What is it ?

Studio lights are any form of lighting equipment used by photographers, often when working in a photography studio, to enhance their photography. Most professional photographers have different light kits they use depending on the situation they find themselves shooting in.

Flash lighting

Flash or strobe lighting, on the other hand, is intermittent light.  When you fire the shutter, the flash fires, quickly lighting up your subject and then turning itself off.  Flash lighting can be a simple speed light, like the one pictured above, or a more powerful strobe. Flashing lights minimises shadows.

Continuous lighting

Continuous lighting in photography occurs when you turn the studio lights on, they stay on – like a video light or a flashlight. You can power your studio lighting up or down, based on what you need, but they produce What You See Is What You Get lighting, continuous lighting will allow you to photograph simultaneously.

THERE ARE 2 TYPES OF STUDIO LIGHTING: CONTINUOUS AND FLASH LIGHTING.

CONTINUOUS LIGHTING

Continuous lighting is when you turn on a light in the studio and it stays on. Due to the high lighting it may cause shadows in your image. Usually on a camera you would use a slow shutter speed, a slower shutter speed (1sec) can sometimes mean you can make darker images more brighter. In the studio a tripod is used to stabilize the camera and to take the image in the same place, same height etc.

FLASH LIGHTING

Flash lighting is when you fire the shutter, the flash fires, and quickly lights up the subject and then turning itself off. Flash lighting causes less shadows due to the high speed of the flash, usually you would use a fast shutter speed (1/120sec) so less light is entered. Using the camera with flashing lighting you can either use a tripod or hold it yourself, it depends on the kind of picture you are taking and whatever is easier for the photographer.

BEST STUDIO STILL LIFE IMAGES

These are my best images from my photoshoot in the studio. I selected these as my best images because they have the best lighting and are the most in focused. In Lightroom classic I will try to enhance the contrast on the coloured images to create a more vivid picture. These images show the different lightings shown, the colourful images used continuous lighting and the basic ones were taken by flash lighting.

Formalism within photography is mainly the focus of how the picture was created or design of it, for example the photographers choice in lighting, where the camera is placed, what setting, colours, which creates this amazing image. Its focusing on the looks of an image rather the context behind the image.

Things people look for in photography when they are aiming towards formalism is how unique the picture may be. For example:

it seems simple but has used a lot of visual elements, which are useful in attracting peoples attention. The repetition of lines within the side view of the image, and how the whole image is like looking down a circular tube, with a smooth look of material on the ground with patterns. and even lighting within the middle. And casual people at the end it sets a scene visually. And how it has used simple but bright colours which works well.

Key things formalism aims for:

Light: is there a good even use of light? Where is the light? How is the light used.

Line: Is there a use of lines within the photograph?

Repetition: Is there any repetition of shapes? For example buildings, lines?

shape: What shapes where used, and by what?

Texture: What materials where captured in the image, how smooth, rough it looks?

colour: What colours where used? Bright or dark? and what contrast was used for the image?

Composition: Did the photographer use all these elements to create a good picture?

Flatness: If it is 2D or 3D, which is observed by the viewer.

Frame: Does the image use edges?

Focus: What part of the picture would the photographer want you to focus on? Where?

An interesting feature this photographer used for his picture was a “frame within a frame”, What I mean by this is the photographer used the dark buildings on the side of the image as almost like a frame for the image.

Imagine looking at an image a photographer has taken. The first instinctual thing to do is to look at it and see what it is, where is it, how was it done, all the visual elements of the image. The next thing you would do is to figure out what it is, when it was taken. the reason behind the image ect. Its interesting to see how there is a natural order in which we view images, instead of looking straight for the context of an image and its background for example.

With an image in photography there are “rules”, (like the visual elements) which are all used to create a unique image in that specific moment. These rules are said to be broken in photography but that’s what they where made for, except for breaking the rules without knowing it. Almost as if you took a picture with a big light and dark contrast, except if you swapped the light and dark areas round the image would look horrible.

Walker Evans & Darren Harvey Regan

Walker Evans

He was an American Photographer and photojournalist, who was known for his best work on documenting the great depression. With a goal in mind to create pictures that are “literate, authoritative, and transcendent”. He was born in St. Louis, missouri, and a father who was an advertising director.

Evans took up photography in 1928, with an assignment in 1933 in cuba names the “crime of cuba”. This captured street life, the presence of police, beggars and dockworkers in rags.

Already you could understand the skills of Walker Evans through his use in his angles to show shadows, and how he still keeps the background of the beggars environment, showing the rich environment with a poor beggar asleep (during this period the great depression was around).

Darren Harvey Regan

Graduating at the Royal Collage of Art Darren Harvey’s work has inspired and confused people, appearing in exhibitions and has work as part of the permanent photography collection museum in London.

Darren Harvey’s work is mainly abstract which includes inanimate objects, or “things”. You can see the odd shapes he uses within a rock, which is normally seen with bumpy round features. The photographer uses good lighting and normally has his photographs included on top of something, bringing all the attention to the object.

The concept of a rock is very blunt at first sight. But the features Darren adds to his photographs (mainly of rocks), giving a newer look and nicer eye catching view, almost hypnotic, especially with his editing features it looks modern, as if it where a one in a life time amazing rock.

This is a picture I took with simple, common objects that anyone can find, and placed them where I wanted. It seems simple but thats the point. The use of circles, lines, and even shapes creates a weird but unique look, if you really think about it, this exact picture and form of the picture, and even lighting wont ever be recreated to this exact image ever again.

Photos have formal and visual aspects. For example, lines, shapes, colour, repetition and colour. In addition, photos have their own form of grammar. For example, frame, time, focus and flatness.

How different elements of formalism work

Light– The brightest/darkest area of the photo, shadows, natural or artificial, harsh or soft, time of day.

Time of day appears to be golden hour. Natural soft light. Brightest area at the top of the image.

Line– Objects in photo that act as lines, straight, wobbly, thin, thick, direction, can outline the image (frame within a frame).

Straight thick lines creating direction to the background. The vertical lines on the edge of the photo create a frame within a frame effect.

Repetition– Repeated objects, shapes, lines, reflections.

Repetition of triangular shapes separating all the colours of thread from all being mixed together. Repetition of the same object.

Shapes– Rectangles, circles, more.

Repetition of rectangular shape, in the middle window and the wood. Either side of the rectangular window there are 2 diamond shaped window which creates contrast.

Space– The depth, empty or solid space, foreground, middle.

This photo has a lot of space in all areas. The person on the boat which breaks the space almost seems insignificant and is surrounded by the almost empty space.

Texture– texture of materials in photo, eg bricks, glass, sand

The texture of the image has deep layers. The rocks create a sharp texture and you immediately think of how it would feel to touch or stand on.

Tone– feeling, mood atmosphere of photo.

The tone in this image is sad and dark. The monochrome colours further accentuates the sadness of the image. Also the models stance reflects that he is sad.

Colour– Balanced, saturated, muted, primary and secondary, dominant colours, monochrome.

The selective colour of this image is saturated and primary. However, the background is muted and monochrome. It is unbalanced colour.

Composition– Arrangement, layering, balance, rule of thirds

The dog is mostly in the right third. The dog is arranged at the top of the cliff to show he is important. The background is shown in the other two thirds

continuous lighting and flash lighting

Continuous lighting is the opposite of flash – the lights are constantly lit instead of only when the shutter is pressed.

A Key light is the primary source of light in your images. The colour, strength and shape of your key light will affect the entire composition.

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Backlighting involves having the main light source for a photograph behind the primary subject – this can create some interesting shadows and also eliminate ambiguity if the photographer wishes to.

 In photography terms, reflected light is light that reflects off the subject. This is most often what the camera records to make a photograph. Regardless of the light source, light is altered by whatever it reflects off. Rays of light reflect, or bounce off, objects just like a ball bounces on the ground. This reflection of light is what enables us to see everything around us. 

Flash lighting

Flash lighting involves the use of a bulb that flashes when the shutter is pressed. This creates a high key light source and eliminates shadows. It is also mostly paired with a fairly high shutter speed.

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What is Still Life Photography?:

Still Life is the photography of an inanimate object whether it be natural or man-made. Like a can or a flower.

Here are some still life photos for example:

The term “Still Life” is also used in painting too:

History of Still Life Photography:

Still Life began to be a genre around the 17th Century. When many paintings were published. They usually contained things about death and religion.

Eventually when cameras were invented, the first photographer to take a still life photograph was a man named Baron Adolf de Meyer.

Resources suggest this was the alleged photo that was taken:

Since then, Still Life photography became a very popular genre among many photographers. And as technology improved and cameras could eventually take coloured pictures, Still Life photography became even better. With more vibrant and clearer pictures taking in the real world we live in.

This is Still Life photography now:

Vanitas:

Vanitas is actually a genre that is used mostly in Art and relates to what was stated earlier about “Death”.

Infact, it more captures the entirety of life. To show how painful and or how beautiful it is.

An example of a Vanitas painting:

Here you can see a flower, a skull and a sand timer.

The flower, symbolising beauty. Could be connected to the beginning of life. The skull, symbolising death and the timer which could be suggesting that your time is limited and eventually, you will run out.

As you can see in this picture, it contains elements relating to life and death.

Memento Mori:

The phrase “Memento Mori” comes from the Latin saying that means “Remember that you have to die”. “Memento Mori” clearly has connections to death too.

“Memento Mori” is also another genre in photography and art that obviously revolves around death. It acts as a message to remind people of the inevitability of death. While that may sound dark and scary, I believe it is trying to put death in a different light by making people accept their fates as it would be better to die brave than to die scared. I think it is trying to tell us that death is not something we should fear and run away from (or at least deaths from natural causes, maybe not from things like murder).

Here are some pictures that fit in to this genre:

Here is a tattoo that shares many similarities with the Vanitas one, such as the skull and sand timer. Both having connotations to death and time.

Here is a decorated skull, which is painting death as a more beautiful thing than a bad thing. I like both of these pictures as it uses art AND photography.

Metaphors and Symbols in Still Life photography:

We have already stated some metaphors and symbols relating to death already, so some other ones it can be linked to is Nature, which can be capturing plants and animal life:

Another one can be of a street in the middle of a city, the places we walk through everyday. Looking at photos of these kinds can remind us of how far our species has come to have this society we live in:

One more can be of the weather, showing us the beauty in our world. Whether it be raining or sunny there is always something to look at and admire.