5: Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly or Paramount is a type of lighting that first became popular in the 1930's in hollywood films. 

This lighting style was and still is used to define the cheekbones and elongate the face. This type of lighting works particularly well with female subjects, but not as much with male subjects as it can make the face too narrow and thin. 

This type of lighting can easily be distinguished by the butterfly like shadow that falls below the nose. 

This time I chose to use a black background. 

Using a canon 7D DSLR, 18-135mm lens, 100 ISO and 1/125 shutter speed I tried to recreate the butterfly lighting technique myself. I used a light meter to determine the f stop on each exposure.   

These two images were produced using a honeycomb lighting grid which fitted to the studio light. This grid narrows the beam of light but softens the edges to produce a softly litten photograph.   

Aperture f/5.6

The rest of these photographs were taken using a different studio light technique but still producing the butterfly portrait.
Instead of the studio light being shon directly towards the subject, actually the light flashed the light backwards and away from the model into a reflective umbrella which bounces the light back towards the subject.
With this lighting technique a greater volume of light onto and around the subject, which means that the background is also more illuminated.
    

Aperture F/8

Aperture F/8

For this last image I also used a light reflector to bounce the light into some of the shaded areas of the face.

Aperture F/8

The studio set up. 

4: One Day Brief

What a Gas

Moira dropped the unopened letter from the Gas Board into the bin.
She knelt, weary knees aching, to turn up the oven's temperature dial as she peeked inside. “Filthy.” she wiped away crumbs and debris.
House unkempt? Never.
Sorted now, she thought. Her sigh masked the hiss of the escaping fumes

Flash Fiction is a complete story in 1000 words or less. It is a story that  has been whitled down to its essence whilst remaining a complete story, with plot, narrative, characters, conflict, and resolution.

My one day brief was to produce four photographs using a DSLR camera that flow through the story that I was given. I was given the story "What a Gas" (Top of the page).

I chose to use a canon 7D and a 50mm lens on this project because I wanted to use depth of field in my images. The depth of field can be easily seen in my first two images. 

Set in my own kitchen I chose to produces images that first illustrate how Moira threw the letter away and peeked into the oven, then I produced abstract photographs which I wanted to represent the gas escaping from the faulty oven and entering the lungs of Moira.  

3: Experimenting in the studio

Personally I am more of an out-and-about photographer so studio portraiture work is a little alien to me, but neither the less enjoyable. 

Using a canon 7D DSLR plus different lighting equipment I produced these portraits.

Experimenting with different levels of light, light reflectors and different apertures and shutter speeds I have tried to get to grips with all the elements of this type of photography.    

Using a 50mm lens I used f2.5 aperture and 125 shutter speed to produce depth of field on this image. 

2: Featherstone Castle

From the 30th of September to the 2nd of October I stayed in Featherstone Castle which is in Haltwhistle,  Northumberland. 

Over the three days in which I stayed there I undertook different photography tasks, these included; working with a digital SLR to produce ghost like images, photographing the castle itself and its surrounding, and also producing images of a camera obscura. 

I also worked an SLR film camera in which I photographed both the surrounding and the castle. 

I very much enjoyed the three days that I spent in Featherstone castle, and I also learnt about the history and beginnings of photography. The camera obscura task really opened my eyes to how photography has progressed from when it was first discovered. 

A camera obscura in latin means dark room. In a dark room with a a small holes worth of light from the window produces an inverted image of what ever may be visible outside. This is then projected onto the walls and the objects in the room. 

If you look closely you'll see me stood on the wall.

Experimenting with slow shutter speeds and different light setting I also produced ghost like images which captured movement of a person. 

These kind of images have been produced since the Victorian era. They began as a hobby for photographers, but they were soon picked up by mediums and fakes to try and scam the gullible into making them believe that their dead relives had returned as ghosts.      

These are just a few images that I took at and around the castle.

1: Who am I?

 Hello there. My name is Isabelle (or Izzy if that's easier) and I am a first year student studying Photography at Leeds College of Art.
  

Interested in pretty much anything photography or arts related, whether that may be abstract, conceptual or traditional I'm all for it. 

As well as loving the arts I also love music, and especially the music of the 60's 70's and 80's. 

I enjoy collecting records, and currently I am trying to collect all the LP's by David Bowie. At the moment I only have ten (Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs, Hunky Dory, Lets dance, Pin Ups, Heroes, Scary Monsters, Lodger and David Live), it's slowly growing.    

Anything old interests me. Old vinyl players, clothes, jewellery, antiques, the past fascinates me.