Digital photography
In this assignment, through both shooting photos and writing about them, you will explore the effects of the background on emphasizing the subject.
You’ll want to pick a subject that you can move from one location to another.
- Photograph an object in front of a white or bright background.
- Photograph the same object in front of a black or dark background.
- Photograph that same object in front of a busy background.
- Take several images of each setup; ‘work the subject’
Try to keep the lighting conditions similar. If the key light (either indoors or outdoors) is coming from the right side in the first shot, make sure it comes from the right side in the others.)
Left: bright background; Right: busy background
Examine how the different backgrounds affect the emphasis of your object.
Choose your best image from each background; they should be similar in point of view and lighting. In Photoshop, size each image (Image > Image Size) to 72ppi and around 800 pixels wide. In a Word document, paste in your best image from each background. All three images should fit on a single page. (Adjust the size slightly in Word, if necessary, to make them fit.)
On the second page, explain, in a few paragraphs, what you observe the differences are among the 3 photographs and identify which background was most successful for your object and why.
