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Experimenting With Lighting

I conducted a photo shoot to explore all the different types of lighting within studio photography. The types of lighting I looked at was:

  • One Point Lighting
  • Two Point Lighting
  • Three Point Lighting
  • Ring Lighting
  • Warm/Cold Lighting
  • Intensity of the Light
  • Lighting Rig (On Ceiling)

All these lighting techniques have been explained in previous blog posts.

Set Up

My main light source had a diffuse on it making it a soft light, this was angles slightly to the right of my models face, making a chiaroscuro effect. I then added an additional light which was angles to the left of my model, this evenly lit up my model. Finally I used another light at the back. This was raised on a tripod and was facing directly down onto the model, making the model stand out from the background. Due to this it started to create an element of 3D in my photographs. I then played around with turning some of these lights off, but keeping them in the same place, to see what effect I could create. Moreover, I experimented with ring lighting. This is a singular light which is shaped as a circle, the light is usually quite cold and harsh. You are also able to see the ring of the light in the models eye. When using this light, I made sure it was my only light source. I positioned it to face directly at my model’s face. I then placed my camera through the gap in the middle to capture the model. With this lighting I experimented with the different background colors and the different types of white balance. Additionally, using this lighting I looked at taking macro photographs of my models eye, where you are able to see the ring. Finally, the last lighting set up I used where the ceiling lighting rig. I experimented by using the different lights and their positioning. With some of these photographs I also used the soft box light to make my model more lit up.

Another technique I looked at while trying to capture these photographs was, high key and low key. In my first set of photo shoots in the studio I mainly focused on low key where there is a lot of shadows and contrast found in the image. This time around I looked at high key photographs, where the images are much lighter and too some extent are over exposed. To capture these images I used harsh cold lighting and adjusted my white balance to make the images seem over exposed. Furthermore, I tended to stick with a white background in order to add to the effect of a high key image. When I come to edit these photographs my intention is to use the levels and curves to make these photographs seem brighter than they actually are which will also help to present these images as high key photographs.

Contact Sheets

Edits

These edits are the best outcomes from using ring lighting. Due to previous photo shoots conducted, the other techniques of lighting can be found in there outcomes. When it came to editing I simply adjusted the levels and curves to ensure that my images where sharp.

This macro photograph is of the ring light reflecting into my models eye. I decided to capture this as I believed that it was interesting and peculiar to look at. Due to the image being macro it allows the viewer to see all the detail of the facial features, from the eyebrows to the veins in the eye. This helps to present the formal element of line and texture. 

In this final outcome I tried to use the inside of the ring light to frame my model. This has helped to make the model the main focus point of the image. Moreover, I used wind to move around the models hair which has allowed movement and an element of 3D to be found in this image.

Tableaux – Editing photos

When editing the photos I encountered a problem that I  have mentioned in an earlier post and that is that because I had no trigger and a tripod not suited to my camera, I had some minor problems with camera shake and movement, I did partly fix it by having the camera on a timer but there was some slight miss-alignment in the editing but I did manage to find a way around it, and still produce the image that I wanted. 

What I tried to do was just to layer each photo on-top of one another and simply rub out the areas where I was in the photo, however, because of the straight lines of the pews and the shake of the camera, that didn’t work, so I decided to add each photo one at a time on top of each other and before I put the next layer on I had a bank layer called “drawing” (seen as the top of the three layers above) and I carefully drew round each of the “me’s” and then rubbed out the filling from the red box each time, and after I did this on a layer I made the drawing layer invisible, by clicking the small eye next to it, and then merged the visible layers and built it up until i had the complete image.

Seen above is the completed image with all outlines. 

Tableaux — Photo-shoot / Image Selection

When I went to take the photos there was a slight problem that the area wasn’t lit as well as I had hoped because the shoot took place in the evening an it was dark, to combat this I boosted the iso on my camera slightly higher than I would have liked but not so much that the grain was immediately evident. Then as I didn’t have a trigger and the tripod I was using is not very strong and I have a large camera my friend who was operating had problems keeping the camera still, the way that I combated this is I set the camera to have a 5 second timer and to take a two shot burst at the end of the timer. This eliminated most of the shake but there was still some.

SOME PHOTOS MISSING

 

The problem that I had is that image 3227-8 I sat in a bad place and didn’t realise until I reviewed them the next day. The problem was that because in that pose i was leaning onto the back of the pew in-front was being obstructed by a more important image that I later took that was more important to the shoot and would stand out more. So I had to leave images 3227-8 out of the final edit. And all of the images in the green boxes made it into the edit and some that wouldn’t appear on the contact sheet.

Street Photography – Action Plan

Who: I will be photographing any interesting townspeople of Jersey.

What: I will be taking candid photos of people throughout town as well as trying to capture the idea of movement and excitement in the town. I will likely stage a few photographs for more aesthetically pleasing shots in areas however the majority of the photos will be candid.

Where: I will be taking photos along king street as well as some of some of the outskirts of the town for some slightly grittier images.

Why: I believe that the best street photography are candid images since they effectively capture the subjects personality and mannerisms.

Studio photography

Lately we’ve been experimenting with lights and shadows and how we can transform a portrait into something interesting and unique. For this we’ve been using the studio and have been playing around with the different types of lights in there.  We use studios in photography to control the amount of light we expose in a picture, and to guarantee an outcome that we want.

Pictures taken:

For most of these photos, I used the large soft light to create soft shadows. For others i used the spot light to clearly highlight the model, and used coloured sheets of plastic to cast a certain colour onto her.

Chosen pictures:

ISO 400 Shutter speed 1/125
ISO 400 Shutter speed 1/125
ISO 800 Shutter speed 1/1000

I took these pictures with the intention of casting half of her face in shadow, or making the surroundings dark enough to illuminate her face. I had her faced sideways of the light, or faces towards it. I played around with angles, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and lighting, and came out with three final images that I am pleased with.

 

 

3 Point Lighting

What is 3 Point lighting?

3 Point lighting is the process of capturing the subject with maximal yet effective lighting, controlling shadows and shade.

This process involves a hair light, fill light and a key light, all positioned as shown in the diagram below.

Image result for 3 point studio lightingFor th

Contact Sheet

Here is a contact sheet of all my images from the shoot

Selected Image Editing

for this project, I wanted to explore more creativity with my editing, while not going too overboard

Here is an original photo

For this photo, I am going to lower the exposure slightly, increase the cyan colour within the image and apply a distorted filter over the top to give off a lo-fi effect.

Here is another image

I decided to use the ring light as  a frame to almost isolate the subjects face and create high contrast effects with the ring light and a slight shadow effect on the subjects face while maintaining the 3 point lighting. However, I find the image way too bright so I will edit it accordingly

For this image I simply just lowered the exposure and slightly altered the vibrance.

Final Images

Here are my final images

Chiaroscuro – studio work

For one of our studio tasks we were asked to try out Chiaroscuro, a lighting technique where you light one half of someones face leaving the other one shadowed. It’s an interesting way of creating something unique but not overdoing it, and its an effective way of adding some mystery and contrast to an image.

Contact sheets:

 

Chosen edits:

I chose these images because they show how dramatic the chirosuro effect can be. By darkening one half of the face to a point where you can’t even see their features and their face blends into the black background adds a bit of mystery to the image, you feel less connected to the person, however the highlighted part of their face stands out and is all which you can focus on.

Studio Portraits 2

When using the studio to take portraits there are 4 types of light you can use; red-head (soft/harsh light), ring light, spot light and flash light. I experimented with all types of lighting and came to a conclusion that I prefer flash lighting and lighting formed by red-head lights.

CHIAROSCURO – USING HARSH & SOFT LIGHT

Chiaroscuro is an Italian term for ‘light-dark’ Artists who are well-known for the use of chiaroscuro are Leonardo De Vinci, who gave vivid impression of three-dimensional figures. The effect started off in paintings and photographers slowly got inspired by the effect and brought it to photography. The ‘Mona Lisa’ is a prime example of the chiaroscuro effect.

Image result for is the mona lisa Chiaroscuro

When experimenting with the chiaroscuro affect, I mainly had to focus on the contrast of light and dark, these types of photo give off a sense of volume and boldness through the photo. The image tends to have one side of the face lighten up by a studio light, which tends to be harsh to the face, which then causes the other half of the face to hide in shadow. Here are a few examples of chiaroscuro portraits.

MY RESPONSE

EVALUATION

To get this style of photo I shined a soft light, to the side of the girls face and I used a black background so the chiaroscuro effect would be more defined and bold. I took these photos using a manual setting, I had the shutter speed at 1/200, this is so the camera wouldn’t take in all the light that was available and I had the ISO on 100 so the camera wasn’t too sensitive too light, otherwise my images would’ve been over exposed and too white. I feel that using a stronger more harsh light shows the chiaroscuro effect more. The strong light creates a bold shadow on the other half of the face making you focus in on the side that is lit up and in center focus on the image.

 

RING LIGHITING 

Ring lighting allowed me to really focus on the detail of facial features. I could sit the camera in the middle of the ring, which allowed me to get stability so my photo wouldn’t be blurry and I could get the persons face in the center of the image.

The ring light could be adjusted by a dimmer, making a stronger or weaker light. I prefers the stronger light as it made a more powerful image. When photographing using the ring light, I again used manual focus, had my ISO on 100 so the camera wouldn’t be to sensitive to the bright light and my shutter speed on 1/400, this allowed me to get a sharp image that wasn’t over exposed due to the lighting. Here are a few results of using ring lighting;

EVALUATION

This type of lighting is one of my preferred because it highlights the area you want to focus on. The strong lighting creates a soft tone on the skin. With the white background it makes the subjects pop and become the center of focus. Ring lighting can be used in many different ways, to get your concept across to the viewers, these images where just experimental for the next time I shoot with a concept. The images have a sharp focus to them, that is clear for viewers to understand what is in the image.

 

FLASH LIGHTING

Flash lightening tends to be used when photographers take school photos, or family portraits. 

This light is covered by a cover to make the flash softer on the skin when the image is taken. A device is put on top of your camera and then is connected to the light, which controls the flash, so that when you press down the capture button it sets of a flash so that the subject is captured in a sharp light.  Some of the images I produce with this lighting are; 

EVALUATION

This lighting allows you to capture your image how you want it. It creates a soft tone throughout the image and with the white background it makes the images look sharp and fresh. This type of lighting is my favorite.

FINAL IMAGES

These images are my favorites out over the 3 shoots I have done in the studio using different types of lighting. With experimenting with the different types of lighting and how to adjust my camera to the different lighting I feel I can now apply it to when I am photographing in the studio again but next time having a concept behind my images can make them more connectable to the viewers.