This week I started to experiment with different light sources and positioning of my glass objects.
I tried to get into the Odeum to use as a space but the only time I could get in there at night while it was unlocked was on accepted students day and rows and rows of chairs were set up so I couldn’t use the full space. The first problem with this space I realized was that even at night, light shines in from the hallways through the space in the doors, and the exit signs illuminate a large portion of the floor around them.
When playing around with light sources I first went to the makers space to ask if they had any light sources, the only thing they had was a light that used to be apart of a magnifier but the magnifying lens was missing. While using the magnifying lens would have been interesting, as I’ll discuss later on it wouldn’t have helped.
The problems I have with this lighting are
- Distance of the projection
- Distance of light in general
- Washing out color from the glass
- Lack of/ no details in the shadows
After this I tried using the original light I had brought to class last week and was much happier with the results:
I’m not quite sure what aspects of the light are different as every light I’m using is LED, but my guess right now is temperature of the light. The light in this photo is much warmer, and doesn’t overpower the light of the two-tone lamp on bottom left of the photo (it looks more washed out in this photo but I promise its not)
Here’s what the other light sources look like up close
So far, my best guess as to what’s happening is that diffusing the light is whats causing the issues. Both the green cat lamp and the lamp I got from the maker’s space have a slight frosted plastic over it which I’m assuming is the reason the silhouettes aren’t as defined. Or showing anything at all.
Next Steps:
Location:
Still looking for a good location, I think the Odeum might be too busy to be regularly working in and the leaking light is very unfortunate. I still have a few more spaces I’d like to explore so if anyone knows how to get access or if you need special card access that would be greatly appreciated!
- Riley Commons
- The Little Theater
- *I remember exploring Washburn freshman year and coming across a HUGE empty and kinda creepy space but I don’t remember how to get there so I might have to go exploring at some point.
More Objects:
I’m going home for Easter weekend so I plan to dig around my house, and go thrifting for some more glass objects as well as some more light sources. As of now I have 5-6 objects but I’d like to have about 15 for my final work.
Do you know if the photography club has curtains/drapery you can arrange in some way to block out light?
Also, if you can’t find tiles that you like the reflection of in any location you can go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy your own tile to lay out for your display. Or some other interesting/reflective material that you can just put on the floor.
Also, for the mirror light thing, have you tried reflecting light off of the mirror?
This is awesome progress! For the different lights, I’d recommend looking into RGB pucks that you can control the color and warmth of the light for. They’re not too expensive and I think they’d offer the control that you’d want.