Week 11 Technical Workshop: The Gok Wan Session - to accessorise or not?

Using flash light accessories, we controlled the light creating different lighting effects. I found this weeks workshop certainly helpful for the new project and interesting to know so much about lighting which I didn't know before university...

I was in a group of six and took part as the model. We needed a camera, tripod and a handheld light meter.

Task 1 - using accessories 

1. We needed to set up a white Colorama paper backdrop and a 'key' flash with no attachment. Next I positioned myself by the backdrop and another group member took the flash light reading. The photograph was taken at the readings of f/8, 100 s and ISO 100. Here is the outcome...

2. Next we were required us to use a large white polyboard & bounce the flash off this to light the object/ model. The photograph was taken at the readings of f/4, ISO 100 and a shutter speed of 100. Here is the outcome...
As you can see the image is over lighted creating a high contrast image. This was not intended and was a lesson learnt.

3. Now we added accessories to the flash light and first up was the 'spill kill'.

4. Added to the 'spill kill' was an umbrella. This was the first that I had used the umbrella which created a fascinating view point of the image. Those readings were f/5.6 but we wanted to remove the shadow and therefore moved the light around to prevent this and ended up with f/8, ISO 100, 100 s.

5. A soft box was then fitted to the flash light. This use of lighting has been practised many times throughout our workshop now and is fairly easy to understand its use/ purpose. We received a reading of f/8 and ISO 100, 100 s.

6. New to my knowledge is the 'snoot'. I very much liked the effect it created, something that reminded me of a bond movie when Mr. Bond is introduced. I would like to use this lighting throughout the new project. With the 'snoot' we got a reading of f/4.5, ISO 100 and 100 s. 

7. Spill kill with a honeycomb attachment was something I hadn't come across before but created a softer light. The reading for this was f/11, ISO 100 and 100 s.

8. Last we used to beauty dish which created a soft glow. Not only did we experiment with the gold inner part of the dish but also the silver and transparent as we had time at the end. The different effects were obvious and changed the mood of the image. The reading was ISO 100, 100 s and f/5.6.