In this photoshoot, I plan to explore the idea of absence through presence - showing the evidence of human life through illuminated windows at dusk, but without any direct human presence. The intention is to allow absence to be communicated through suggestion rather than depiction.
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Inspired by a photo from a previous shoot during this project, I want to photograph windows with lights on inside as the natural light outside fades. The images are intended to create a sense of mystery and narrative, encouraging viewers to imagine what exists beyond what they can see in the photos.
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It will take place in my local area at around 4-5pm as that is when the sun is due to start setting. The timing is important as it allows the artificial interior lights to contrast against the dimming natural light. Additionally, the darker it is, the more likely it is that people will be turning on the lights inside their houses, doing this shoot in the middle of the day would create little opportunity to find lights on. I plan to prioritise residential streets and buildings, particularly ones that feel visually plain or understated to avoid distraction from the windows, but also to push the relatability of the photos by capturing familiar feeling environments, allowing the images to feel easier to connect to and project onto.
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I plan to use both my 18-45mm kit lens and 45-200mm zoom lens to allow me to be flexible with angles and perspective. The zoom lens will enable me to capture distant details and create decontextualised images, isolating windows from their surroundings, while the kit lens will allow for wider, more contextual shots.
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As the shoot will take place in fading light, I will need to find the right balance between ISO, shutter speed, and aperture to maintain quality and image information. I anticipate that a higher ISO might be required, which will possibly add grain to the images, however, this may contribute to the atmosphere of the images rather than detracting from them.
I conducted this shoot inspired by an image from a previous photoshoot that I was particularly drawn to, which depicted an illuminated window as it was getting dark outside. The image stood out due to its sense of mystery and absence, where light suggested life without revealing it.
Building on this, I decided to explore illuminated windows specifically, within my local area at dusk, using them as a way to explore distance, the unknown, and the idea of absence through presence - showing signs of human life without any direct human presence.
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By photographing windows with lights on inside, the images hint at narratives and activity beyond the frame, encouraging the viewer to imagine what cannot be seen. This reinforces my ongoing interest in suggestion rather than explanation.
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The shoot took place around my local area as natural light was fading. I was deliberate in selecting scenes where the surrounding environment felt plain, quiet, and visually lacking, allowing the window to become the focal point. I intentionally used empty walls, minimal architectural details, and large areas of grey sky as negative space to disrupt the balance of the images and heighten the feeling of isolation and distance.
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Compositionally, I avoided visual clutter so the illuminated windows felt slightly detached from their surroundings, reinforcing the sense of separation between the viewer and whatever exists inside.
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I used both my 18-45mm kit lens and 45-200mm zoom lens during the shoot to give myself flexibility in framing, allowing me to capture both wider contextual shots and more distant, compressed views that increased my sense of separation.
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However, as the shoot progressed and the light levels dropped, the limitations of the zoom lens became apparent due to its variable aperture, which was restricted to f5.6 at its widest during this shoot. To compensate, I lowered my shutter speed to 1/80 and increased the ISO to 6000, which introduced noticeable grain.
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After this point, I relied primarily on the kit lens, as its wider aperture (f2.8) allowed more light into the camera without requiring excessively high ISO values or risking motion blur.
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Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of this shoot and feel that it has produced several strong images that effectively communicate mystery, distance, and absence through subtle visual cues. The illuminated windows act as quiet indicators of human presence while maintaining emotional and physical separation from the viewer.
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If I were to repeat this shoot, I would consider using a prime lens better suited for low light conditions. A fixed wider aperture would allow for lower ISO settings, resulting in cleaner images while maintaining sharpness in darker environments.
For the editing process, I began by selecting images that felt the strongest compositionally and stood out the most in terms of balance, framing, and atmosphere. I then used lightroom to edit, focusing on reinforcing the conceptual intentions of the shoot rather than dramatically altering the scenes.
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I reduced the overall saturation and vibrancy of the images while deliberately preserving the orange glow of the illuminated windows. This created an almost black and white aesthetic, with a single point of colour acting as contrast against the muted surroundings. This editing choice removes visual distractions and directs the viewer's attention towards the light within the window, which becomes the primary focal point as there is no human subject present and therefore originally, no clear focus point.
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This separation of colour also visually reinforces the idea of presence vs absence, with the warm interior light feeling detached from the surrounding environment, which appears empty and ambiguous. The contrast heightens a sense of distance and uncertainty, prompting questions about what is happening inside - whether anyone is there at all - and allowing viewers to create their own imagined narratives from what they cannot see.
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Due to the low light conditions, the images contained noticeable grain. I reduced this slightly using noise reduction and masking to reduce the clarity in certain areas to soften the image. However, I chose not to remove the grain entirely, as it contributes to the atmosphere and the sense of mystery when used in moderation. Ideally, I would have preferred to control grain in post production rather than through a high ISO, but I was able to work with it.
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Overall, I am pleased with the edited outcomes and feel that the visual style successfully supports the conceptual intentions of the project. This approach allowed me to carry forward feedback from earlier experimentation with black and white imagery where I received mixed reviews on colour/ the lack of, and therefore I was able to experiment with combining both of them in single images simultaneously. I plan to take selected images from this shoot forward into the final image selection for this project.
