Portrait Lighting (Assignment 18)

1. Front Light

2. Broad Light

3. Loop Light

4. Rembrandt Light

5. Split Light

6. Silhouette

7. Top Light

8. Bottom Light

9. Back light

10. Rim light

Observation -

In this assignment, I photographed a person using various lighting setups (split, back, front, top, bottom, soft) and experimented with different colored lights. I observed that light direction, quality, and color dramatically change the mood, depth, and perception of the subject—soft and front lighting created flattering, gentle effects, split and bottom lighting added drama, and colored lights influenced emotional tone. This exercise reinforced how lighting is a powerful tool for shaping mood and storytelling in portrait photography.

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Motion blur, motion freeze, Light trails and light painting (Shoot 6)

f/4.5 - 1 sec f/4.5 - 8/5 secs f/4.5 - 8/5 sec f/4 - 8/5 sec f/4 - 6.5 sec f/1.8 - 1 sec f/1.8 - 2 secs f/1.8 - 2.5 secs f/1.8 - 2.5 secs f/1.8 - 1.5 secs f/2.4 - 1/3 secs f/2.4 - 1/3 secs f/1.8 - 2 secs f/1.8 - 1.5 sec f/1.8 - 1 secs f/1.8 - 1/2000 secs Observations and Learnings At night, experimenting with motion blur felt very different from doing it in daylight. With slower shutter speeds, moving subjects created more dramatic and stretched blurs, while the darker environment made the trails stand out much more strongly. When photographing traffic, the headlights and taillights turned into long, continuous light trails that gave the images a sense of flow and direction. Light painting was especially interesting—I noticed how even simple movements with a torch or phone light could draw shapes in the air, leaving bright streaks captured by the camera. The combination of still backgrounds and glowing trails made the photos feel vibrant and alive, even though the setting i...

Aperture - Shallow Depth of Field (Assignments 7)

f/4 f/4 f/4 f/4 f/5 Observations - In this assignment, I experimented with aperture by taking two photos of the same frame: one where the brush in hand was in focus and another where the face was in focus. I observed that a wider aperture (low f-stop) created a shallow depth of field, isolating the hand sharply while blurring the face in the background. On the other hand, adjusting the aperture to focus on the face shifted attention to the subject’s expression while softening the foreground (the hand).

Research on Edward Weston (Assignment 20)

EDWARD WESTON About him- Edward Weston (1886–1958) was a pioneering American photographer renowned for transforming photography into a respected modern art form. Born in Highland Park, Illinois, Weston began his career with soft-focus pictorialist images but soon shifted to a sharper, more realistic style known as straight photography He is best known for his black-and-white images of natural forms , landscapes , nudes , and close-ups of everyday objects like shells, vegetables (especially peppers), and rocks . Weston co-founded Group f/64 in 1932 with other notable photographers like Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham , promoting pure photography and clarity in contrast to manipulated or painterly styles. Pepper No. 30 (1930) This is arguably Weston's most iconic photograph. He used a simple bell pepper and transformed it into a powerful, almost sculptural form through lighting, contrast, and tight framing. The curves and folds of the pepper resemble the human body, showing hi...

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