Chiaroscuro Lighting which means ‘light dark’ in Italian is a type of lighting technique used for strong contrasts between light and dark. It can also sometimes contain exaggerated shadows and highlights.
It was originally used by painters but has been adapted to be used by photographers when taking photos.
How to set up Chiaroscuro lighting in the studio
There are loads of different ways to set up Chiaroscuro lighting, as long as you get those contrasts between light and dark. Below is how we set it up, we also used a reflector in some photos to help highlight parts of the face
Below are some of the photos I took which best resemble chiaroscuro lighting
Final Photo & edits
After Sorting through all my photos this photo came out as the best one.
I decided to edit The photo in Lightroom to see if I could improve it. In the end I experimented with the saturation, Luminance, clarity and shadows, I also slightly adjusted the blues on the tonal curve
Studio lighting is used for consistency as you can take lots of photos with the same colour and lighting.
It is also used as you can easily recreate lighting techniques in an environment which won’t change based on the outside environment.
Furthermore you can also experiment and create lighting setups in a studio by changing the position, intensity and temperature of the lights.
1 vs 2 vs 3 point lighting
A point is a light source and could be a key light, backlight, fill light and could even be a reflector.
1 point lighting only uses 1 light source (usually a key light), this could be a light facing someone in a studio, or if someone is outside, the light source would be the sun.
1 point lighting is important as without any lighting you won’t be able to see anything and the photo would just be darkness.
2 point lighting commonly uses 2 light sources or a light and a reflector
2 point lighting is usually placed at a 45degree angle from the subject and usually uses a main light and a fill light.
3 point lighting is common for portraits as it uses three light sources to control the shadows and make the subject well lit.
3 point lighting normally features a Key light which acts as the main light in the photo and creates the overall exposure.
The second light normally used is the fill light which is used to control the shadows in the photo.
The last light normally used in 3 point lighting is the backlight which is placed out of frame and provides a highlight for the upper part of the body or the hair.
Fill Lighting
Fill lighting is a popular style of lighting used in theatre, film and photography. Fill lighting is commonly used with a 3 point lighting setup to light up darker shadows in order to reduce the contrast to make the subject look more natural. Furthermore it can increase detail by giving more light to darker areas revealing areas of detail.
Rembrandt Lighting is a form of lighting commonly used in photography and film. It is where their is an upside down triangle of light under the eye on the opposite side of where the key light is. It is also useful for creating shadows and contrast.
An example of Rembrandt lighting
How to set up Rembrandt lighting
We decided to go into the lighting studio and try and take some photos with Rembrandt lighting. The photo below is how we set it up.
Below is a selection of photos I took which best fit the Rembrandt lighting style…
My Final Photo
I selected this as my final photo for Rembrandt lighting as I feel like the triangle is most accurate in this photo also it just stands out from the other photos I took. The only editing I did was slightly crop the photo and remove any small marks with the spot remover tool as I feel like the photo didn’t need to be overly edited.
Butterfly lighting is a popular lighting technique used when taking portraits of people in lighting studios as the light creates a little butterfly shadow under the nose and also highlights the cheek bones if done correctly.
Butterfly lighting is also known as ‘Paramount lighting’ because it was popular in Hollywood films and portraits.
An example of Butterfly lighting
How to create butterfly lighting
Below is how we set up the lighting studio to create butterfly lighting.
Below is a set of all the photos I took in the lighting studio that resemble Butterfly lighting.
Editing my Photos
I like this photo I took of my friend but I want to edit it to make him more centred I also want to try experimenting by adding a black & white filter as it is common for photos with butterfly lighting to be in black & white and I think it will look good in this photo. after slightly cropping the photo I experimented with the black and white adjustment to try and make the white a bit brighter. below is the result I got.
Environmental portraits are photos of people in their environment instead of being them with a blank background it could be them in their workplace or their home.
Some examples of Environmental portraits…
A brainstorm about environmental portraits I created
Walker Evens was a photographer and Photojournalist who was born on November 3rd 1903. In 1955 he was commissioned by the Fortune magazine and he took photos of tools in an article called ‘Beauties of the Common Tool’.
His photos of tools have no colour and a little amount of shadow. The tools are placed at the centre of the photo close up so we can see the detail and because they are the subject. The plain background helps draw our attention to the tools.
Photos By Walker Evens
Darren Harvey-Regan
After Walker Evans article was published in the Fortune Magazine, Darren Harvey-Regan gook great inspiration in his photos.
What he would do is collage Walker Evans photos by cutting them in half and combining them to create photos with 2 different tools combined in a way that makes them look realistic.
Half plier half spannerHalf scissor half spatula
Creating images in response to Walker Evans
To start I selected some tools similar to the ones that Walker Evens would have photographed. I decided to put a creative spin on his work by using colour instead of my photos being all black and white.
I decided to go into the lighting studio and take some photos of the tools using transparent colour sheets. here are some of the results:
Afterwards I uploaded all the photos I took to Lightroom and filtered the photos by flagging them and giving the photos star and colour ratings.
Some of the photos I took looked a bit underexposed because of the lighting so I fixed them in Lightroom and I also got rid of any dust marks caused by the camera lens with the spot remover tool. I also cropped some of the images so they were more centred and so there was nothing else in the frame.
BeforeAfter
Final images
After filtering and editing my images I had my final images, however I needed a way of presenting them. so I started by first creating A3 layouts of my final images on photoshop.
On the left image above I used triptych layout as I like the way the photos fit together almost like a jigsaw and added some thin black borders between the photos to help separate and define each photo.
On the right I used a diptych layout and added a 3D drop shadow to make the photos look like they are placed on top of a Portrait piece of A3 paper, as that’s the size of both the layouts I created.
Virtual Gallery
I wanted to see what my photos looked like in a gallery so I created this virtual gallery with my final photos in.
In today’s lesson we were experimenting with a Virtual Camera and adjusting the Shutter speed, ISO and Aperture to see how the photos would look.
In the photo above I used a lower shutter speed to clearly see the propellers on the plane and experimented with the exposure and depth of field, so the aeroplane is in focus.
In the photo above I used a higher shutter speed which makes the blades on the propeller look blurry and adjusted the exposure to make the light in the photo look better.
In the photo above I was experimenting with lowering the Aperture which makes only the aeroplane be in focus.
In the photo above I significantly increased the ISO and increased the shutter speed to help expose the photo. The result made the photo look a bit grainy.
Still life comes from the Dutch word ‘stilleven’ and is a popular genre in photography which captures inanimate objects.
It originated from Dutch colonialism where the Dutch would take back fruits and other objects from other countries and photograph them to show their wealth and value
Flowers and food are commonly photographed in still life, however it can be anything you like that’s still.
Some examples of still life
Still life photographers
Some famous still life photographers are:
Olivia Parker
Krista van der Niet
Henry Hargreaves
Sharon Core
Josef Sudek
Choosing a photographer to analyse
After looking the still life photographers on the previous slide I chose Sharon core as I really like her still life photography and the dynamics of it.
Taking some Still Life photos
We went into the lighting studio and took some still life photos
What is Vanitas?
Vanitas is a sub-genre of still life which is used to symbolise the shortness of life and the inevitability of death.
The word Vanitas is Latin and means Vanity which is referenced in the bible’s old testaments.
It became popular with Dutch painters during the Baroque period. However some Spanish painters also created Vanitas paintings.
Vanitas paintings were first made by a group of Dutch artists as early as the 16th century but didn’t become popular until the 17th century.
The work usually contains skulls as it helps symbolise death.
Memento Mori
Memento Mori is incredibility similar to Vanitas and is Latin for “remember you must die” and also contains skulls and other objects to remind us of death. Like with Vanitas it also became popular during the 17th century.
Line is a key part of photography as it can be used to add depth or as leading lines which help point to the subject of a photo. Or to connect points in an image.
There are many different types of lines such as curved, dashed, zigzagging or straight lines.
Direction is also important as the lines could be horizontal, vertical or diagonal.
Converging lines are two lines that meet at a point to give an image depth and Diverging lines move further away from a point.
Shape
When multiple lines connect together it can create a shape.
shape is photography are usually 2 dimensional.
Shapes can be Geometric or Organic with geometric shapes being basic shapes such as: squares, rectangles and triangles. Organic shapes are more natural and can be outlines of objects like a leaf or an animal.
Shapes are usually defined by lines in a photo but they can defined by areas which are brighter or darker or by different colours in in a photo.
Form
Form is 3 Dimensional compared to Shape which is 2 dimensional.
The different shades of colour on the apples create depth and the shadows gives us the impression that the apples on the left are 3D.
Like with shape there are two types of form Geometric and Organic with geometric being Cubes and Cones or any 3D shape.
Texture
Texture could refer to the texture of the objects in the photo and could be indicated by the pattern of the object.
Texture gives the objects in the photo more detail and can change the way we perceive something in the photo.
You could describe the textures as being: Rough, Soft, Smooth, Bumpy, Dry, Wet, Shiny.
Colour
Colour can be due to the colour of the objects being photographed or the lighting in a photo.
The properties of colour:
Hue which is the colour e.g. red
Value which is how bright/ dark the colour is
Saturation is how intense/pure the colour is
The photo on the left uses saturated pinks, purples and yellows/oranges to make the sunset seem beautiful and vibrant.
Colours can also be harmonic which means they compliment each other (go well together) and can be used to affect the mood of a photo.
Size
Size really does matter when it comes to photography as larger objects can draw the readers attention and smaller objects are good for adding more detail to a photo.
Size is good as it adds scale to a photo so you can determine how big the subject in a photo is. In the image on the left the tree shows that the sand dune is really big as it gives scale.
Size can also be used as an illusion as you can take photos in angles which make objects look bigger or smaller then they actually are.
Distance from an object can also affect how big the object looks in a photo as they closer you are to what your photographing can make the object seem bigger and vice versa. Size can be described as being Big/Large, medium and Small.
Depth
Because photos are 2 Dimensional Depth is what makes objects in photos look 3D
Photos Usually have 3 types of depth: Foreground, Middle ground and Background. Having your objects/ subject in any of these grounds will give it a sense of depth
Converging and Diverging lines give the image a linear perspective which is also a good way to give the illusion of depth to an image.
Analysing using the formal elements
I analysed a photo using the formal elements to apply my knowledge and try it out.
