Portfolio Development: Paint with Light

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INTRODUCTION:

This project will allow you to explore your own creative vision. The purpose for this project is to allow you to add a creative and technically polished photograph with a location emphasis to your existing portfolio. This photograph should be in the same subject area as your main body of work and area of interest. You should aspire to create a technically proficient and highly creative image that showcases your personality and your highest skill level at this point in your development.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Create a student directed portfolio piece.
  • Further development of personal vision and conceptual thinking.
  • Accurately assess weaknesses in your current portfolio.
  • Solve complex lighting issues while creating a compelling visual.
  • Creatively explore compositional and formal elements.
  • Expand your knowledge of image manipulation, retouching, color and density correction for optimum quality of output.
  • Continue to explore capture requirements and post production methods needed to produce high quality results.
  • Understand the process of pre-conceptualizing for a multiple image submission.
  • Properly perform and understand complex metering operations.
  • Experience with photographing in location situations.
  • Experience with effective location scouting for self directed imagery.
  • Experience with digital enhancement related to color and contrast control.
  • Experience with effective visual communication to a diverse viewing audience

 

RESOURCES

  • Your creativity and personal intellect
  • Lecture notes
  • Demonstration notes
  • The internet
  • The library

MATERIALS NEEDED:

  • An assistant
  • Studio space (Check-out)
  • Talent
  • Background
  • Supporting props if desired
  • Camera
  • Len
  • Tripod (Check-out)
  • Hand-held exposure meter (Check-out)
  • Basic makeup kit with translucent powder and brush
  • Film or digital media card
  • Strobe equipment (Check-out)
  • Light modifiers
  • Access to a computer and Photoshop
  • 13×19 Exhibition Fiber Paper
  • Presentation backer and matte board

FINAL IMAGE:

 

EQUIPMENT USED:

  • Canon 5D mkIII
    • Tethered to M1 MacBook Pro
  • Tamron SP85 f/1.8
  • Godox AD300Pro 2x
  • Godox V1 Speedlight
    • Warmed up with a ¼ CTO Gel
  • Godox XProC Trigger
  • 7” Reflector with Grid
  • 32”x32” Softbox
  • Medium Sized Lantern Softbox
  • Atmosphere Spray
  • Tripod, C-Stands, Castered Light Stand, Large Boom Stand, Background Stand
  • Grey Card
  • Sekonic Litemaster L-478D Meter

SETTINGS

  • ISO100 and ISO125
  • f/9.0
  • Multiple Shutter Speeds for HDR and Bracketed Exposures of Light Fixtures
    • Majority 1/125 for Strobes

RESEARCH:

Weary Road by Lonesome Wyatt and the holy Spooks

“I went out driving just the other night
Far away from all the city lights
The music in the car was turned down low
I was looking for a place I used to know

Called Weary Road, Weary Road
We used to meet there in the days of old
Weary Road

It was late I almost fell asleep
But to you this one promise I would keep
To meet you ‘neath the tree with leaves of red
When next the blue moon did raise it’s head

On Weary Road, Weary Road
We used to meet there in the days of old
Weary Road

I brought my father’s pistol and some rope
Within my heart there nested a strange hope
I wondered how you’d look and who you’d be
And if you’d still have time for one like me

On Weary Road, Weary Road
We used to meet there in the days of old
Weary Road”

DEMONSTRATION NOTES:

  • Lock it down
  • Use a grey card
  • Keep Lighting Directions Consistent
  • HDR is your safety net
    • (I found this useful to have fill for the masked layers)

WORKFLOW:

This image was created at the yearly shootout at Riverside Place in Spokane (We should probably rethink calling a school related function a shootout). This is a time for chaotic activity, gathering location scouts and assistants, putting together projects that we can add to our portfolio. For me this turned out to be a breakthrough.

My initial thought was to put together a reshoot of a studio assignment but on location to contribute to the narrative. Unfortunately, I was not happy with my treatment of my subject and this become apparent as I began editing everything together. After lighting and gathering all the background elements; I felt locked into focus and placement of the subject before the subject came available. Placement of the subject does not portray him in the most flattering light.

I chalked this up to good practice and decided to reapproach the idea. My scouting found the south hallway next to the main floor stage to be photogenic for the idea I had. I wanted to create an image of a weary road travelling musician with a Film Noir Vibe.

This wound up needing a reshoot as well as my first attempt was met with challenges that were difficult to overcome in post processing. More on that as we progress.

My first creative choices for this image was to shoot with an 85mm lens. Since the hallway is long, I wanted a focal length that would compress the field of view a little bit and the 85mm lens was perfect for pulling this look off.

I think one of the bigger challenges is making an ambient exposure that preserves detail in the light fixtures. Even creating an HDR image still present lights in which the exposure far exceeds Tonal Range. These lights have forms and details that I think are important to capture. Shooting tethered allows me to make exposure assessments so with an eye for detail in mind; I adjusted shutter speed higher and higher, stopping down the exposure until I achieved just under 255 (100%) RGB numbers in the lights. I then created more exposures, stopping down even further to gather images of the details in the light. The idea is to gather the resources necessary to recover the forms and details through layering and masking.

Did I use all these exposures? No, I only used two, one that was lacking in detail and form but gave me the appearance of a brightly glowing light fixtures and then another exposure that allowed me to recover the details that aren’t present when these lights are pushing past an acceptable tonal range.

For my next task I assessed the scene and thought a contribution to the narrative is to have spots on the floors from the lights. My rationale is that this will contribute to an overall moody, Noir type vibe to the scene.

To accomplish this, I initially placed a Godox V1 speedlight with a grid spot and warming gel on a C-Stand with the boom extended all the way out and placed directly under the light fixture. Unfortunately, the booms on the C-Stands aren’t long enough to prevent the legs of the stand to be in the image. I’m sure I could have Content Aware Filled these out, however my preference is to get it right in camera and this is what prompted me to do a full on reshoot.

Using a much longer boom stand produced much more usable results. Layering in and masking out the boom stand was a lot less of a chore in post-production.

Since I settled on an aperature of f/9.0 I made sure that the speedlight power was metered to this f/stop. This would ensure proper exposure of the spotlights. This was done with the lights off to avoid bizarre temperature crossovers (these are noticeable in the HDR image).

My next task was to gather exposures of soffits, walls, and architectural details. To accomplish this I used a castered light stand to avoid dragging C-Stands across the floor. On the stand is a Godox AD300Pro, also metered to f/9.0.

Methodically moving this strobe up and down the hallway and making exposures of each detail provided the resources needed to layer in and mask light into the overall scene during my post-production workflow. Because these walls are painted an orangey beige hue, I decided that a warming gel would have been overkill for this scene

One thing I noticed while creating the architectural exposures is the amount of harsh highlights reflecting off the double doors at the back of the hallway. This prompted me problem solve this by treating the doors in the same manner that we approached our tabletop studio assignment. To achieve a much more pleasant highlight that goes down the entire length of a bottle; we use diffusion and reflection flats. I applied this same logic to the heavily lacquered and reflective wooden door. This would then be layered and masked into the overall scene.

I also used this treatment to get an exposure of the Extinguisher on the wall but rather than use a diffusion flat I just brought the softbox in super close and adjusted it’s power till I was getting a reading of f/9.0 on my meter. My goal was to achieve a highlight down the entire body of the extinquisher.

After all these resources were gathered it was time to put a subject in the scene. Roping someone into this was difficult as everyone was busy working on other projects but I was able to get Colin and his majestic mullet to stand in for me.

First I wanted to get an independently lit exposure of the guitar case. The rationale for this is to overcome the limitation of only using three strobes. This would allow me to bring detail and texture in the post-production workflow.

I leaned the case against the wall where I knew it wouldn’t move. I brought in the Speedlight with a grid and placed in a position like the light fixtures and metered it to f/9.0. I then used an AD300Pro with Softbox metered to f/7.0 to add some fill.

And finally, our subject is brought in. I directed Colin not to move the case. To light the weary road traveling musician, I used an AD300Pro with a Lantern Softbox as a key light metered to f/9.0. This was placed near the light fixture in such a way as to cast longer shadows on the face of our subject. I then brought in a second AD300Pro with a softbox metered to f/7.0 as a fill and to help give some separation from the background. I also decided to use the V1 speedlight; warmed up with a gel, as a hairlight to get that mullet glowing and provide further separation from the background.

As an afterthought I brought the Speedlight up and let out a serious burst of atmosphere spray. I shined the speedlights through the resulting smokey and made two exposures with the lights on opposite sides of the hallway.

PHOTOSHOP WORKFLOW:

With all these resources gathered, I was able bring it all together in Photoshop using carefully selecting portions of each exposure copied and pasted on top of the merged copy of the treated light fixtures and then using varying layer opacities in addition to varying brush opacities and flow rates to paint onto layer masks to clean up any hard edges from marquee and polygonal selection process and to also achieve an oil painting like quality. A desaturated copy of the HDR was brought in to act as an “underpainting” and to brighten the image up a little bit to give consistency between the subject and the overall scene. The two images of the atmosphere spray were brought in and free transform rotated to superimpose over the first light fixture. Clever layer masking and opacity was used to mask out any undesirable elements and lend a more Film Noir type vibe.

CRITIQUE AND ANALYSIS:

This feels to me like a huge breakthrough and culmination of all the techniques we’ve been learning over the past two years of the AAS Photography Program. To create this image; I’ve fused concepts from location architecture, people in place, portraiture, studio tabletop, still life, digital workflow and brought my own musical vision to the process of image making. In the process I’ve made discoveries that I think our instructors always knew were possible and pushing their students to connect the dots. Getting hands on with the craft of painting with light has opened up new avenues of creativity for me. I’m now contemplating how I can apply these paint with light techniques to fine art still lifes that incorporate ornate lamps, glowing but still maintaining detail. How can I apply the paint with light technique to individual elements of a still life. I’m also curious to see how this can be applied using color harmony theory and applying different colored gels to my strobes for initial captures and then applying them in the paint with light technique.

There are techniques that will still require refinement such as being way more picky and methodical in element selection for compositing. I found marque and polygonal selection to be what I used most but I would often get ahead of myself and then have to retrace my steps and find the hard edges of masks that stick out and need refining. Taking it more slowly and managing layers and masks one at a time could help prevent confusion and fumbling through all the elements to fix problematic areas.

Some of the brushings are a little sloppy. 

Another challenge is changing the light direction when making the source exposures. I placed my light up in some of these images which deviates from the dominant lighting direction. While I used the elements they are a little confusing to the eye. Perhaps the casual viewer will not notice, but I notice and it’s a little distracting.

Lastly, while I shot a grey card, sampling the neutral grey portion gave me a magenta hue to the HDR image when synced. Trying to mitigate this in LrC cause the image to go sickly green . I think where I stumbled here is that I should have had someone hold the grey card nearer to one of the light fixtures. Luckily I was able to overcome this with the strobe captures and employing camera raw filter to desaturate the HDR underpainting.

I could spend another 20 hours on this image but at some point you have to accept it for what it is and not let the imperfections prevent you from publishing the image.

While I’m able to see the things that are problematic with this image, I overall impressed with what I was able to achieve with the final image. While it may not have the Film Noir vibe I had initially envisioned, I think I made a more oil painting like product that I can see being applied to a lot of different disciplines. I’m excited to fall further down this rabbit hole.