ANSWERS

Author: Brandi A. Bratkovich
Date: Oct 26 2005 8:18AM
Subject: Brandi's Observation

I chose a tube of lipstick(cylinder), a red ball, and a coffee mug as my objects to observe.
The shadow of the green and blue coffee mug attached around the bottom rim of the mug. The
shadow changed values as I moved the light. It also became less crisp when the light was at a 60 degree
angle.It did not have a definite line around the edges, was fuzzy and lighter around the edges.
There was some overlapping in this shadow when the light was at a 30 degree angle and also had a
purple hue to the lighter half of the shadow. This shadow went all the way around the object. Of
course it was longer on the side opposite of the light, but did extend a little on the side closest to the
light.
However, the shadow from the tube of lipstick did not go all the way around, and it attached to the
object at the side opposite of the light. Overlapping occurred with this shadow also. It changed from a
crisp, dark shadow up close to the base to a lighter more fuzzy shadow as got farther away. When I
had the light directly over this object it became darker in value at the base and then became more
gray lines going out from the object. I did not see any color with this one.
Finally, I performed the same observation with a small red ball. The shadow to this ball went all the
way around it and attached to it at the bottom of the ball. At a 60 angle the shadow was round like
the ball, at a 30 degree angle it was more oval shaped. This was more crisp than the other shadows.
It had the least amount of overlapping of value. I noticed that this object had the least amount of
value change while moving the light to different angle. It seemed like it stayed more solid than any.
There was a lavender coloring in this shadow when the light was at a 45 degree angle.
So what did I learn from this experiment? I think that the value of the shadow can change based on
where the light source is coming from. The shadow vanishing point will meet the bottom of the object
and then also meet the light. These shadows also followed the shapes of the objects that cast them. I
had fun with this and gained an understanding of the perception of shadows. I can't say that any of
these shadows were completely black or completely transparent. They were darker in some areas and
lighter in some but never black or transparent. Even when the shadows became light they were still
not transparent.

Author: Victoria Dill
Date: Oct 26 2005 1:30AM
Subject: Wk4DQ
Message:
Week 4—Assignment 2—DQ: shadow observation exercise
In my observations of a sphere, a cube, and a triangle-shaped eraser (not completely flat) on a sheet
of paper, the shadows cast were elongated as I moved my lamp lower on the horizon. These shadows
became shorter as I moved the lamp higher on the horizon. Also, in moving the lamp closer to the
objects, their shadows became larger than the objects themselves—as much as twice the size of each
object.
The shadows appear to be lighter as it goes farther from the center of the object.
The only part of the shadow I viewed as ‘black’ was that of directly beneath the
sphere and under the curved edges of the triangle-shaped eraser. The rest of
the shadow, I would say, is transparent. I tested this by putting a piece of pink
construction paper under the objects and found I could still see the pink of the
paper in the shadow. I also tested this by placing a printed sheet under the objects
and could still read the words beneath the shadow of the object.
What I would call the primary portion of the shadow, the part directly blocked by
the object with barely any light reaching it, is crisp with a distinct shape (that
similar to the object). However, as I look further away from this core of the
shadow, I observe the shadow becoming a lighter gray. I do believe this is due
to the size of the light bulb and the style shade used with my lamp. A smaller
bulb and/or shade would allow for less of the lighter gray because the light would
not come around both sides of my objects. Instead of one single perspective
point there are points on either side of this bulb/shade combo as that is how
they cast their light. I did notice on my sphere that with a dim flashlight instead
of a bright bulb, the shadow’s edge does become quite fuzzy and indistinct.
There is no particular line between shadow and pure light.
Vicki

Author: Katherine Beach
Date: Oct 25 2005 11:59PM
Subject: Re: Katherine's Assignment 2
Message:
My objects are a box that holds wooden coasters that protect your furniture, a 4
inch round old globe that is a piggy bank and a hobnail 20oz clear water glass.
Armed with my maglight and sheets of paper spread out across the coffee table,
I start from the top and move my way down 60, 45, 30 and 15 degrees.
All three objects when viewed from above have clear and crisp shadows close to
their base. The shadow is equal around all sides when the light source is slightly
off center. I try shining the center of the flashlights light on the center of the
object and find that cocking the light slightly to the top right adjusts the light
perfectly so that its shadow casts symmetrically around the object. The shadow
is quite small the farther away you are from the object, the closer the light source
moves in the larger the shadow. I am surprised the shadow is smooth on the hobnail glass.
The box, as I move the angle of the light source down maintains its sharp lines better than the other
two objects. The hobnail glass shows the bumps of the hobnail texture around the 60 and 45 degree
angles, but it starts to smooth out again as I get close to 30 and 15 degrees.
The shadows start to overlap I guess starting at 60 degrees. By overlap, I mean that a double
shadow appears. There is a dark shadow closest to the object and then an outer lighter ring appears
at the top of the shadow. The inner shadow is a dark gray or black and is crisper in shape and the
outer shadow is considerably lighter and has more of a grainy appearance. As the light source moves
down in degrees, the dark shadows size increases and the outer/lighter shadow stays the same size, it
doesn't widen. On the globe, it was a consistent centimeter no matter how long and oblong shaped
the dark shadow became.
I maintained my same view of the object throughout the exercise, but moved the light source closer
and off to the side one way or another. When the light was shining right on the object, the shadow
was darker and crisper. As I moved the light source off to the side, the shadows were lighter and
grainier. I would not say there was ever a black shadow, that the cartoons often display, possibly my
room lights were too bright, but it's really more of a very dark gray.
I am very glad we complete this assignment. Understanding the process better, I think I would be
better able to tell what an object is when looking at its shadow. I was surprised that the perfectly
round globe became more oblong as the light source moved farther down to the side and the end of
the box widened. Your brain assumes one thing that would seemingly make sense where reality and
experiments like this make your brain look foolish. I was determined to find this assignment to be a
waste of time. As with many things in life, I was quite wrong. So often I take things for granted, and
really enjoy the end result when I take the time to better understand it…hence school and a second
degree that I am paying for versus the first one my parents paid for.

Author: Jackie Rivas
Date: Oct 25 2005 9:38PM
Subject: Jackie's Observation
Attachment: shadows.jpg
Message:
Week 4: Assignment 2: Discussion (Observation)
Set an object on the table, and hold the light source about 3 feet away ( you can vary this as you see
what we are up to) and hold it at the following approximate angles: directly above the object, about
60 degrees, 45 degrees, 30 degrees, 15 degrees...
Look at the cast shadow in each position. Note the following, ask and answer these general questions:
Where does the shadow attach itself to the object? What is its value? Is it darker in one location than
another? Are the edges crisp all the way around the shadow? Are they indistinct? Are there overlapping
areas? Could you say that any of the shadow was black? Transparent?
I have chosen to use a flashlight with a ball a carton and a canister.
Above the object- The shadow it located at the bottom of the object. It is not darker in one location
than the other. But as the degree changes the darkness becomes blurry lightening the color. It is most
crisp above the object around the shadow. It is not indistinct above the object. There are no overlapping
areas.
About 60*, 45*, 30*, 15*…- The shadow is located behind the object. The change of the degree of the
light source causes the shadow to become larger as the degree moves from 60* to 15*. It becomes
less crisp as the light source moves down. It does tend to be more indistinct as the shadow increases.
The shadow does overlap and have transparencies in the upper corners of the rectangle and cylinder
shapes, but not the circle.
I would not say that any of the shadows are black. They are in the grayscale but not a true black.
More shades are combined when the shadow increases creating a transparent appearance.
How does moving the light closer and farther from the object change the nature of the shadow?
The nature of the shadow changes in the rectangle and the cylinder by moving the light closer and
farther apart. The shadow becomes larger and also is directed to a different angle when coming from
the same direction as the above experiment. However, I did not notice a change in the circle when
moving the light source back and forth. The shadow appeared to stay the same. Possibly the circle
was not effected in the majority of the experiment because it does not have angles and it not as large
as the other two objects. Therefore the light source did not alter the appearance of the shadows created.

Author: Rachael M. Ellis
Date: Oct 25 2005 11:27AM
Subject: Rach's shadows
Message:
Shadows
For this assignment I used a small lamp, an 8 ball, a blue kids cup and a yellow baby bowl. I wanted
to tell you that because I think it had an effect on the type of shadows that I viewed. I think it may
have been different if I used solid objects.
I will start by pointing out the similarities that all three objects had. The first similarity at 3 feet above,
the objects all had crisp lines, the value appeared to be a dark gray, the shadow was almost black and
they all attached at the center of the object. The similarities at 60* were, they all attached at the left
bottom of the object. The value was darker the closer to the object the shadow was and lighter towards
the outside of the shadow. The lines appeared to be crisp close to the base of the object and
faded a little towards the outside of the shadow. The 8 ball was slightly transparent around the outside
edge of the shadow. The shadow was black around the base and faded to almost a gray towards the
outside edge.
With the 45*, 30* and 15* the traits of the shadows were the same except it became more exaggerated.
Let me explain. The further away the light source was from the top of the object the lighter the
value of the shadow. The closer the light source got to the table, or the same surface the object was
on, the more stretched the shadow became. It would become more indistinct and the lines less crisp.
With the cup and bowl, because they are transparent to begin with, the center of the shadow became
more transparent. At 45* the shadow would attach between the left side (same side as the light
source) and the middle. At 30* the shadow would attach in the middle bottom of the object. At 15* it
would attach at the right side of the objects bottom (side farthest away from light source). By the time
I reached 15* the shape of all the items were so distorted you probably wouldn’t be able to tell what
they were if you only saw their shadows.
The few differences were with the cup and bowl. I was not exactly sure what JP meant about the overlapping
but with the cup the shadow demonstrated the inside top which seemed to overlap the rest of
the cup in the shadow. It also was transparent in the middle and it outlined the lid or rim of the cup.
With the light source above the bowl the inside of the shadow was transparent and the outside of the
shadow was a dark black ring. At 60* the inside of the shadow was transparent. At 45*, 30* and 15*
the center ring of the shadow was transparent, each getting a little longer as the degrees went down.
When moving the light closer and farther away from the objects I observed that the shadow gets
longer as the light is closer and the outside gets more transparent. The lines become less crisp and
more indistinct. I also believe, and please someone correct me if I am wrong, that the more transparent
the object the more obvious the transparencies will be in the shadow.
Rachael.