Contrast & Shadow Fill

  I have set up a very simple still life for this exercise to see the effects of diffusion and different types of reflectors  as a fill light. The first image is taken without any diffusion or fill light.

No Diffusion or Fill

   As you can there are deep hard shadows and quite hard highlights, although I still quite like the image, it reminds me of a still life by Andre Kertesz. The hard shadows give the picture a certain amount of dynamism.

Diffused

  The picture above has a diffuser over the light, and as you can see the shadows are much lighter and softer. The highlights are just as bright, but they are softer edged. The contrast across the vase is quite strong, so I am now going to place a reflector opposite the light to produce some fill light.
  To start I am using a plain white card, 1 metre away from the subject.

White Card, 1 Metre

  As you can see the reflector has had very little effect, the side of the vase has been lightened ever so slightly. For the next example I have moved the same white reflector closer, to 0.5 metre from the subject.

White Reflector, 0.5 metre

  Moving the reflector closer has had more of an effect, the side of the vase is lightened significantly and evenly. Also the shadows under the objects have been lightened, so the contrast across the whole image has been lessened.
  Next I have covered the card with the dull side of a sheet of tin foil.

Tin Foil, Dull Side

  As you can see the tin foil has created a hard highlight on the shadow side of the vase. This is because the silver foil will produce a direct reflection of the light, whereas the previous white card reflector will always produce diffuse reflections ( Hunter,F.Biver,S.Fuqua,P, 2007 ). I find the hard highlight distracting and I do not think it suits this particular picture.
  Now I have turned the foil over so that the shinier side is facing the subject.

Foil Shiny Side

  As you would expect this has produced an even harder and brighter highlight.For the final version of the picture I have crumpled the foil and then flattened it out again.

Crumpled Foil

  This has produced an almost identical effect to the white reflector at 0.5 metre, this is because by crumpling the foil we have made it reflect the light in many directions, thereby making it a diffuse reflector.
  This exercise shows that reflectors are very useful as fill lights, but you have to be careful to match the reflector to the subject. For this subject I found that a diffuse reflector suited the subject best because all of the objects have a matt finish, so a hard highlight does not look right.

  Ref; Hunter,F,Biver,S,Fuqua,P,2007, Light, Science & Magic,Elsevier,Oxford.