Texture/ Still Life

1. Texture/Still Life

2. Finding texture in a photo • Texture is tactile not visual • Shiny metal is visual • Driftwood is texture • Definition • Normally a relatively small scale surface characteristic that is associated with tactile quality.

3. Lack of texture

4. Texture

5. Still Life • Pose an object(s) that has a tactile quality. • Side lighting will help illuminate the texture, but • Heavy texture, posed, will have the same effect.

7. What is still life? • Typically we think of still life as indoor and posed. • Flowers, bowl of fruit, tea kettle, sea shells on a table. • For our purposes we will not shoot indoors because we would need flash. • The following examples are indoors and have extraordinary lighting.

8. Example of still life

11. Our Still Life • First, the subject is outdoors. • The subject(s) is (are) posed. • At least it is still permanently” posed • Directional lighting from the side to create shadows to the left or right. • Examples follow…

14. Noon

15. Late in day-directional light

16. See texture in the wall or cobblestone

17. One can almost feel the braids on the rope. However, the DOF is too shallow. Shoot at f/11 or f/16!

18. How is texture created? • What type of light would create the most texture? • Directional lighting • From a low angle. Early morning or late afternoon. • Look at the available shadows. • Sharp edge is direct • Soft edged is diffused

19. Mid day photo, little texture because lighting is directly overhead

20. Side lighting – lots of texture

21. More on light • Direct or directional light creates HIGH CONTRAST (lots of black and white tones) shadows and highlights. • Diffused or soft light produces LOW CONTRAST (gray tones) shadows and highlights. • Observe the kind of shadows on your subject. Try to find subjects with lots of different tones. Remember not to shoot directly into your light source.

22. Front lighting – using on-camera flash. Face is flat.

23. “Loop” lighting From the side. Face is 3D.

24. Diffused because of clouds. A wonderful photo, but No texture.

25. Back lighting. Nice photo but NO texture.

26. Directional side lighting in the late afternoon.

27. Consider the time of day. • Early morning and very late afternoon • Create natural side lighting • Enhances the texture

28. 9:30 a.m.-Little Texture

29. 1:00 p.m. no texture

30. 6:20 p.m. closer, more texture

31. Again: midday, sun overhead

32. Again, just before sundown

33. Step by step • Locate an interesting subject. Photograph the subject from different angles. • Photograph more than one subject. • All exposures for this ( and most others) must be outdoors. • No flash. • Fill the frame with your texture(s). • Don’t use smooth surfaces for this assignment.

34. Other help • Don’t stand back from your subject. A tree in the distance has no texture. • Don’t use dirt (sand dunes are different) or tree bark

35. Be careful of back focus and missing your subject. Double check your focus, then check it again. Bracket each photo. Correct; one faster; one slower

36. Grading-2 different negatives • Uniqueness of the subject. Would you put this on your wall? • Effective lighting to create texture. • Overall image quality . • Is the image sharp? • Image must be “spotted”. We’ll get that training next week. • Two final images and contact sheet, all 8x10. • EXTRA CREDIT: Turn in a third 8x10 • Contrast be used with allfinal prints.

37. Sample Texture

39. Midday, Flat lighting

40. Minutes before sundown-No Filter

41. Not the waiter, look at the walls

43. Contrast Filters