I had a lot of fun with this one. My intention was to achieve super high contrast lighting here, and I think I did a fair job. I ran into the problem that her silhouette was getting lost in the shadows, but I didn't want to add a fill light because I wanted that nice lighting dropoff, so I ended up reframing her so her shape was backed by his highlights and I think that was nice. The figures were also so small that I had to shoot right next to them and I couldn't get them both in focus so, after some experimentation, I decided to prioritize the monster and I think that was best.
This one kinda fell in front of me. I walked out and it was just a perfectly overcast day, wonderful for capturing some nice low contrast lighting. I was trying to photograph an empty lot to go for affinity of tone, but I turned around and was met by this truck in front of a very white washed garage. The low contrast lighting works opposite of what I was originally going for, and instead highlights the tonal contrast of the environment by keeping out of it lighting wise. It emphasized to me the difference of contrast through light and contrast through art design.
Here I went for side lighting, and played around with what that can do. I tried having the can face the door, which gave a more hopeful message: the lone can of peach fresca finding his place in the dark world, but it is Halloween so I ended up with the can facing camera in a much more ominous fashion. Now it is a murderous can of peach fresca standing between you and safety. I like how the side light tells us that there is a room even though we can't see it, and the shadow from the can tells us that we cannot get to that room of safety, because the can is in our way.
Man, my comments are all over the place, I did rhythm first and now I'm back here to do light because that's what I was actually supposed to do. Gah. Max, fix learning suite.
Anyways, your pictures. This is contrast to the extreme and boy does it work. I love how the shadows on the monster perfectly blend into the background. I also really like the side lighting and even the faint lighting on the back of the figurine of the girl. It is a shame that you couldn't get both of them in focus, but you're right, the monster is the priority here.
This second one is so fantastic. Not only is it a perfect example of tonal contrast…
Hey Micah, I'm commenting on your photos because my assigned person doesn't have photos up at the moment and your working sound for our project so, I thought I'd just comment on your photos for the assignment.
For the first photo, I love the high contrast! It's beautiful and quite scary. Also, I love the action figures, perfect for halloween. I agree with what you said about loosing her silhouette shadow on frankenstein's body. I think if you had another small light source directly behind her figure, it would've shown that shadow. But I think this looks perfect for what you were going for!
For you second photo, I love the contrast in color! Looks kind of like a silhouette…