14 Nov 09: Fluorescent, incandescent and halogen lighting

As part of our systems and processes assignment we have to photograph an object on location under different types of lighting. I created a makeshift ‘studio’ space in my kitchen using black card and used different lamps from around the house to light the same scene. Apologies to Sam and Nikita for borrowing the idea of using a pepper. When I saw they had used one in their studio lighting shoot it reminded me that EdwardWeston had taken extraordinary images of a pepper in the 1930’s – see http://www.edward-weston.com/ – so I decided to use one too. The first thing that struck me is that in our modern supermarkets it’s not easy to find such interesting shaped peppers as Weston used.

Here are three colour shots, under three different light sources:

1. Incandescent (household lamp) at f/3.5 and 1/60sec. Incandescent light can have a yellow cast – this can be seen as a slight yellow tinge the background. This lighting really brought out the rich yellow colour of the pepper and makes it look fat, juicy and tasty. There is little reflection on the top of the fruit and no clipping. The background gives quite a low key effect. The shape and curves of the pepper are well defined.

2. Fluorescent (kitchen strip light) at f/8.0 and 1/8sec. The lighting effect is brighter than the incandescent light. There is more light reflected from the fruit, with some clipping of highlights. The background is more brightly lit – losing the low key effect – and the shape of the pepper is less defined.

3. Halogen (work lamp) at f2.8 and 1/60 sec. The results here lie between the other two images. The background is quite brightly lit, like the fluorescent light but with a whiter cast which comes from the halogen light being daylight balanced. The colour and shape of the pepper is better defined than under fluorescent light but it’s not as attractive as under the incandescent light.

I then processed the three images in Lightroom 2 to turn them black and white like Weston (although I suspect he was using a green pepper which gave a darker effect) and of course the pepper he used was a much more interesting shape making it harder to tell at first glance what he had photgraphed.