The very best thing about photographing inanimate objects is that they don’t move. So, no matter how oddly you light them up, they won’t suddenly shift and blur the shot. There’s a ton of things you can do with that stillness, and I’ve done a ton of them – scenes lit with candles, or disco balls, or other dim light. But one thing I haven’t done is photograph shadows.
Oddly, the last time I decided to include a shadow in a shot, I made the odd choice of faking the lighting. I have zero idea why I thought that Photoshopping a spotlight and shadow was easier than actually *photographing* a spotlight and shadow, but it looks like I figured it was a good idea.
Here are the results of that earlier shot:
Winston’s spotlight finds a rat in the shadows.
You can see how much trouble I went through for what was, in the end, a pretty crappy shot. I even tried to create the blurred edges of a flashlight beam. Which is odd because, when I actually photographed a flashlight beam, it had none of those edges at all.
So, anyway, I’ve learned a few things in the last year. This time, I barely photographed the subject at all, because I really loved the way the shadows looked.
This series of shots is lit entirely with with a mini flashlight in an otherwise pitch black room.
Here is Rat and the shadow play:
Rat wakes to a sound behind him
I like how this turned out – the other character seems ominous(which she’s not at all, once you see her in regular light)
This scene will end with the rest of the Underfoot characters waking to find Rat gone. Don’t worry – I won’t let him leave without a goodbye.