Project 57

Once again using Ganesha as my subject I have taken a series of images from different lighting angles.  My camera was fixed in position relative to the subject on a tripod.  As I did not have a convenient way to position the light above the subject other than to hold it I used a cable release to fire the camera shutter.  Once again my light source is an Elinchrom D-Lite 4, 400J monoblock with a 52x52 cm softbox to modify the light.

The first three images are taken with the light to the left steadily moving around to the side of the statue

Next I brought the light to the right of the subject and shot the following images from varying angles

In these sequences the image becomes progressively darker as less light is reflected towards the camera and once the light is almost at 90 degrees to the camera the statue begins to lose definition and 3 dimensionality.

I then moved the light to directly behind the statue

A number of things have gone wrong now.  First of all I have a tremendous amount of flare as the light is pointed directly at the camera and so I am getting a lot of internal reflection in the camera.  I think I could reduce this by angling the light or repositioning the camera at an angle to the light and also by reducing the light intensity.  Secondly I would ideally want to move the statue further back into the frame and lower the camera a little to avoid having so much of the table in the frame.  Then I could make a better attempt at a silhouette.

I then positioned the light just behind, on top of, and slightly in front of the statue to create the following sequence

The slightly behind image has picked up the edges of the statue very well, however, the light is too low in the image, which could be easily corrected by raising it.  The light directly above has created deeper shadows, with the light light in front slightly relieving these.

Subjectively I think the first image with the light placed just to the left of my shooting position produced the best balanced image, however, this was the best managed shot.  It provides the best depth, although it is not very dramatic.  The shots with the light almost fully to the right of the statue or just slightly behind and above catch the edges of the statue and create the most dramatic and moody images.