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photographing people for sculpture?
Hi,
I'm an amateur interested in practicing figurative sculpture in clay. Pieces take far many more hours than anyone could possibly pose for, thus, I must turn to photographs. Last wednesday I had a friend pose for me. Admittedly, I think I took the photography too cavalierly, as the sculpture was the main project and challenge for me I thought to just snap a few photos and be done with it, to get on to the actual sculpting. I realize now that there is more to it. My setup: I did this in my dorm room, measuring perhaps 12 X 20, as a rough guesstimate. Unique to the circumstances, I need photos all the way around. I couldn't rely upon light from the windows, for the subject would be backlit for 50% of the photos. So I shaded the windows, turned on the overhead light for general light (it's not very bright), and then positioned an incandescent floor lamp (it had 5 incandescent bulbs that could be individually angled) at a 45 degree angle from the angle of the shot itself. I walked around the subject to take 8 photos in total at regular angles, moving the floor lamp along with me each time. The results: because the scene was indoors and only lit by one floor lamp, it was dimly lit. The (digital)camera, on automatic settings, set itself to a low shutter speed. I was taking the photos by hand, and as a result greater detail of the face it would be lacking; even when not particularly blurred no photos had superior clarity. A few looked half way decent, but none could come close to compare to professionally done portraiture photography. Furthermore, because the photograph is not the final work -the sculpture is- I understand that distortion must be kept to an utmost minimum. This means standing far back and zooming in. In a small room, sometimes only 4' from the subject, I needed the wider-angle end of my camera's zoom capabilities, which creates more distortion. Some ideas: keep the same lighting, but get a tripod to minimize blurring. Take a photo from the head to the chest, neck to the thigh, lower abdomen to the feet, changing only the height of the tripod. Then use photoshop or similar program to "photomerge" the three together; trippling resolution possible (it's a 5 megapixel camera; by taking it in pieces I would have 15), and by zooming in more instead of trying to capture 5.5' of height in one take, I would lessen the degree of distortion by the lens. Is this a wise idea, or will the photomerge action distort the photo more than zooming in more will alleviate the concern? If the initial photos are taken properly, will photomerge make the pieces truly seemless? Further questions: are backdrops important, rather than randomly light walls and dark carpeting and books and desks against the walls of a myriad of colors and tints? Will hanging a white sheet vertically from two poles, and another over the dark carpeting, make a significant difference in the quality of the photo? For b&w, for the purposes of maximizing depth, is it useful to have the model wear only homogeneous, light-colored clothing, instead of a motley skirt and dark navy tank top, the color and tint differences of which may confuse the value differences that I'm actually looking for? Instead of just a single floor lamp at an angle, what greater technique is there to lighting and where can I learn it? I think improper lighting may be a major source of my issues. Should I consider building a large turntable, so that I can use constant sunlight from the windows, and a constant camera angle, and then simply turn the model, instead of for me to walk around the model and move the lighting each time? Is it critical that I find a bigger room within which to work, or can a 12X20' space be accomodated for? I would work outside, but it's getting below freezing now. My goal is not necessarily to take an art photograph or to dramatize with use of shadow, but to show a full range of depth, such that the darkest shadow is black and no lighter, and the lightest highlight white and no darker, and that every subtlety of value in between is apparent. But even just showing depth to its fullest, I realize now, is harder and involves a great deal more than mere point-&-shoot. Could you please advise me on what I'm doing wrong, what I could do to do it right, whether any of my own thoughts are worthwhile, and at the least perhaps some books that will explain b&w portraiture photography as applicable to my situation? thank you for your time and help, -Bernard Arnest |
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