For both part 1 and 2 of the first exercise that we did during week 1 and 2, my group remained the same and this was good as it allowed us to learn from our past mistakes and successes and reflect on how we could go about improving them in future exercises.

For the first part of the exercise we were positioned towards the front of the classroom about three metres from a window directly to the right, allowing for some key from the Western daylight to illuminate the subject. This reflected off of the white walls creating a fill light as the subject was facing North. This setup allowed for the light to be somewhat diffused and soft, so the fill was not as effective as it could have been. This left the left side of Michaels face too dark, with the shadows wrapping around his face and upper body. To circumvent this perhaps we could have used a reflector to highlight the left side of his face and assist with creating further fill light or moved closer to the window.

We tried two different setups for the second part of the exercise to explore both options –  this time we were at the back of the classroom with a window behind us to the North. In the first setup we had Michael face away from the light and used reflectors to create highlights on his face. I didn’t have much faith in this setup when it was proposed and after looking at the results I still don’t completely.

In the second setup we had Michael face the window as a keylight and used a reflector to create a fill, but the light coming from the window was too hard, even when we used some black coreboard in front of the subject to help bounce some negative fill back onto the subject. To combat this we should have adjusted the cameras aperture or perhaps used an . ND filter if all else failed. Despite the final result, I still think this is a superior set up, and upon reflection perhaps I would have angled Michael slightly away from the light, so that it hit one side of his face more than the other, then used a reflector to fill the other side – similar to how we approached the first part of the exercise. Either way both parts of the exercise were really interesting to examine and I do feel like I understand the theoretical and logistical approach to lighting a bit better. It also taught me how to examine a location prior to filming and how to determine what lights may be needed or how to manipulate light without resorting to artificial lighting sources.