Assignment 5 - Photo essay

For this assignment I took a series of photographs while on holiday in Peru, not long after the devastating flooding. This provided the hook for my magazine story, which I have also written and mocked up.

Projects 57 and 58: the lighting angle, contrast and shadow fill

For a couple of projects with comparatively limited additional equipment, I followed the instructions to look at the impact of the different positions of lights, the use of a diffuser and the use of reflectors. Here are a few of the resulting images.

I quite like the effect of this one: clear shadows, no major highlights and a sense of the texture. The light was highish and about 45 degrees to the right.
With the light towards the front the shadow isn't very interesting but the texture not bad - some nice detail on the trunk.
This is astonishing; the close-by use of the reflector (a chopping board covered in foil) really flattened the light making this, I think, the least interesting shot of the lot.
I think perhaps the subject and the environment I was working in didn't give the greatest opportunity for a silhouette type shot with the light behind.
This is a nice shot, with some gentle light from a distance and slightly to the right showing some good texture and a reasonably clear shadow of the trunk.
The ear and back is too dark here - the light I think was too far away.
A nicely evenly lit shot here with some good texture on the trunk and ear - diffused light from above and the right.
Light too strong and close here with highlights too strong on the ear and much of the rest of the body in the dark.

Assignment 4: lighting techniques