Photo 203 – Lighting and Studio Techniques Final

The lighting class had a practical final in which they needed to shoot a white cup of coffee with a white saucer on a white seamless background. The concept was to use no more than two lights to create mood and drama in the photo. The class was given information on the assignment a week before the final so they could get the props and try testing some ideas. Cliff was going to give extra credit to any team that was able to get steam to come off the coffee in their shot. The assignment also had a special prop that would be given during the night of the final. When everyone was given their assigned stations they were also given sugar cubes. They had to use at least three cubes and work it into their idea for the shot. Once the final started, Cliff and I were walking around checking up on the progress of the teams. After a couple of minutes into the final, Cliff started to wonder if what he envisioned was the same thing as what his students were doing. He imagined something with more mood while most of the teams were lighting everything including the bright white background. For an hour's worth of work everything looked fairly good. With more time I think all the groups would have done great. There was one group that did get what Cliff was hoping for. Craig Norris and his group came the closest. It was shot with one light and the background was left dark to create the drama. Craig posted the shot his blog.

Each group for the final project was give a tabletop with white seamless and a two light preset up. Anything else that they might have wanted had to have been brought from home.

Cliff talks to his students about the final and group assignments.


Craig is the first to see the "special" item that had to be placed in the photo. There had to be at least three sugar cubes included in the coffee cup shot.


The last minute rules and instructions for the classes final.