WHAT IS CHIAROSCURO?

The technique was vey popular during the Renaissance, where the term originated from. It involved drawing on coloured paper, where the artist worked from the paper’s base tone toward light using white gouache, and toward dark using ink, body-colour or watercolour.

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Chiaroscuro in photography is a technique and style often talked about as “clair obscur” or “extreme low key”. This style of photography is often well-suited for portraits, still life, and boudoir, or to give a scene the illusion of being three-dimensional. This technique can be used to light a variety of portraits (full body, headshot etc) and object, such as guitars of chess pieces.

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Street/Candid Photography

Eric Kim is an international street photographer based in Los Angeles. He has traveled the world and shot in cities such as Paris, London, Venice, Florence, Prague and has even taught a street photography workshop in Beirut, Lebanon. His photos consist of mainly black and white photographs and he usually has juxtapositions in his images. The reason that he chose to do this type of photography is because out of all the types of photography out there, street photography is the most pure due to the two reasons: you can capture candid moments of everyday life while showcasing the human condition. In street photography, it is less about the image but more about the story behind it. An effective street photograph will be able to immerse the viewer in a world of awe and wonder, and place them in your shoes. No other genre of photography does that.

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Photo Analysis: Photographed in Korea

Technical

Lighting – the lighting in this photograph may have been flash due to the faces in the photo being well lit although it may just be fluorescent lighting from the street lamps. It is more likely that the photographer used flash as it exposes the faces better in order for the observer to clearly see and observe their facial expressions. Eric Kim may have also wanted to expose their faces so that their hair contrast nicely with their face.

Aperture -The depth of field in this photograph may be shallow as the background of the photograph isn’t as sharp as the models faces. Kim may have done this to focus the observer attention on the faces in the photo rather than the entirety of the photograph.

Shutter Speed – Some parts of the photograph seems to be more exposed than other parts and some parts under exposed giving variation in contrast.

ISO – This photo seems to have a low sensitivity as the picture is very sharp, it also has a variation of tonal range which contrast nicely with each other.

Visual

There is a variation of light and dark tones in this photograph and there is also a repetition of extremely exposed parts (rain and water) of the photograph scattered around the photograph. This photograph is nearly a perfect square shape which is pretty standard, the photographer may have done this in order to not distract the observer from what’s being shown in the photograph.

PLAN-

where- photography studio in school

when– during a free period, booked beforehand

who– one or two people to be the model/s and help with light positioning

how– use two point lighting with the colour filters to provide two different colours on different angles of the image

any other notes- use red and blue lights to mirror the 3D-glasses effect, maybe go down to a single colour during the shoot as well (?)

MOODBOARD-

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SHOOT CONTACT SHEET-

SELECTION-

FINAL EDITED OUTCOMES-

I used two people in this picture because I intended to emulate the “family portrait” style of image but with the modern twist of bright coloured lighting. I had them face towards me and look directly down the camera lens to create a sense of connection with the person looking at the picture, as a result the red light creates an effect mimicking chiaroscuro, as it obscures her face in red.

I really like this picture because the red casts a shadow on the side of her face really well, and it almost completely obscures the guy behind her, creating a contrast. I prefer this image to the previous one in the same style because I feel like them looking off into the distance mirrors more the “family portrait” style of image.

I like the lighting of this image as it has the two-toned colours on either side, so red and blue on both sides of her face, which makes the image interesting to look at. To edit, I covered up the wisps of hair using the spot healing tool, as well as increase the vibrancy of the coloured lights and the contrast, in order to make the shine in her eyes stand out. This photo is, unfortunately, slightly blurry due to a problem I had with the camera, so if I were to improve I would fix that problem.

I decided to have my subject turn towards me in this image so that she was almost completely in one colour, expect for her back, which is still lit by the blue. I really like the blur in this picture as it shows more of my own style than imitating the other photographers’ I saw when researching colour portraits, and I feel that it is effective.

FINAL SELECTED IMAGE-

I chose this image because the colour contrast works best and the positions the subjects are in also works best with the lighting positions. I edited it by adjusting the vibrancy and saturation, as well as making small adjustments to the hue in order to maximize the blue and red colours as much as possible. I didn’t want to edit the image too much because it would take away from my own camera skills, which is what my time in the studio was for, and I feel like this image best encapsulates that.

EVALUATION-

If I were to do this shoot again I would experiment with more colours to see if that changes the overall tone of the image, as well as maybe trying with a single colour only. Additionally, I would make sure all of my images are clear and in focus, and if there is a camera issue I will resolve it before the actual shoot, as I found this was a major obstacle to properly succeed with this photo-shoot.

below are the contact sheets from the studio shoot i did with my friend. i have annotated pictures either in red, as i will not include them in my selection, orange, as i will have a look at them further and may add them to my selection, and the ones in green will definitely be added to my selection, as they are my favourites.

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what will i photograph?

i am going to take photographs of my friend

where am i going to take my photographs?

i am going to take my photographs in the studio, infront of the infinity screen

how am i going to take my photographs?

i am going to take my photographs on a canon camera, using a tripod, as for lighting i am going to use single lighting and 2 point lighting.

why am i designing my shoot in this way?

i am designing my shoot in this way so i can experiment with lighting and how to set up my camera to capture in these lighting situations.

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Anthony Kurtz’s works often focuses on marginalization and alienation. He documents people and places that exist on the edges of society, sometimes physically, mentally or both: excluded by choice or by circumstances. Recently in his photographs he has been using control and has been trying to use conformity and has been trying to represent both of these opposing forces within a single photograph. In his photographs there is a lot ideas surrounding our recent generation and he likes to question ideas of democracy, security and progress. The element of time also plays an important role in his work. He often refers to the future societal collapses and a world where humans are no longer in control. The images he captures with a camera are merely foundations upon which he builds by manipulating light, shadow and color to dull out tones or make the colours more vibrant. He also attempts to create a mood and atmosphere, a sort of “hyper-reality” that contains both a sense of mystery and sadness, hope and beauty in each of his photos individually.

I think Anthony Kurtz’s work is very inspiring as the colours that expressed in his photographs usually impact the photo in a dramatic way. In my photos I would like to experiment a lot with colour or even just have a wide variety or contrast with darker tones or lighter tones. I also admire how the photographer tries to make statement about recent society issues in each of his photographs.

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Photo Analysis

Technical

Lighting – In this image there seems to be natural lighting in the foreground but a lot of shaded areas in the background that look under exposed. A lot of the natural lighting reflects off the models skin which allows there to be some tonal range and the lighting also brightens the back drop behind her.

Aperture – The depth of field in this image seems to be quite shallow as the most sharpened part of the image is the model.

ISO -The light sensitivity is fairly low on this photo because the image doesn’t look grainy.

White Balance – There are warmer tones in this image.

Visual

There are subtle colours in this image meaning they’re not highly saturated and there is a lot of variation in tones, darker tones towards the back ground. There is also texture on the bench and on the girls dress but its not the sharpest. There doesn’t seem to be any 2D elements in this photo as it’s doesn’t seem to have been photo shopped too much. There is repetition of dull and brown colours in this photo other than the dress and maybe the cup. There is a fair amount of space surrounding the model as well as the cup making those two things the main focus of the image.

Contextual/conceptual

This photo is meant to represent what most young people have in third world countries and what little colour and liveliness surrounds them. By making the model slightly off center, it allows the viewer to focus on the cup also and the lack of cleanliness surrounding her.

WHAT ARE STUDIO PORTRAITS?

Studio portraits are portrait photographs composed and captured in a studio, this means the photographer has control over the lighting of the composition of the subject and can adjust direction and intensity of light. Studio photography is preformed indoors. There are many ways to light a subject’s/ objects face, some of them are:

• Three-point lighting
• Key-light
• High-Key
• Low-Key
• Fill-in light
• Back light
• Flash

Many other aspects of study portraits photography will affect the final photo taken , such as intensity of the direction and temperature of the light and white balance. The table below shows the Kelvin Colour temperature scale. It is a way to describe the light appearance provided by a light bulb. It is measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000. Usually, Kelvin temperatures for commercial and residential lighting applications fall somewhere on a scale from 2000K to 6500K.

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Lighting positioning techniques are also used to create diversity in studio portraiture, and a 3 point lighting system is the most common. The Three Point Lighting is a technique used in visual media such as video, film, still photography and many more. It is used to light a subject from three different light sources and angles. This is done in order to manipulate shadows, create contrast, and increase the overall quality of the footage that is captured.

•  the Fill light is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is used to fill the shadows created by the key. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key

• the key light is the main light used to illuminate your subject, It is most often placed at an angle that lights one section of your subject. This angle can range from 15 and 70 degrees, with 45 degrees being most common.

• the backlights purpose is to offset the flattening of dimensions caused by your key and fill light. It approaches from behind your subject, often at an angle.

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WHY DO WE USE STUDIO LIGHTING?

Studio lighting is essential to most photographers’, especially in studios. It allows us to create natural lighting effects in a variety of situations, and is far more controllable than a flashgun. Indoors, it allows photographers to illuminate objects or subjects in specific ways, using different techniques such as chiaroscuro.

HISTORY

Studio photography goes back to 19th century and photographic technology has been continuously evolving since the first photographs shot with all-natural materials in 1824. The first studio photographers had to carefully combine chemicals in precise amounts for every single exposure, however now, today’s modern digital SLR cameras capable of capturing razor-sharp images without film.

With advancements in equipment, technology and techniques, studio photography began to develop as it became easier to produce high-quality images indoors. The first commercial studio photography was portraits of people. By the 1940s, studio photography had almost completely replaced painting for portraiture as the photography process was much simpler and took less time.

EXAMPLES OF STUDIO PORTRAITS:

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