AUGUST 2023: VALÉRIE JARDIN
“MAKE A PICTURE IN DIFFICULT LIGHT CONDITIONS”
This month renowned street photographer and mentor Valérie Jardin sets an assignment where she challenges you to make a photograph in challenging/difficult light conditions. This assignment was set initially in episode #393.
THE ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
From Valérie: “This month I’m looking to challenge you to make a photograph in difficult light. Choose a more challenging condition and make the light you find, (the kind of harsher nature of light that you may shy from photographing in usually)… make it work for you. So I’m looking for compelling pictures featuring harsh, perhaps deep shadows, bright highlights, perhaps a rim light around your subject, where you have to think about your exposure/s carefully.”
HOW TO ENTER
Send your entries to stories@photowalk.show, pictures should be 2,500 pixels wide if possible. Feel free to provide text as well, to support the feeling or mechanics behind the picture as that may help those who haven’t attempted this kind of image before to understand how to make a photograph in more difficult light conditions.
Entries are shown below and good luck!
Neale
VALÉRIE JARDIN
Click to expand images above for Valérie’s examples in this challenge, as she explores difficult lighting conditions in three locations. Barcelona, St. Helier and Copenhagen below.
ANTONY HIBBLE: flask winner for AUGUST
If I am really honest, I was quite excited when I heard this assignment as I love making photographs in harsh light! With harsh light comes deep shadows which at first I tried to avoid in my photography but now I love to use them as much as I can. In the photograph I have chosen, I came across these two people having a slightly heated exchange whilst out doing some street photography. I quickly positioned myself using the sun as a back light, I loved the way their shadows looked more animated than them! With that in mind, I decided to flip the image to make the shadows the focal point of the image. I was so engrossed in getting the photo right I never did find out if they ever made up!
See more of Antony’s work on his Instagram.
MAURICE WEBSTER
I recently had the good fortune of playing around with a light-gathering beast of a Leica lens and decided to take it down to Brighton for a “test drive”.
Having wandered around my usual locations for a few hours, I stopped to refuel in one of my favourite coffee shops. In addition to great coffee and cakes, it has a window that creates the most wonderful lighting situations. Depending on the hour of the day, it will range from a gentle softbox to something more harsh and contrasty. The perfect setting to try and create an image in difficult lighting as per Valerie’s latest assignment.
PS Just in case you are wondering, yes, it was taken on your next camera 😉
See more of Maurice’s work on his website.
MICHAEL MIXON
I was sitting in a pub on an island off of Maine, waiting for my wife to show up (she had gone back to our friend's house to grab something she had forgotten). We were there for trivia night and so the place was slowly filling up.
As I was watching the door, it struck me that an interesting image could be created by the split composition of what was happening inside the pub and what was happening outside as viewed through the door’s window. The challenge, beyond the timing of catching someone through the window before they opened the door, was the extreme difference in lighting - the brightness outside and the much dimmer lighting inside. So I knew that a lot of the image was going to have to remain in shadow and that I just needed enough detail to set the scene, and then let the viewer’s imagination fill in the rest.
KYLE ATTWOOD
My wife and I spent some time in Perth CBD for our anniversary last week. It was a good opportunity for me to try out my new setup of Fujifilm X-T5 with Voigtlander Ultron 27mm. I love looking for light and shadow, so this challenge resonated with me well. Attached are 2 images that I really liked, my Wife crossing the street, and a lady on a smoke break.
MARTIN PENDRY
This assignment topic is one that frequently comes my way. I'm a dedicated volunteer for Remember My Baby (RMB). RMB operates nationwide, providing remembrance photography to parents who have gone through the painful experience of stillbirth. As I write this, I'm preparing for my 91st session for RMB since 2017. So batteries 'Check', SD cards 'Check'.
I'm fully aware that the upcoming session at the maternity ward will not only be emotionally challenging, but light will be a challenge too. The room's ample natural light streaming through the large windows contrasts with the darker parts of the room. The bulky furniture often limits my shooting angles, adding a layer of complexity. Despite these challenges, I find a sense of fulfilment in this assignment. I can not share these images; although I have copyright for these images, we only share with the parent's permission, and I am not sure that would be right for an assignment.
For those interested in joining our volunteering, you can find more information at the following link. remembermybaby.org.uk/photographer-application. We are also looking for digital retouchers. Please reach out to me; I'd be happy to share my experiences.
So for today, you will have to be content with what I can share, an image capturing the pigeons of London as they observe the world in motion near Waterloo, still a consideration of light.
GLEN SHEPHERD
Here’s my entry for the August Challenge, issued by Valerie. It was very challenging to capture the moody light in this scene caused by a heavy drizzle of rain and the string of lights while still exposing for the couple. I really like how the rain caused the light to drop off in layers into the trees and the lights to ‘glow’ in the haze.
ROBIN CHUN
This image was captured on a very familiar photowalk last Tuesday. The low, harsh evening light was well suited to this month’s assignment and I could see the possibility of a composition as the sun shone through the bus shelter glass. Then I spotted the lad running towards me and a greater composition (IMO) was to be had. I like the rim lighting around the boy, while still having the harsh light through the glass. The boy’s gesture adds a little something extra.
See more of Robin’s work on his website.
RON BABER
My image, I’ve called “Mr Bass Man”, was taken at a summer concert on the grounds of a 13th Century Priory near me.
It was a particularly sunny (and hot!) day and the position of the small orchestra was in direct sunlight, they were up against the white wall of the Priory in a small recess. All of the orchestra members wore white, so on the whole a mainly white scene! I wanted to lose the distraction of the walls behind the musicians so used a medium/long lens @200mm to help blur the background and focussed on one or two specific musicians. The Bass Man was the only one standing, the rest were seated, so he naturally caught my eye. My histogram was telling me the scene was, unsurprisingly, over-exposed which I could see on my Fujifilm XT-3, but I liked the effect and manually over-exposed it a little more! The image has been cropped and has had a bit of tweaking to the levels and colour, but not too much. A challenging light but, I think, a pleasing outcome - but I am a little biased!
PETER MADDERN
Both of the images were shot with very different cameras. The colour image was made just after sunrise on Penzance Promenade where a skateboarder was going up and down in front of a seafront shelter. I positioned myself behind the shelter and used one of the glassless openings as a frame. The black and white image was taken using a Fujifilm X-T10 converted to 720nm infrared. I had been for a walk around the village of Zennor in west Cornwall and afterwards went into the cafe for an ice cream. From where I was sitting I could look through two doors and was able to catch a silhouette against the bright light beyond. I think she looks very Victorian!
ROLAND NOLL
Greetings from sunny Munich.
The photo I’m sharing wasn’t shot for the August assignment, it is however from August last year and listening to Valerie in episode 393, this picture immediately came to mind for several reasons. Shot on my good old friend, the Fuji X100V, ISO 200, f5.6 at 1/200 sec.
Reason 1:
The light conditions were difficult. The light came through the big window right behind the young lady. Everything not lit by the window light fell into deep shadow. The ‘correct’ exposure (according to the camera) would have led to completely blown-out highlights and an overall boring picture. To achieve the mysterious look I had in mind, I had to dial down the exposure (-1 1/3).
Reason 2:
Valérie got me hooked on street photography when I participated in her Berlin workshop in August 2019, so thank you Valérie, you steered my photography journey in an exciting new direction and I am ever so grateful.
Reason 3:
This photo was taken at Copenhagen Main Station a few days after Valérie hosted her Copenhagen workshop in August last year when my wife and I spent our vacation in this beautiful city.
See more of Roland’s work on his Instagram.
DREW BROWN
I have attached a couple of images from a late afternoon walk in Alderley Edge woods in Cheshire. It was about an hour or so from sunset and the low light was piercing through the trees. This particular area, surrounded by trees had become eerily dark with the light hitting the centre of attention, the tree like a performer on stage. I stepped inside the darkness and took the shot.
