Chiaroscuro is an Italian word, with the definition of Light and Dark.  The meaning of Chiaroscuro is the treatment of light and shade in painting and photography.  It started in the mid 17th century when artists such as Da Vinci started using the technique. In Art, Chiaroscuro, refers to the use of light and shadow to create the illusion of light from a specific source shining on the figures and objects in the painting.

In this photo shoot, our main focus was using the Chiaroscuro technique to create cool effects in the images. Throughout the whole Shoot I used the Manual focus setting on the camera. I also used an IOS of 100, and a shutter speed of 1/80.  At the beginning of the shoot I had my white balance on White light, however near the end of the shoot I changed my White balance to Fluorescent to get a different effect.

During the Shoot we started experimenting with different colors. We covered the light source with colored paper  to see what dramatic effects we could create on the models face. They turned at quite well, and my favorite shots were the close up ones of the model.

During the last bit of the shoot, I changed my White Balance to Fluorescent. This captured some really good images. Changing the White Balance caused the white light to become more yellow in the photos. This gave me a chance to experiment more with the Chiaroscuro effect.

Split Half Lighting 

With split lighting, half of the face is lighted and the other half is in shadow.  It is produced by placing the lighting source to the right or left of the direction in which the subject is facing,  with the light at or slightly above face level.

Here is an example of Split Half Lighting, and here is my image.