Studio Contextual Document

I have been thoroughly enjoying the studio module so far and look forward to what
else it can bring to me, for the brief I have been trying to think of ways I can use
lighting in the house and outside to experiment before my final shoot. I was very
interested in food photography from early on as we had done some of this previously
and it excited me to do more, it’s something I didn’t think I would be into but I really
have gained a love for it over the course of this module. I decided I would like to
explore fruit and vegetables, I had done a still life during a college session where I
had used a pepper and this sparked me to want to do more. Also within this I had
looked into other photographers and one I loved and took great inspiration from was
a photographer called Victoria Ivanova, she has done some work with pears and as
soon as I seen one of her images I felt inspired. I haven’t gone to the depths she has
with how she creates stories with her fruit but it gave me a great deal of insight into
how you can make the fruit look more or less attractive to the viewer and how
lighting and editing can define the mood and textures of your image.
Below is one of her images I first came across.

[ CITATION Vic15 \l 1033 ]

Another photograph I took inspiration from was this one and one’s similar,

[ CITATION pxh \l 1033 ]

I really like these close up shots of the fruit using a macro lens and water droplets,
the use of lighting with the water and then the texture created I felt I wanted to start
with something along these lines.
As we are unable to use the college at this time I have tried to get creative with my
ideas so for some practice shoots I used two lamps that I had in the house and made
my own reflector with tin foil starting with using an apple and orange and then onto a
pineapple, I then discovered I had some issues with white balance as my lamps
were throwing out a warm glow making my images appear yellow. I did some
research on white balance by watching some videos and exploring my settings, this
really helped.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48c02L_nHZc

[ CITATION Gre \l 1033 ]

Next I went onto using an orange and cutting it up in ways I felt would look
appealing, I decided this time to see what I could achieve with natural lighting, I used
window light in my kitchen and the dark counter top which also stood out nicely
against the brightness of the orange colour. Although I got in fairly close with the
camera I felt I wasn’t getting the light wanted or the close up textures. I used this
video which really helped improve my images and also gave me the idea to use a
pomegranate for my final shoot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoROSLLk5uU

[ CITATION The17 \l 1033 ]

I took a look into some macro photographers and liked the style of photographer
Darren Gentle, although he mostly takes photographs of flowers I was interested in
his use of the water droplets and how he has lit the subject creating the darker
background which make the foreground stand out.

[ CITATION Dar \l 1033 ]

I then went onto doing some more research into lighting, I was worried about any
harsh shadows as I had this problem in previous practice shoots and how the light
will completely affect the outcome. I have a book called light, science and magic that
I have been reading which I found very helpful in understanding light and what it can
effect.

[ CITATION Fil19 \l 1033 ]

Here it talks about how having a large light source will reduce the affect of shadows
on your subject and this is what I was hoping to achieve for the main part of my
image.
I also took some photo’s outside in the bright sunlight, I did this in order to help me
control the light at the hottest part of the day, this was tricky but I helped me to learn
a lot. I took some shots of my nephew using a very low iso firstly as it was so sunny,
I then took note of where he was sitting and what effect the sun had over him, I
noticed at times the sun was creating big shadows on him so I tried to control this by
moving around and adjusting my camera settings, if I were to do a future outdoor
shoot I would look into using a spot meter to expose for the models face, I could
reposition my models so that the sunlight is not falling directly onto the face and look
into what’s around me for shaded areas. Doing this helped me to control lighting.
For the final shoot I wanted to get the best effect so I borrowed two studio lights and
a macro lens from a friend, first I played around to see the effects the position of the
lighting had on my subject. I wanted to try and create more texture to make the fruit
look more appetizing and juicy, I was thinking of this shoot as if I was shooting for an
image that could be placed in a food brochure that would grasp the readers
attention. I decided in the end to go with a dark background to really make the red of
the pomegranate pop. I started off with one light which was at a distance from my
subject, I noticed this wasn’t giving me the exposure I wanted. Then I used a water
spray as in my idea I had planned to originally do this, this enhanced the effect for
my image but still I need to expose more. I also had to keep check on my
composition and where the light was falling onto the pomegranate, for the first shots I
was creating more light from the left of my image. In order to try and correct this I
used a reflector at the right of my fruit to try and direct some of that light back onto
the right hand side, and then upped my light power, this worked well. I experimented
with different angles and distance. I went on to place the reflector above my subject
and notice that this pushed even more light all over, this really shown me how the
reflector was working to move the light around. I added in the second light and again
could see another difference as this brightened up my subject even more again, and
moving the lights in closer also added to this effect, I had now really gained the
understanding of what the light was doing. For my final images I decided to edit them
in a way that brought out the texture in the fruit as even then I felt with the lighting I
had achieved this to some extend I felt I wanted a deeper contrast and more of that
wow factor to my shots. I did this by adjusting the contrast and texture in photoshop,
I also added more vibrancy to add more colour to the images.

In conclusion, after a lot of experimenting I felt it led my final images to be what they
were, without the research and practice I did I wouldn’t have very good images as it
has taken time to gain an understanding of light and how it works. Technically I have
progressed massively as I am able to direct light on to my subject and recognize the
effect it is having, I understand how the use of reflectors and diffusers can impact
how lighting and shadows are created or avoided. I have progressed creatively
because I am looking at angles and what I should or shouldn’t include into my image,
for instance with the pomegranate I decided not to include the skin and I felt that it
was a good decision. I am also learning more use of photoshop and gaining an
understanding of what looks good and what isn’t so pleasing, learning about white
balance has helped me to recognize when the image can look off and either too
pink/green/blue etc and how to correct it. I think my photographs are starting to look
more professional, when I look at my first attempt with the pineapple compared to
the final pomegranate images I can really see the difference and where I managed to
get myself to professional in terms of the lighting, my composition, how I have
encouraged textures into my work and the use of different lenses and what results
they achieve. Now I have this understanding of light and how it works on fruit I would
like to in future look into creating stories from fruit or food just like Victoria Ivanova, I
would like to attempt to create my own scene and set up in a way that shows
emotion and tells a creative story, I feel like now that I have the understanding more
of studio I would be able to go on to achieve something like this.

Bibliography
Anon., n.d. [Online]
Available at: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1365586
Gentle, D., n.d. Instagram. [Online]
Available at: https://www.instagram.com/daz79gts/

Greg, n.d. White Balance And Kelvin Colour Temp. [Online]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48c02L_nHZc

Hunter, F., 2019. Light Science & Magic. 5th ed. s.l.:Routledge.

Lonely, V. I., 2015. Pulp Factor. [Online]

Available at: http://pulpfactor.com/photography/8813/photography-by-victoria-
ivanova/attachment/lonely-photography-by-victoria-ivanova/

Shot, T. B., 2017. Youtube. [Online]

Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoROSLLk5uU