Impossible 2

Impossible 2

Advance planning

So here’s the plan… I will move the kettle and tea-making kit onto the kitchen table, then move other loose stuff to the side: probably also taking down the roll of kitchen paper. I’ll leave the chopping boards on the right hand side, and there will be a space wide enough to put some light card curved up to the bottom of the cupboards at the back, and either weighted down at the front, or possibly held down with masking tape. I’ll be paying attention to the curve of the card between horizontal and vertical, to avoid unwanted shadows from my improvised ‘infinity curve’.

I plan to use the IKEA downlight for the second shot, after dark in the evening.



Shot 1

Halfway through: I’ve shot the first images, and have established that it’s a good idea to switch off the fluorescent ceiling light. Doh… And even in daylight, the IKEA LEDs alter the exposure and the look noticeably. And I now know to pull out the flex for the LEDs so that I can switch them on and off without reaching behind the ‘infinity curve’ to the wall sockets, which creased the card a bit…



The daylight in the room comes from two windows on the opposite wall, so the camera and tripod could easily block the light: so it can be important to step aside before triggering the shutter. But as a proof-of-concept session, the twenty minutes I spent on moving and setting up (not to mention removing the card and plugging the kettle back in) was time very well spent!



Shot 2

At night, the light gets more dramatic: and, quite obviously, the light I used this time around wasn’t suitable for much variety: all overhead lights tend to require the subject in precisely the right place, and with the camera pointing exactly the right way to get light where you want it, and not where you don’t.

But it would be easy to introduce a reading light or a small torch for more variety of effect: what works will depend on what you want to photograph, and how you want it to look.



In terms of a doable project, I reckon this worked: so the challenge to the people who feel they don’t have an area to work in is – try it. If still life isn’t the thing for you, identify a place where you can shoot a head-and-shoulders with an uncluttered background – or maybe it’s about finding a plant in the garden, or a hedge, or on a roadside verge that you can keep coming back to. And then, getting that first shot taken, processed – and posted!