Lighting is a key factor in creating a successful image. Lighting determines not only brightness and darkness, but also tone, mood, and atmosphere. Therefore, it is necessary to control and manipulate light correctly in order to get the best texture, vibrancy of colour and luminosity on your subjects.

Hard light is a concentrated, bright light that casts strong shadows and draws attention to specific areas of a photo. With hard lighting, the transition between light and shadow becomes very difficult and distinct. When a subject is exposed to strong light, its silhouette casts a sharp, harsh shadow.

Soft lighting is a type of light with few hard shadows that’s bright yet balanced. In soft lighting, the transition between the light and the shadows is more of a gradient and much smoother.

Warm lighting/cool lighting

Warm light, characterized by reds, oranges, and yellows, is often used in photography to evoke feelings of warmth, comfort, and intimacy. Just as warm colors in art and design can create a feeling of comfort and energy, warm light in photography can enhance the emotional impact of an image.

Cold light is the most common colour temperature of natural light, as it exists from about 1 hour after sunrise to about 1 hour before sunset. This colour temperature is fairly neutral.

“When I’m making a portrait, even when I’m doing my research and I have in my head and idea of what I might create, I’m thinking very carefully about building trust. Respect is very important to me. And so I hope there’s like a level of dignity in the way that they’re represented in the photographs. It’s all very much tied together.”

Alys Tomlinson is a British photographer born in 1975 (age 48 years), Brighton, and hove, United Kingdom. Alys studied English Literature and Communications at the University of Leeds. After graduating, she moved to New York for a year and was given her first commission for Time Out, before returning to London to study photography at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. She recently completed a part-time MA in Anthropology of Travel, Tourism and Pilgrimage (Distinction) at SOAS, University of London, which ties in with her long-term, personal project about pilgrimage.

Below are some of Alys Tomlison environmental portraits:

I chose Alys Tomlinson out of all the other artist as an inspiration because I love the way she takes photoshoots and how eye-catching each image is.

DOUBLE/ MULTI-EXPOSURE:

What is it?

Double/multi exposure photography is a technique that layers two or more different exposures on a single image, combining more photographs into one. Double/multi exposure creates a surreal feeling for your photos and the two photographs can work together to convey deep meaning or symbolism.

Examples:

Artist Inspiration- Man Ray

Man Ray (1890-1976) was a famous American photographer, who used the technique of Double/multi-exposure images to improve his photographs. His exploration of multiple exposures allowed him to create images that were layered with meaning and symbolism. Man Ray “used chance and dislocation of ordinary things from their everyday settings to surprise his viewers into a new awareness.”

Man Ray’s photographic efforts with combining the seemingly unrelated in the same composition began in earnest with his Rayographs, which he started producing in 1922. To create them, he arranged objects onto photographic paper and then exposed the composition to light, creating a series of photographs that transform the banal into meaningful and complex imagery. 

Examples of his work:

My Contact Sheet:

My first photoshoot:

For my first photoshoot, we used a really low shutter speed to create the blur effect. This gave me an idea of how I would like my photos to turn out like, although I will continue to edit and finalise these photographs.

My edited photos:

This was my first go at trying to use this technique, so I didn’t achieve the final product I would’ve liked to.

My second attempt went well and I really like the outcome. I used photoshop to create the multi-exposure effect.

The three different images represent different facial expressions and emotions, which I was hoping to achieve.

Evaluation:

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and I’m very happy with the final outcomes. These photos were really fun to make as it was really creative.

What is Rembrandt lighting?

Rembrandt lighting is a technique that uses a light and a reflector, or two separate lights. It’s a popular technique because it can create dramatic and natural-looking images. This is mainly characterized by glowing triangles under the subject’s eyes in the less illuminated area of ​​the face (the filled side).

What is Rebrandt lighting used for?

Rembrandt lighting is a technique utilizing one light and one reflector or two separate lights. It’s a popular technique because it creates images that look both dramatic yet natural. It’s predominantly characterized by a lit-up triangle underneath the subject’s eye on the less illuminated area of the face (fill side).

This is what type of set up you need to do Rembrandt lighting photoshoots.

These are the top three best Rembrandt lighting photoshoots.

BEST IMAGE:

What is Chiarascuro lighting?

Chiaroscuro is a high-contrast lighting technique that utilises a low-key lighting setup to achieve contrast between the subject and a dark background.

What is chiaroscuro lighting used for?

Chiaroscuro balances high-contrast light and shade to give the appearance of depth, creating an enhanced or more dramatic effect. Chiaroscuro creates three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional plane, darkening the background and highlighting the subject in the foreground, drawing the viewer’s focus and attention.

This is the set up you need for chiaroscuro lighting photoshoot.

These are the top 4 best chiaroscuro lighting photoshoot.

BEST IMAGE:

What is butterfly lighting?

Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting pattern where the key light is placed above the subject’s face and aimed directly at the subject’s face. This creates a butterfly-like shadow under the nose. Also known as “Paramount Lighting” after the classic Hollywood glamor photo.

What is butterfly lighting used for?

Butterfly lighting is a type of lighting pattern for studio portraiture. It is used for taking flattering, glamorous portrait photos. The lighting is soft on the face. It forms a butterfly-shaped shadow under the subject’s nose, which is the source of the name.

This is what type of set up you will need to take a butterfly lighting photoshoot.

These are the top four best butterfly lighting photoshoots.

BEST IMAGE:

what are headshots?

headshots is a more specific portrait and used mostly in a professional manner for things such as websites, press releases, publications and social media profiles. Headshots capture emotions, personality and possibly professionalism. headshots are quite basic as it just a clean image of the subject looking into the camera.

why are headshots important/useful?

Headshots are important for most people but more specifically they are much more important for people like business owners or for even an employee or potential clients as this photo will be your very first impression which can help to get top known someone before you even meet them.

well known headshot photographers:

There are multiple well known headshot photographers around the world but there are handful that stand out above the rest this list consists of Peter Hurley, Annie Leibovitz, Lindsay Adler and Greg Gorman. these photographers made a name for themselves by creating the best headshots with well known celebrities and models. their photos gained so much attention as they were unique and with how well they were able to capture emotion and personality.

for this photo I tried to recreate the Henry Mullins headshots to also help create the diamond cameo

camera settings:

green coloured photos (5 star photos)

yellow coloured photos (4 star photos)

red coloured photos (1-3 stars)

these weren’t fit for what I wanted to use for what I wanted to use for my diamond cameo.

My best photos

This is my favourite photo because of the contrast between the outline and the red colour in the background as it makes the shape a lot clearer and stand out better. The colour in this image is bright red in the background and then the blue light that is shining on the model contrasts against the dark shadow from the head.

These are my best photos because the lighting and the contrast between the bright coloured lights and the models faces look the best. The shape in the first image is my favourite because the outline of the head is sharp and clear and gives a very defined shape.

Diamond Cameo

This is my Diamond Cameo for headshots and the headshot photos have to be facing all different directions they are not just headshots were the model is facing the same direction.

Here we went into the studio and started taking pictures of each model with different coloured lights to try and get a different perspective of each photo taken, I believe that these colours really change the mood of the photo whether the photo has a light or dark shadowing or none, or if it has a red colour to represent anger or even love, there are so many possibilities to these photos which makes the viewer look and think about all the scenarios. I believe that each photo has a meaning even if its just a random photo taken at any random time there is still some meaning to the phot as to why it was taken at that time and place .

we got each model to do different poses so that after I could edit the photos together to create a dimensional look on the photo, I really like how the red ones turned out as I asked the model to look to the side and therefore I can make the photo look quite different and unusual. The two side photos have very different lighting although they are both red there shadowing is light and dark, for example on the left the shadowing in the side of the models face is a cooler colour which makes the face look more mature and sophisticated and the on eon the right has a much more warmer tone which blended in more with the red colouring this made the features stand out less than the cooler tones did.

overall this photoshoot was a success and I really like how the final outcomes of the photos turned out, personally I really like how the middle blue photo looks in the end as its a very different photo compared to the rest as the lighting is a lot darker, the background of the photo is also a lot lighter and pink which changes the black around to give each person different shadowing.