Quote:
No Humor Man wrote:
The green outlined "dent" is likely just a reflection. Please be aware that you are looking at painted gloss black surfaces that easily reflect things.
gonk27 wrote:
I tend to agree that the artefacts you're seeing could very well be reflection, but who knows? Admire your enthusiasm though
Why these objects are not just reflections...All the light you see is a reflection. But lights and shadows indicate a surface's ability to reflect light in the observers direction. The first thing you need to remember, is that the dummy Vader is in a comparatively low light situation.If you will notice the helmet on the right, it is polished to a near glassy finish and reasonably well lit. Although distorted, all it's surroundings can clearly be seen reflected in it's surface.
It shows two reflections of something in the room that is dark, vertical and possibly changes direction about half way up. Once on the bowl and once on the skirt. The image gets wider,
bowing out as you go down the rounded part of the bowl and on the skirt, the image is bigger and gets wider as you go down.
Likewise, the light reflection on the dummy dome does the same. But with some important differences...First, the helmet is tilted back and to the left, away from the camera. It may be polished, but it's surfaces are far more un-even and the primary light source is diffused and overhead (
as in, there is a
diffusing screen between the set and the light).
So, with one exception, the only thing reflected off of this helmet is a broad diffused, light source from above. You see it,
because the tilt of the helmet has put it at a
sympathetic angle to the camera. The stage is also filled with fake smoke or fog which adds further diffusion to this light.
The only thing being reflected otherwise, is the
in-shadow side of the light saber rod, which can be seen paralleling the rod, but due to the unevenness of the helmet's
surface, the reflection is broken and distorted.
And to be clear, this is a reflection not a shadow.Now, for the object on the back of this helmet to be merely a reflection of a light in the room, it's light source also has to be at a sympathetic angle to this camera. For the object to appear
as it does, approximately 2 to 2 1/4 inches tall, by a quarter inch wide, the light source would have to have a similar shape and be either very bright, or just a few feet from the back
of the helmet (..this is due to the fake fog). I tried this out with my own helmets, and found that the sympathetic angle would have that light being almost directly behind Vader's helmet or off to the left in the pic, at 90°
horizontally, from the camera angle. Yet the back of the helmet is in near total shadow. If you look hard, you can just barely make out the edge of the centerstrip. Also, if you look at the image
from the screen cap, there is no direct light source behind the dummy in that direction.
(thank you Lord Kahnt)In fact, there is no source, strong enough to cause that reflection anywhere in the field of view. (And from this angle, it would be straight behind Vader.)
So I put this little piece together, to help anyone who isn't sure what I'm saying...
I mapped out the general light reflections on the helmet in this drawing, and indicated where the cameras are and the lighting is. While it is not all exactly to scale (Vader is), the principles are still correct.
What you're seeing is light reflected off the far side of a vertical dent, which due to the tilt of the helmet, is now at a sympathetic angle to the light above, the same light as on the side of the dome.
If you will note, the right side of the object has a sharper edge and the left edge is much more gradual. The sharp edge of the light is the bottom of the dent and the more gradual side is the curve of the climb
out of the dent on the far side.