EX71 Describing form with tone
Many hands make light work. This is really a group photograph. Five of us huddled around a table in my studio during a Master Class session. We each held torches, white and black cards and composed the lighting very carefully it illustrate modern ‘Chiaroscuro Lighting’.
Tones are used in classical and modern art to describe three dimensional form. This really took of artistically in the Renascence in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Some would argue the master of this form of lighting was Caravaggio. You can see some great examples when you look at the work or Rembrandt.
One of the beauties of photography is how you use light to describe feelings and forms.
Soft lighting creates gentle shadows with soft edges.
Hard lighting creates harsh shadows, deep blacks and hard edges.
Light that is reflecting into the things you photograph have huge influences too.
This week we hope to exercise our ‘seeing’ by practicing our visual scales.
The first part of this weeks exercise is easy. Go get an egg from your kitchen and photograph it on different surfaces and in different lights. You don’t need to create master pieces. You are studying what is going on with the shadows and the qualities of the light.
Notice the differences between the angle of the light, the quality of the light and the reflections from putting the egg on various tones. Try white, black and a mid tone. You might even try putting it on a pattern.
If you are feeling diligent, make notes as to what the light was doing so that you can reinforce what it is you are seeing.
Lastly, find something that you would like to photograph that is sphere shaped, oval or round. Something three dimensional. A cup, a bowl, a sculpture a ball. A piece of fruit perhaps. Now go and create a photograph showing and celebrating its three dimensionality using tone. You do this with light.
Post three photographs. One of each of the following:
Show your egg
Show your three dimensional object
Show using tone to describe a three dimensional form
Make sure they are photographs that you like, and that you have visually resolved and feel are completed.
