Task 16: Play with Light

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“I would like you to take some pictures of yourself with creative lighting which involve you being in various submissive poses.”

Out of ideas

Shit. Playing with creative lighting? The image that immediately came to mind was the PurplesGem’s pictures in purple and blue light. Did they say they use some cheap LED light to play with colour? Do I have such a lamp? Nope. So what is creative lighting? Candles in the dark perhaps, May suggested. I kept the prompt off for a few days. I really didn’t have any ideas as to what to do.

As the week passed, I started feeling like this might not be a task I could do. Just two weeks prior, I had said I couldn’t imagine ever not fulfilling a task so what was up with me? I guess it was insecurity that crept in on a clear sense of direction. I didn’t know what to do and worried about getting it wrong.

Moreover, I was even less certain of how I’d accomplish using light while also managing to do the poses. How do people manage self-photography? I feel like I’m going to continue being frustrated about this!

Candles perhaps?

Eventually, I decided to try the candles in the dark. Using shadows is fun, right? I just so happen to dislike it, perhaps because I don’t feel like I have much control over it. I waited until it was dark (which takes ages nowadays! Yay summer) and lit one of the two candles I own, setting off the fire alarm. Great start.

The pictures themselves weren’t working out either. The candle wasn’t enough of a light source and didn’t capture all that much. The one picture I kind of liked didn’t exactly give off the submissive vibes. All the others were rather creepy so that plan failed.

Overexposure

One of the ideas I did have was using the light of the windows in this house. It’s literally bright everywhere and I love it, because I love natural light. The living room especially, has these three big windows so what if I just stand there and take a picture of me kneeling?

Turns out the windows are a little too high up for me to successfully kneel in front of it as I had envisioned, so I thought I could try standing there with my hands on my head. I suppose it’s doesn’t look super submissive but I think it’s a submissive position, as you have to expose yourself to be inspected perhaps and having to put your hands behind your head is definitely submissive.

I changed the shutter speed for this to overexpose the picture. It wasn’t something I had planned as such until I got there and noticed how the light worked. I really like how I could essentially make the windows disappear and have most of this picture engulfed in white. I think what’s left of my body is exactly what needed to stay visible and I quite like how just a small part of my hair has fallen over my back.

She had said several positions though and I then struggled with being able to use this light in other ways. As I said, the windows were just a little bit too high up, especially for the traditional kneeling position. Well, I tried.

If you’d like to have a go at high key lighting too, check out Charlie’s post on how to do it here.

Xx Mila

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