BAPhot: Asg.4 Shadows

This page holds examples of and notes on the images taken for this assignment.

As noted in the blog on 18th March,

Exc. 4.4

For Asg.4, I have had two ideas so far — architectural, possibly The Barbican channelling Michael Schmidt and/or Atget as in Part 4 Project 2. We took a guided tour of the site last weekend which was very informative. The photographs taken were just snaps on the tour, but here are the contact sheets.

The second idea is playing with shadows in artificial (or even natural, if we ever see the sun) light, as in Part 4 Project 3.

The intention at present is to run both projects in parallel.
blog, 18th March

The images will be accumulated separately with Shadows, a secondary notion, on this page and The Barbican the main images page.

This began with Exercise 4.4.

7th April - 20th April - 25th June

7Apr18

Mondrian ashtray

Some early experiments with shadows. The chair started this train of thought, a paperclip came to mind as a possible subject: I need a bigger one, and a fork was thrown in at the end because of its use by the master of still life shadows, Kertész.

I'm not sure this notion is going anywhere. I might look for a stronger, more directional light.

Possible subjects - artefacts from the Mondrian Collection, including the glass ashtray. Small tools, screws & bolts etc. Avocado stone.

Contact sheets

Asg 4 — **Box A**
figs. A1-A5
7th April 2019
early trials, shadows

20-21Apr19

Setup 20Apr

Contact sheets

After the first experiment, I noted that a harsher light was needed. I invested in an £8.99 torch from Amazon which is bright and allows the beam to be focussed. Waiting until it was dark (and the cat had gone to bed), I arranged the set to allow shooting in the dark, except for the torch, which was used as a miniature theatre spotlight.

For subjects, I returned to an idea hatched in exercise 4.5, "4 things costing <£1 from a charity shop". An afternoon's searching yielded just two objects, a pepper pot and what appears to be a bear in a fish suit and so so household objects were also included.

The torch proved highly effective, providing a great deal of control over the direction and width of the light beam and thus wide adjustment to the shadow. The effect is that of a spotlight and also can create a classic photographic vignette frame.

The pepper pot is just about the largest object that can be used with the current setup. The old ball-head demonstrated one of the complexities and limitations of the notion as it was difficult to achieve an interesting shadow and an interesting subject foreground simultaneously.

I found the method intriguing to use but submitting a whole set of such images would probably not be considered sufficiently creative. Nevertheless, I have not entirely discounted the idea.