Chiaroscuro

Overview: Chiaroscuro means extreme use of light and dark. We are going to use this project to show the shape and form (for the Elements of Art= Form) of a three dimensional subject. It can be a person, flower, plant, animal, fruit, vegetable etc… but not flat objects for this project unless they are curved, like a leaf. You will be learning to expose for your highlights (leave information in your highlights… no blown out whites!!) and let your darks go black.

You need to work in a low light situation such as:

Window light with the room fairly dark is great. Use side lighting or 3/4 front or back lighting. If you shoot straight toward the window, you will probably get a silhouette, which is not what this project is.
At early dusk just before it gets too dark outside works well, especially when you are under a tree or patio cover with light filtering in from the side.
Dark rainy very overcast days. But thick dark clouds is needed for this to work well, although a normal cloudy day lets you have a longer window of time for the "dusk" time of day and has similar results.

This project will get you to start to understand Aperture Priority on your camera, depth of field and soft/low light.

Requirements: 1 photo showing Chiaroscuro of an object or person that has form making sure not to loose information in the lights and letting the darks go black.

Be on Aperture Priority on the camera. This is the A on the dial for Nikon or TV on a Canon Camera. We want to control how shallow the depth of field gets (how blurred off the background is) and Aperture Priority lets you control that. Shallow depth of field is achieved at the lower number. Nice lenses can go down to 1.8 and 2.8 but the average lens is around 3.5 to 5.6 (more blurred out background is the result of the lower number, but you can hand hold the camera in lower light that way) and maximum depth of field is the higher number such as F 22 or Aperture 22 (your F stop is reference to your shutter speed) we want detail to show…so do not go below 7.1. Your shutter speed will be controlled by the camera then.

Think of the Photo Composition project for "Simplicity" and while you can have a background, do not let it distract from showing form. Soft folded cloth can also show more form and add another texture, unlike simplicity where you showed the texture of the object only, you can play up on the background texture too.
This photos needs to be in focus and not blurred!
Settings should be:

100 ISO, 200 at most so we have little grain and lots of detail.
Use a tripod if needed! Hacky sacks, bean bags and such help sometime as well.
Use Aperture priority at F 7.1 or higher, up to F 22, but you will need a tripod in low light for sure at F 22. A shallow depth of field (lower number = more blurred off background) is nice at times, but is tricky for this type of project, so we will not use a shallow depth of field on it. I want your subject to all be in focus. If you are zooming in or using a 50mm or 85mm prime lens, even at 7.1 you may get some shallow depth of field showing.
Use spot metering to expose for your mid highlighted areas (have your cameras focus point on the mid lights). You will learn a modified Zone system for exposure later in class that will explain this better, but for now expose for your mid lights so the photo doesn't go too light. If you expose for bright lights, the photo will go too dark, so mid lights are best. But if your highlights are still getting blown out, use the + or - button to lower the exposure if needed up to 5 stops, but usually 1 or 2 takes care of it.

Be careful not to shake the camera while pushing the button as this will cause motion blur in your photo. If you are shooting outside at dusk, or a very cloudy day under some shade, you might be able to hand hold (key is not to hand hold lower than the shutter speed showing 1/30 if you are on a wide lens. It is tricky when you are at a shutter speed less than the focal length of your lends (so say you are using an 18-55mm lens and you are zoomed in at 55, you should not be below a shutter speed of 1/100 to hand hold, rule is double the length of your lens to be safe). You can push it some by holding your breath, making sure you do not shake the camera when you press the button and hold your arms in by your sides to brace them as you take the photo. Zoomed in at 55 I would not hand hold below 1/60 pushing it with that technique though. At 18 on that lens (all the way wide) you can probably get away with 1/20. I have pushed it to 1/10 but it is not easy.

Do not use Flash or Strobe light. Go for natural light for this project. Window light coming into a dark room is best.
Edit in Photoshop RAW to save information in your highlights, let your darks go black.

Do 5 Photos =

First 3 using window light only:

1. one of a person,

2. one of a fruit or vegetable

3. one of a leaf, flower or other textured nature item.

The last two using studio/video light

4. one of a person as a profile

5. one of a person posed as you like but must be able to see the eyes