I have been mainly experimenting with artificial lighting during the portrait unit, and have decided to further develop of using natural lighting from the first photo shoot I conducted.

For this photo shoot I decided to conducted outside when the sun had began to come out after a down pour of rain.  It was slightly windy as well. I used a silver and a gold reflector to reflect the sunlight onto darker areas of my model, getting rid of the contrast in tones. Due to different areas being lighter and darker my white balance I used varied. I mainly has it on sunny or cloudy. My ISO was low as it stayed of 400 so that no noise was presented on my final images. Moreover, the shutter speed varied again to how lit up the area was. Within this photo shoot I experimented with using different depths of field to have my model in focus and the background slightly out of focus. I also mainly captured head shots of my model, but occasionally took a full body portrait of the modal.

Case Study

When I first look at this image my eyes are immediately drawn to the woman who is smiling and staring straight down at the lens of the camera. They then move around the slightly blurred out background which shows that she is exploring some woodlands. Putting the two together I can understand that she is enjoying what she is doing. This is also supported by her straight body posture. The artificial lighting, the sun, is warm which also creates a happy tone towards the image. This photograph shown above has many technical elements which I believe makes it a good photograph. As mentioned before the girl is in focus and the background is out of focus, which means that a narrow depth of field has been created. The shutter speed must have been quick as the image is perfectly focused. This also means that the aperture is likely to be around f/5.6. Moreover, no noise is found within the image meaning that the ISO used is also likely to be low.  The lighting is found behind the modal, as that is where the sun is at that time, which means no shadow of the modal is created. However, shadows of the background can be found on the grass. This helps makes the model stand out from the background. In addition, the photograph is presented in black and white which shows us all the color and allows the viewer to appreciate the scenery. From this case study, I have learnt that a good outdoor portrait should be in color, but I may experiment in black and white, it would be nice to use a narrow depth of field and the facial expressions and posture of the model is important.

Contact Sheets

Edits

Within these edits I just adjusted the levels and curves to ensure the photographs where sharp. I believe that these images have been one of the most successful photographs that I have taken so far as they clearly show good camera control, due to the different techniques I have used. In the  three edits you are able to see a narrow depth of field as the modal is in focus leaving the background slightly blurred. This ensures that the viewers attention will be focused on.  Moreover, the photographs clearly show no intended noise and clearly shows the correct white balance, shutter speed and aperture

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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.