Contrast and Shadow Fill

Contrast and shadow fill, the brief says that you will also need white card and tin foil, well the day I came to do this exercise I had the white card (in fact I use a white box canvas) but no tin foil ,but I do I have a silver reflector, so I have decided to adjust the exercise slightly and I am hopeful that this will be ok.

below are the photographs I took I metered them all to F11 125's iso 100 and the order they are here is undiffused, diffused, white card at 3 feet white card at 1 foot silver reflector at  3 feet, silver reflector at 1 foot and finally silver reflector up close and tilted.



The first photograph with no reflector and no diffuser  has very uneven light, there is a lot of shadow on the coffee cups, not a very good image at all, the best ones were the ones taken with the reflector with the ones with the silver reflector coming out the best in terms of shadows, they had the least, although it could be argued that it would depend on the image you are trying to achieve as to whether you require any shadow at all.

Finally a note to add to the bottom of this exercise from the notes in the given folder and the portraits by Stieglitz and Weston, If the shadows were lightened the overall effect of these photographs would change dramatically, particually the one of Dorothy Norman by Alfred Stieglitz where the intensity of her look would have been lost, as it stands its a very compelling photograph where you almost feel as if the subject is looking at you.