Person at Work: Making Pottery (2B.2)

The working space of the Hebron glass factory hosts the desk of another artisan: a pottery maker behind his lathe, right opposite the glass blowers. So, I turned to him as I found his setting quite interesting and rich of details. Here, I could fully appreciate the importance of paying attention to the direction of a light source. In fact, at first I was looking at the scene with the front window right behind me. I was standing in the path of direct light, even if my shadow was not interfering with the frame. But direct light was coming out quite flat. Then, I slowly moved around the desk, to my left. Now, light was coming from the right side of the frame, creating much more interesting effects, showing texture, creating shadows, adding depth and contrast. Definitely, I agree with Paul that this perspective makes better justice to the scene. Since what happens is not incredibly intense or dramatic, then it becomes crucial to make the best use of light, in this case by giving it way from the side. This pottery maker was not even planned as a subject, since I didn't expect to find him inside the glass factory, but it turned to be very thought-provoking in terms of light... and I felt I had grasped a point!