Archaeology Magazine - December 1950 - 20

a considerable extra financial investment but is well
worth it for anyone who has dealings with many shiny
pots.
For many objects, e.g. vases that do not need polaroid, and especially groups of vases, diffused daylight
in a room reasonably near a window, or outdoors in
the open shade of a courtyard, gives an agreeable even
light with a minimum of shadows. There are, however, many objects which cannot be moved about until they are in what is for them the best light. Some
things are too big and others must be respected because they were found in situ. These seem rarely to
have been placed with an eye to photographic requirements. In such cases, there is only one answer: to
move the sun.
The use of mirrors and reflectors in outdoor excavation work is well known. It can be further applied to indoor photography. Perhaps, the object to be
photographed is a heavy inscription leaning against
the wall of a dark storeroom in a provincial museum.
As the visitor first looks into it the light seems hopeless. Even if it were coming from the right direction,
it is not sufficient to penetrate as far as the inscription
in question. Here the occasion calls for a mirror and a
reflector: The mirror held outside the door where it
can catch the sunlight and throw it to the reflector,
which catches the beam from just inside the door. The
reflector thus acts as the direct light source for the inscription, and the light comes from the side, as the
nature of the subject demands (diagram, page 209).
These examples illustrate the possibility of using
sunlight even when the sun is coming from the wrong
direction. The same general principles may be applied
to the photography of movable objects for which direct sunlight is too strong, diffused light too weak,
and electricity either unavailable or unsatisfactory. A
case in point is the photography of sculpture, especially
heads. In preparing to photograph heads, it is well to
follow the rules for basic lighting in portrait photography. That is, that the main light should be placed
above and slightly to the front of the subject, so that
the nose casts a triangular shadow on the cheek, while
a weaker, or fill-in, light lessens the shadow from a
lower point on the opposite side of the face to the main
light. The excavation photographer may feel at a disadvantage because his subjects seldom have noses; he
can, however, apply the principle. A portrait photographer normally uses electric lights whose position

he can control and whose intensity he can vary by the
use of diffusion screens and other devices, so as to subdue too harsh highlights. But sculpture presents a
problem in that marble reflects much more light than
the human face, and under electricity tends to lose
its modelling in a welter of highlights. Diffused daylight produces a rather flat and uninteresting picture,
while direct sunlight makes too heavy shadows and too
bright highlights. (An exception may be made in the
case of Greek archaic sculpture, which, with its crisp
transitions of facial planes, shallow-set eyes and absence of highly polished surfaces, responds well to
direct sunlight.)
Here a solution may also be found in the use of
mirrors and reflectors. The head to be photographed
is set up on a table which is half in sun and half in
shade, the head being on the shady side, the white
background in the sun. One assistant a little to one side

Lighting scheme for photographing sculpture
Sunlight striking the mirror, A, is directed on the
subject from the two reflectors, B and C.
212

ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeology Magazine - December 1950

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - December 1950