Daily Archives: November 24, 2018

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AO1 Develop Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Studio Photography

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Lots of photographers use studio lighting. Studio lighting is used to manipulate and add extra lighting that wouldn’t be there naturally to a shot. Having more light in a shot could be very useful as the photo without it could appear very dark and not how you want it to appear.

In my images you may see some use of chiaroscuro and Rembrandt lighting. This type of lighting occurs when one side of the face is lit up and the shadow from the nose and the cheek on the other side connect leaving a small triangle of light in between the cheek and the nose.

There are different types of studio lighting you can add to create different images. For example you can use one, two or three point lighting. One point lighting requires using one light, usually placed at an angle which will illuminate half of a persons face, creating contrast between the shadow and the infinity curve behind. Two point lighting uses two different lights. In portraiture this is normally used to remove shadows from the face completely. Though I have only really used one and two point lighting in my photo shoot there is also three point lighting which uses a third light. Often placed somewhere behind the person facing the back of their head to create a glow around their head to make it stand out more. Overall, the more points you have light coming from the less shadows will be cast on the person, allowing you to almost remove them completely or create different amounts of shadows in different parts of their face.

These are a selection of the images I have taken using one and two point studio lighting. A lot of the images turned out slightly out of focus due to me not focusing completely or they were over-exposed due to excessive light being used for the images.

The images below are the best images I took using one and two point lighting. I have edited each image to crop, add exposure or add some more contrast between the bright and the dark parts in the images.

The images above and below used one point lighting. I have selected these images as some of the best taken due to the dark shadows that have been created due to using the artificial light on one side of their bodies.

 

The image above uses two point lighting. In this image I have used gels and placed them in front of a spot light while keeping the soft box light appearing from the right. The use of a blue gel creates a dark blue shadow that illuminates his face and body. Without using the gel to make the the light darker on one side, his body would not appear to have many shadows.

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Uncategorized, Unit 2 Portrait

Studio Photography Lighting (Double)

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What is dual point lighting:

Two point lighting setups can be very beneficial. By adopting two separate positions, the photographer can illuminate the key subject (such as a person) however desired, while also controlling (or eliminating entirely) the shading and shadows produced by direct lighting.

The key light, targets the key subject of the photo and serves as the primary illuminator source. The Photographer can experiment with the strength of the video lighting, colour and angle.  The key light will determine the shot’s overall lighting design.

Then a fill light can be used to balance out the shadows appearing on your subject. The fill light will typically not be as strong as the key light. If your lights are all the same strength you can look into using diffusers to help soften a light source along with colour gels. A colour of lighting gel is a transparent coloured material placed over a light source for colour correction and video lighting effects.

Diagram:

Two Point Video Lighting - Basic Online Video Light Setup

Examples:

Image result for what is dual point lighting photography

Related image

My own aim, action plan and technical features:

Use two separate lights in different angles facing the model to capture a series of images that highlight/concentrate on key features of the photograph.

Therefore is se up two lights one facing towards the model from the left and one light facing towards the from the front. This helped to keep the focal point in the part of the photo where those lights cross over, which illuminates the key areas I want to show. I then set my camera to a high ISO so the colour differences were distinct in the harsh light, whilst using a shutter speed of around 1/8 second and a slightly lower aperture so not as much of the light could enter the camera.

Contact sheet:

Final image outcome:

Visual elements of this image include:

The lighting in this was in two locations with one light at the front of the model and there was another lamp to the right side. A fairly plain colour range of primarily whites, greys, browns and black can be seen with a range of light and dark tones across the photography which contact each other. The depth of field and 3D-ness of the photograph is created by where the bottle in the foreground is not in focus, but the model is. The texture is quite smooth and there is a slight lead in line using the sides of the bottom.

Many portraits have contextual and conceptual meanings but this one does not and is designed to showcase a camera technique.

AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Studio Portraits

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My photography class went to the studio room to capture images of people under different lighting. We experimented with the different studio lights as well as the colour filters available. The studio had a key light which highlights the form and dimension of the subject, and a soft box light which diffuses the light into a pleasing soft, even light. When used properly, it reduces harsh shadows. The problems I faced were that some of my images were either over exposed, under exposed or completely blurry. I often had to change my camera settings to get high quality images. Although it was difficult to mange the exposure and focus on the subject I did manage to capture over 100 images. I have selected the best from the contact sheet and edited them on photoshop.

In this image you can see that I have applied the Chiaroscuro technique. Chiaroscuro is the use of strong of contrast between light and dark. It is a bold contrast affecting the entire composition. To create this affect I pulled out the black curtain to have a dark background. I told my subject to wear all black for the photo shoot so the results of the photographs would have her blended in with the black background. To create light areas in the image I used a soft box light and situated it to the right hand side so it emits a soft pleasing, even light onto one side of the subject’s face.

 

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Studio portraits – Studio light (Chiaroscuro lighting)

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Studio light

Studio lighting is artificial meaning that you can be very creative with portraiture. You can do things like changing the distance of the lights to create hard/soft lighting, Change the angle/direction of the lighting to create different effects, use directors/diffusers to manipulate the lighting and also make use of backdrops.

Chiaroscuro technique

This is a technique tat has been used in a lot of painting, most famously renaissance paintings. This technique is when there is a contrast between lighting on a subject. Usually, the  light will illuminate one side of the face leaving the other side darker.

Chiaroscuro mood board

Below are some examples of this technique used in paintings and in portraiture photography.

Images are not my own.

 

Contact sheets

Best outcomes

 

 

Analysing

 

Technical

The technical skills are what makes this image successful. To take this image I used Chiaroscuro lighting, so that half of the subject’s face was lit, and the other half was shadowed. In order to do this I placed a spot light with a cover over it in order to make the lighting softer, on the subject’s left side. I made sure that it was placed directly to the side of him so that when I stood in from on him with my camera, only half of his face would be shadowed in order to successfully use Chiaroscuro lighting.

My ISO was set to 400, as I noticed that anything under that made my image far too low key and underexposed. My shutter speed was set to 1/200, which through trial and error I realised was the best shutter speed because it wasn’t too slow that my images were blurry and over exposed, and it wasn’t too quick that my images turned out under exposed.

Visual

Visually I think this photo is very aesthetically pleasing. The subject is perfect framed in the centre, so that your eye is directly drawn to him. The powerful contrast between the lighting and the shadow also helps make the image successful as they are perfectly proportioned, as both the shadow and lighting each cover half of the face. The use of the black backdrop also makes the photo very pleasing to the eye as it doesn’t cause any distraction that would take the audience’s eye off the foreground. It makes the image successful as it blends in with the shadow on the half of the model’s face, creating an almost sort of illusion.

AO1 Develop Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Rankin

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John Rankin Waddell, also known under his working name Rankin, is a British portrait and fashion photographer and director. He is best known as the founder of Dazed and Confused magazine and for his photography of models including Kate Moss and Heidi Klum, and celebrities such as Madonna and David Bowie and his portrait of Elizabeth II. His work has appeared in magazines such as GQ, Vogue and Marie Claire. It was while doing an accountancy degree at Brighton Polytechnic that he picked up a camera and began to investigate and practise. When realising that this was what he really wanted to do, he abandoned the degree course and went back to A-levels to study photography. Taking a degree in photography at the London College of Printing, he met Jefferson Hack and together they founded Dazed & Confused, a ground breaking monthly style magazine which documented the Brit Pop and Britart movements of the time. Rankin describes his style as having no style. He doesn’t use a specific type of lighting and doesn’t use the same way of shooting all the time. When he is photographing a subject, whether they are models, celebrities or regular people he always talks constantly to the person in front of the lens. He does this to get a reaction so he can capture something about their personality; every person will have a different reaction. Rankin says portraiture for him is all about making a connection with his subjects.