A Hard Day's Night Response

At first glance, we see the similarity to the film in the use of black and white; we also see the movie's sense of humor captured in this intentionally goofy picture of the band. This photo also captures the "connected" aspect of the band as four inseparable young men, seen here in a totem-pole style pose.

Take-Home Question: Chapter 3: Lighting Director

The suggestion by the novice lighting director to use fast falloff in the face cream commercial is exactly what we don’t want to do. I would definitely disagree with their suggestion. The very idea of achieving falloff would give us something we do not want: shadows. This is a face cream commercial, not a moody drama. There is no need for intentional shadows, or any noticeable darkness for that matter. We want bright, clear visibility for the commercial, regardless of how good the model’s bone structure may be.

Watch any number of commercials for face creams or acne solutions, or any product for the face, and you’ll see that there’s close to a total elimination of falloff. The focus in the commercial is on the model’s face. The studio is brightly-lit, emanating an upbeat, mood-setting sense of positivity. Falloff works with shadow and the contrast between light and darkness, but commercials like the one we’re shooting primarily use flat lighting. With flat lighting, light seems to be coming from all around, allowing for very little or no falloff whatsoever. This would be what we want.

With flat lighting, we achieve optimal visibility. For a face cream commercial, this is a must have. We don’t want shadows obscuring parts of the face when we expect to see the whole face. Viewers shouldn’t literally be left in the dark. With the flat lighting, illuminating everything equally, we also give off a feeling of cleanliness. This is more than appropriate for a face cream commercial. There should be a very sanitized feel to what viewers see. The cream does serve a hygienic purpose after all.

We want the model to be surrounded by light. This means fill, key, and back light. If the commercial were to be shot inside a typical bathroom setting for example, any shadows that might occur in the background would serve us fine to add some warmth and personality to the scene. But come time for the extreme close-up in question, we want to see a brightly-lit face. The focus is the overall face and the cream, not the specific bone structure of the model. So I would definitely disagree with my lighting director’s suggestion to use fast falloff.

Exercise 1, Part 2 - My Photos

Central Park Pictures


Vertical Composition

Horizontal Composition

Use of Empty Spaces

Suggestion of Movement

Point of View

Framed by Nature

Exercise 1, Part 1 - Capa's Photos

12 Strong Capa images from the Magnum image bank:

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R14YQNW&nm=Robert%20Capa

Vertical Composition

Horizontal Composition

Focus for Attention

Foreground

Middleground

Background

Framed by Nature

Suggestion of Movement

Use of Empty Spaces

Point of View

Nose-Room

Headroom

Image Bank Assignment

Robert Capa collection by Magnum Photos

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.PhotographerDetail_VPage&l1=0&pid=2K7O3R14YQNW&nm=Robert%20Capa

Robert Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in 1947. The Magnum Photos website now hosts a large collection of his photos, making for an ideal image bank, even if they are heavily watermarked.

 BIO

Robert Capa was born Andre Friedmann in Budapest in 1913. He studied political science in Berlin, but at the age of 18 was driven out of the country by the threat of a Nazi regime and settled in Paris in 1933. Here he took to photography and soon found himself on assignment. He also met journalist, photographer, and eventual lover Gerda Taro. Together, they invented the persona of the 'famous' American photographer Robert Capa in order to sell prints of their photographs.

In 1936, Capa was sent by Vue magazine to cover the bloody Spanish Civil War and appeared regularly in its publication. His picture of a Loyalist soldier who had just been fatally wounded, titled “Death of a Loyalist Militiaman,” earned him an international reputation and became a powerful symbol of war. It’s considered his most famous photo.

While in Spain, his love Taro was killed by an out-of-control Loyalist tank. Her tragic death ended her photographic career and left a deep scar on Capa's personality. 

As a correspondent in Europe, Capa photographed the second World War, covering the landing of American troops on Omaha beach on D-Day, the liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge. He received the Medal of Freedom Citation from General Dwight D. Eisenhower. His photographs of the D-Day landing are classics; he became known as the quintessential war photographer, though he captured subjects other than war with his camera, including portraits.

In 1947, with friends and fellow photographers, Capa began a picture agency named Magnum. He spent the next few years making Magnum into a successful cooperative, and photographing good times with his artist friends, including Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.

On May 25th, 1954, Capa was on assignment for Life magazine in Thai-Binh, Indochina, when he stepped on a landmine and was killed. He was the first American correspondent to die in Indochina.

"Death of a Loyalist Militiaman" by Capa, Spain --- 1936

I chose Robert Capa as my photographer for the fact that I'm more familiar with his work than any other photographer. I did a project on Capa's photos just a few semesters back in a course at Union County College and just like I was then, I am impressed with his work. The man had a great eye, and his wartime photographs are some of the best I've ever seen.

CAPA portrait by LIFE magazine, Germany (cropped version) --- 1945

Chapter 2 Review Group Assignment

Group 3, Chapter 2: Compare 2 scenes from a soap, film, or TV show that show a daytime interior and a nighttime interior. Identify the lighting differences. Point to the differences in falloff and background lighting. Compare the lighting of the actors in the daytime and nighttime scenes.

Group Members: Jason Leavy, Adolfo Arrieta, Sandra Sosa, Alex Garcia.

In the following two clips we as a group came to an agreement to the scenes that exemplified key differences between night and day scenes from the famous television show Seinfeld. 

This first clip shows indoor lighting inside Jerry's apartment during the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkpvON6IpNs

In the scene we just watched we see the first shot coming from outside the apartment and the light from outside which lets the audience know the time of day.

When it cuts to inside the apartment it is brightly illuminated. The overall interior lighting is rather flat with soft elimination of falloff shadows. 

The scene also has a great amount of lighting which illuminates the room including the background.

During the duration of the scene we notice the window in the back of the shot showing light from outside. This exterior light brings brightness into the apartment and creates a daytime feel for the audience.

The next scene we analyzed was in the same setting, Jerry's apartment at night. This scene exemplifies many differences in the lighting compared to the daytime scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkpnOTr8k9I

This particular scene portrays nighttime based in the lighting provided. The lamps are used as a dramatic agent. They create an aesthetic intensifier for the scene. The lamps are also on which creates an abundant amount of differently sized shadows.

It is a dark style of lighting inside the apartment. The nighttime lighting utilized by the directors in this scene has more specific and selective fast-falloff illumination.

Most of the lighting in this scene comes from inside the house because there is no light coming from the window since it is dark out. This is very differently from what we saw in the day time scene.

The shadows that appear on Kramer's face is slow fall off which means that the shadows are highly diffused by floodlight which produces little light and creates a transparency effect on the shadow.

Both scenes have windows which is key when determining the time of day. The windows makes it simple to determine the time. In comparison, the night scene we have no light coming from the window unlike the daytime scene.