingly to Ground Work ( https://www.groundworkgallery.com/artist/tim-simmons/ ), “his works show the world with great intensity and reach beyond what we think we see. Both scientifically and spiritually they access another dimension.” quoted from Ground Work. He’s had his work shown several times at Ground Work over the years. He has also just recently released a book called “Place In Time” in 2020, with the help from Judith Stewart who edited it and Dewi Lewis who published it.

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Project - Lighting The Dark

Task on brief:

Show adjustment layers, layer mask, noise reduction, balancing exposure, Raw workflow, Research and evaluation on blog and worksheet.

Make 1 final image.

Submit 1 Raw file + 1 edited file on two A3 canvas onto my city.

My ideas:

Elephant at Bellahouston Park

Park bench 

Trees

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