Studio lighting refers to how a light source (typically artificial), illuminates the subject that is being photographed in a studio environment. It is often used to change aspects of the photograph such as clarity, tone and saturation to create an accurate rendition of the scene.

1-Point Lighting

If you only have one light available to you then this will become your key light. This is the principal (and most important) light in the setup, as it illuminates the subject within your shot.

It is usually the strongest and has the most influence on the look of the scene. It is placed to one side of the camera/subject so that this side is well lit and the other side has some shadow.

2-Point Lighting

If you have two lights in your kit then the second light after setting up your key light will be your fill light.

This is placed on the opposite side of the key light. It is used to fill the shadows created by the key light. The fill will usually be softer and less bright than the key (up to half the intensity/brightness of the key). To achieve this, you could move the light further away or use the intensity settings on your lights if you have some.

3-Point Lighting

The third light after setting up the key and fill will become the back light which is placed behind the subject and lights them from the rear.

Rather than providing direct lighting (like the key and fill), its purpose is to provide definition and subtle highlights around the subject’s outlines. If setup correctly there should be a subtle rim of light around the subject. This helps separate the subject from the background and provide a three-dimensional look.

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt lighting results in one half of the subject’s face is fully illuminated, while the other half is in partial shadow (similar to chiarascuro/split). What differs when comparing this to other methods of lighting is the presence of a small inverted triangle of light below the subject’s eye, usually along the cheek, which is a result of the lighting setup. For perfect execution of this type of lighting, the triangle of light shadow must be no wider than the length of the eye, and no longer than the subject’s nose.

The Rembrandt lighting technique results in a moody and dramatic effect. This type of lighting technique often features a dark or black background behind the subject, putting the subject front and centre.

Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly lighting is a basic and popular lighting technique in which the main light is above and in light with the subject’s face and the camera.

A clear sign of butterfly lighting being used is the shadow under the nose with a butterfly shape that is created as a result of the lighting.

In some images, the butterfly shape created is more subtle (like the second image above) but in others the position and intensity of the lighting can be altered to make it more noticeable and this is used to highlight cheekbones and create shadows under them as well as under the neck – which makes the model look thinner. 

Chiarascuro/Split Lighting

Chiarascuro literally translates to “light/dark”, and refers to a technique where a light source is shone onto a side of the subject’s face, juxtaposing light and dark tones due to half of their face being illuminated and the other half being darker and more coated in shadow. It shares many similarities with Rembrandt lighting, but without the triangle cast on the subject’s cheek.

Images captured using chiarascuro lighting typically aim to create visually intriguing pictures with a strong sense of depth and mood. A soft second light can be shone on the darker side of the face to alter how dark the shadows are which can be used to strengthen/weaken the contrast between light and dark tones.

Photoshoot Plan + Contact Sheet

After researching different types of lighting in a studio environment, I then decided to try and capture a wide variety of portraits (e.g. head shots, full body etc) showcasing these lighting techniques and my understanding of them.

After the first two sessions in the studio, I imported my photos into Lightroom and colour coded them as well as star rated them to go through them and see which ones I found most effective – these were typically the ones where I managed to make better use of chiarascuro or Rembrandt lighting which added a gloomy feel to the images.

My Best Chiarascuro/Split Images

I first tried experimenting with trying to achieve a chiarascuro effect by adjusting the position of my main light to see how it would affect the light and shadows created on Finn’s face.

In the images above, I experimented with different positions and strengths of light to see how it would affect the amount of shadow on the side of Finn’s face and manipulated this to create some images I find effective. Although some are extremely underexposed, I can later adjust brightness and contrast in editing to fix this.

I then tried adding a fill light and adjusting its strengths to decrease the amounts of shadow present as well as trying different poses standing/sitting to see what I liked most.

My Best Rembrandt Images

I then tried replicating Rembrandt lighting by trying first setting up lighting to achieve a chiarascuro effect and then moving the position of the light and trying different angles to achieve the triangle under the subject’s eye.

The images above are some where I nearly managed to achieve this effect, but the position of the subject and/or the positioning of the studio lights wasn’t optimal for this so I instead ended up with streaks of light in the darker side of Finn’s face just under the eye, but not in a triangular form.

After lots of experimenting with different positions and strengths of lights I was able to come closer to achieving the triangle under the eye. Although I wasn’t able to perfectly replicate a triangle, the light is much more visible and creates a focal point amidst the shadow covering his face.

This was my best result from all my experimenting with Rembrandt, clearly showing streaks of light under Finn’s eye on the darker half of their face although the light isn’t a perfect triangle.

My Best Butterfly Images

To try and achieve the butterfly lighting effect, I positioned the light directly in front of my subject high up pointing down so there would be a slight shadow cost under the nose.

I first tried using this technique with a half body composition, and in both photos the shadow under the nose is clearly visible although in the second one Finn’s head being leaned forward created more shadow around the eye area as well.

I then tried using this technique with a head and shoulders shot so it’s more zoomed in on the face, and this worked very effectively since you can now more clearly see the shadow under the nose as well as the softer shadows around and below the eyes.

Image Manipulation/Experimentation

After experimenting in the studio I took some of my best photos and made minor tweaks to them in Lightroom such as cropping them to improve composition and changing the brightness to explore how it affects the lighting and shadows as well as the intention behind the image.

I really liked how these images turned out since after adjusting brightness and contrast it still clearly displays different lighting techniques without being too underexposed or overexposed, and by experimenting with altering the composition via cropping I was able to drastically change some of my images whilst still keeping them interesting and dramatic (such as the bottom right image, which was originally a full body shot that has been zoomed in to turn it into more of a head shot).

I then experimented with making the images black and white, and found that it really adds to the moody atmosphere initially created with chiarascuro and Rembrandt lighting which helps to build further on the intention behind my photos.

Final Photos

After experimenting with image editing, I decided to keep all the images black and white since I like the dramatic and moody atmosphere it creates when combined with the shadows from the lighting techniques. I also like how the photos are laid out since the top 3 shows a half body butterfly shot in between two head shots, and the bottom three showing different poses and movements as well as having the Rembrandt clearly present in the middle.

Presentation in Artsteps

What is it?

Studio photography, at its core, takes place indoors in a controlled environment where the photographer can manage every aspect of the photo shoot. This type of photography can capture a diverse range of subjects, from people and animals to various products like cars and jewellery. Typically, a photography studio begins as an empty room. The photographer then creates backdrops and makes choices about what to add or leave out, including outfits for models and different props.

Examples

Different Types of Studio Lighting

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt lighting is a common technique in studio portrait photography and filmmaking. It can be used alongside butterfly lighting for different effects. You can create this look with just one light and a reflector, or with two lights. It’s favoured because it can produce natural and striking images without needing a lot of gear. The key feature of Rembrandt lighting is a lit triangle, known as the “Rembrandt patch,” that appears under the eye on the darker side of the subject’s face. This style is named after the Dutch artist Rembrandt, who commonly used this lighting in his work.

Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly lighting is a technique where the light is positioned just above and in front of the person’s face. Sometimes, this style is also called paramount lighting. When we talk about butterfly lighting, one of the key features to look for is the shadow that forms under the nose, which resembles a butterfly.

Chiaroscuro Lighting

Chiaroscuro refers to the dramatic differences between light and dark in art, creating striking contrasts that impact the entire piece. Artists and art historians use this term to describe how these light contrasts help give depth and shape to three-dimensional objects and figures. This technique is also seen in movies, as well as in black and white and low-key photography, where it’s still referred to as chiaroscuro.

Lighting Diagrams

Artist Analysis

Nadav Kander

Nadav Kander, who was born in 1961, is a photographer, artist, and director based in London. He is famous for his stunning portraits and landscapes. Kander has created several books and has showcased his work in many exhibitions. In 2015, he was honoured with an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society and also won the prestigious Prix Pictet award.

Photos by him

Image Analysis

Visual – This is a photo of Ex president Barack Obama. In this photo there is a large amount of blue, in the background and his suit, these two blues complement each other really well. The background is soft with little texture or shape, furthermore there is no pattern in the background, this makes the viewer fully focus on the subject with little attention to the background. Obama is centre frame with his head in the upper centre of the frame, this creates an equal rule of thirds.

Technical – The lighting in this photo is cold with little warmth and is from the front of his face, you can see this because his face is in the light and the back / side of his head is left in the dark. I think that the type of lighting is moist probably artificial or studio lighting. The aperture in this photo is large with a shallow depth of field, probably shot at f/1.4 or f/1.8, something really low, I can tell this because the background is completely blurred and the subject is fully in focus. Moreover I think the shutter speed would have been fast, something like 1/500 or 1/300, this is because there is already plenty of light already and the subject has no blur and is fully in focus. The ISO is probably something like 100, this is because there is no need to let in more light due to the bright studio lights, I can also tell this due to the lack of grain in the image.

Contextual – Right before Barack Obama started his presidency, photographer Nadav Kander was asked to capture portraits of the important people in his team. Like the secretary of state, the outcome was an intriguing glimpse of a group of individuals about to make history. The exhibition, Obama’s People, will be showcased at the Flowers East Gallery in London starting September 11.

Conceptual – The concept behind this photo and why this photo is so important is because Barack Obama was the first black president in history. I think this photo represents hope, this is because he isn’t looking directly at the camera and more off to the side, he looks like he is gazing out over his people and land with almost a smile and ambition.

Photoshoot Plan

I plan to use the studio to take photos of my friend. Furthermore I plan to use different lighting angles and techniques to experiment and find out which one looks the best.

Our studio Set up

Contact Sheet

Selection Process

My Example of Rembrandt Lighting

This photo shows a good example of Rembrandt lighting, this is because there is a triangle of light on the right of the nose which perfectly brings out the colour in the right eye.

My Example of Butterfly Lighting

This photo shows good Butterfly lighting. This is due to the butterfly shaped shadow underneath the nose.

My Example of Split Lighting

This photo is a good example of Split lighting. This is because half the face is illuminated and the other half is left completely in the dark.

Final Photos

Editing

Final Photos

Final Photos Black and White

Cropping

Final Cropped Photos

Evaluation

My photos turned out exactly how I intended them to. Further more I managed to effectively experiment with the different types of lighting. My photos follow Kanders photos to some extent but then I took my own turn by including more of the body or by including hands.

Compositions

Final Composition

I chose this composition because it incorporates the cropped and un-cropped versions of the photo and its almost like a before and after style photo.

Artsteps

Colour Gels– Colour gels are used in photography to add colour to the light source, which can help create a specific mood or atmosphere in the image. The coloured light can also highlight certain elements in the photo, such as the subject’s hair or clothing.

These are some examples of colour gels i found of the internet.

These are some photos I took using colour gels.

This is the raw image without me editing it.

This is after I edited it.

I edited my photo using adobe Lightroom classic and on the right side of this snip you can see some of the changes I made as I adjusted the highlights to be more red tinted and the shadows to be more blue. I also lowered the texture on her skin to make it a smoother photo.

This is another photo I edited and it side by side with the original making a comparison.

These are all the photos I took.

“Rembrandt lighting” is a lighting technique used alongside “Butterfly lighting” it is distinct by an illuminated triangle and can be achieved by using one or two lights alongside a reflector.

I ended up going to the studio again and took some more Rembrandt photos in different styles of lighting.

Rembrandt was a Dutch painter

He was known for his amazing ability to show human feelings in his art. He used light and shadow in a unique way that made his paintings look real and full of life.

Born in the Netherlands, Rembrandt started drawing and painting at a young age. He later moved to Amsterdam, where he became a popular artist, painting portraits for wealthy people. But unlike other artists, Rembrandt showed people as they really were, not just how they wanted to be seen.

He also painted himself many times, showing how he changed as he got older — from a young, confident man to an older, wiser person who had faced hard times. These self-portraits are still seen as some of the most honest in art history.

Even when he went through struggles with money and personal loss, Rembrandt never stopped creating. His later works are seen as some of his best, showing deep understanding and emotion. Today, he is remembered as one of the greatest artists of all time, known for capturing the true human experience.

Portrait of an old man

Portrait of an Old Man is a famous painting by Rembrandt, made around 1654. It shows an old man with a calm, thoughtful look. He has a long white beard, wrinkled skin, and wears a simple robe and cap, making him look wise and peaceful.

Rembrandt used light and shadow to make the man’s face stand out. Soft light shines on his face, showing every wrinkle and detail, while the background stays dark. This makes the man feel real and present, almost like he’s sitting right in front of you.

No one knows for sure who the man is. Some people think he wasn’t a real person but just someone Rembrandt painted to show age and wisdom.

Today, this painting is seen as one of Rembrandt’s best. People love how he captured the man’s age, experience, and quiet strength, making it a powerful example of how art can show the beauty of being human.

My photos

I ended up going to the studio to attempt Rembrandt lighting myself

Here are all my raw photos

I then edited some of my best photos in Lightroom and photoshop.

what is studio lighting and why do we use it?

Studio lighting in photography happens when a photographer uses an artificial light source to either add to the light that’s already there, or to completely light their photograph. Setups can range from using a single flash that you mount onto your camera, to multiple off-camera lights. Studio light is created artificially by flashes, strobes, or other sources, whereas natural light is the light that comes from the sun, moon, or stars.

It gives you complete control over the illumination of your scene, eliminating the unpredictable nature of natural light. The proper lighting setup ensures uniformity, improves visual clarity, and spotlights the subject effectively.

1-2-3 point lighting

What is butterfly lighting?

Butterfly lighting is a form of studio lighting that is usually used within portraiture photography, as the name suggests the lighting used forms a butterfly shape under the nose of the subject of the image. This is because the light comes from above the camera and you face creates the shadow.

Why should you use it?

Who created it?

Butterfly lighting was not created by one specific individual but rather developed over time in Hollywood back in the 1930’s, it was mainly used on a person called Marlene Dietrich who was a Hollywood star.

How to create a butterfly lighting setup:

Lighting: Butterfly lighting requires a key light that can be a flash unit or continuous. If continuous, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speed lights, LEDs or even the sun.

If continuous, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speed lights, LEDs or even the sun.

A butterfly lighting effect refers to the setup and not to the quality of light – it can be soft or hard light depending on the effect you want.

Before editing

After editing

What is Rembrandt lighting?

Why use Rembrandt Lighting?

By using Rembrandt lighting you instantly create shadows and contrast . it helps add the characteristic ‘triangle of light’ beneath the subject’s eye to help make the photo more dramatic. Rembrandt lighting adds an element of drama and psychological depth to the character of your sitter.

It also helps give an individual ‘look’ to your portrait photography, but also acts as a photographic device to draw the eye.

You canh use Rembrandt lighting to create not just dramatic portrait photography, but also portrait photography that grabs the viewer’s attention and draws their eye to your subject.

setting up rembrandt lighting:

The person taking the photo should be behind the light and the reflector. the person should be in the middle of the light and the reflector looking preferably forward.

Before editing

This is an example of Rembrandt lighting with my friend.

chiaroscuro lighting

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

Chiaroscuro is not only a storytelling technique but a handy way of creating real depth and intrigue in our frames. Just like the Renaissance painters who pioneered the technique, filmmakers are working with a two-dimensional canvas. Chiaroscuro lighting is a great way to create a three-dimensional effect in our films.

This is an example of  chiaroscuro. the light is shown on half of her face and the other half of her face is covered by the shadow. the shadow then blends into the black background.

This is before editing, my own example of chiaroscuro lighting that i tried in the studio. we used a light and placed it to the right of him so the right side of his face was lightened.

This is after converting my photo into black and white and adjusting the hue/saturation and brightness/contrast.

Moodboard

What is studio lighting and why do we use it?

Studio lighting, which is also referred to as strobe lighting is used for portraiture photography to allow for more versatile and unique images to be possible and gives the photographer creative control.

Studio lighting is used for a number of reasons, one of them being that it helps to illuminate an image and the subject that can create unique shadows that cant be created anywhere else, another reason studio lighting is that it allows the photographer to be able to put there idea into action quickly and with the correct tools.

What is low-key lighting?

Low-key lighting is a type of lighting used which create shadows that can be used in many different ways, such as it can be used to invoke emotions and tell a story about the subject of the image.

What is high-key lighting?

High-key lighting is a method of lighting that is used in photography that lights up the subject of it as much as possible, it removes the idea of any emotions and more just puts the focus on the subject which is good for advertising.

What is the difference between 1-2-3 point lighting and what does each technique provide?

1 point lighting – it uses one key light and creates deep shadows and high contrast which is good for moody effects.

2 point lighting – it adds a filler light to the key light that is already being used, this lessens contrast and reduces shadows which provides more balance.

3 point lighting – it adds a back light along with the other lights used which creates an effect where the subject is separate from the background which helps to create depth.

What is fill light?

A fill light is a type of light that is used in 3 point lighting, it is often used in film and media, but it is also used quite a lot in photography while in a studio setting. It helps to light up shadowy parts of the image which in tern gives the effect of less contrast that is visible in the image and helps to create depth.

Artist references

Nadav Kander –

Who is he – Nadav Kander is a London based photographer who was born in December 1961, he is most well known for his landscape but primarily his portraiture photography. In his early life he worked in the south African air force working as a darkroom printer while taking images of aircraft, this was most likely what kicked off his photography journey and turned it into his feature career. In more modern times he is now quite a famous photographer and has won many awards over the course of his life.

Some of his work –

This piece of work is from a set of images taken by Kander of former president of the USA barack obama and was taken in 2012 for the Person of the year award. I believe he has him standing in this formal position along with the averted gaze to give the subject a serious manor and someone to be respected.

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This is a photograph of sir David Attenborough who is a famous wild life documentary producer. The formal pose and engagement with the camera represents emotions that people feel while seeing him as they have probably heared of him for most of their lives.

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Nadav Kander quote –

“These days, things seem to be so transparent.” – Nadav Kander

Photoshoot action plan

I plan to go to the studio and take pictures while using different types of lighting, I will represent the images of me attempting and succeeding to create these types of lighting.

Photoshoots

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Rembrandt lighting –

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Contact sheet –

Image selection

as you can see above I used P and X to flag my images to filter out the bad ones from the ok and good ones, next I rated these images 4 or 5 stars as 4 being ok ones and 5 being good ones, finally I gave them the colour yellow or green, green being the best and yellow being good. I will now edit these images that I selected and present them bellow.

Image editing

On the right of the image you can see all I have done is makes some slight adjustments to the contrast and other things like that.

Next you can see I decided to crop the image to centre the subject a bit more.

Final outcome

As you can see above from my final outcome image of Rembrandt lighting I have taken inspiration from my artist reference and my mood board by getting the subject to engage with the camera with a relaxed and professional expression and took the shot with a half-body angle like Nadav Kander did with the subjects of his images, by doing this it allows the viewer to interpret and understand what the image is.

Overall evaluation

Overall I believe that I was successful in not only being able to capture the type of lighting I was looking for, but also being able to capture the idea behind it and was also able to capture ideas from my artist reference.

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Butterfly lighting –

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Contact sheet –

Image selection

as you can see above I used P and X to flag my images to filter out the bad ones from the ok and good ones, next I rated these images 4 or 5 stars as 4 being ok ones and 5 being good ones, finally I gave them the colour yellow or green, green being the best and yellow being good. I will now edit these images that I selected and present them bellow.

Image editing

On the right of the image you can see all I have done is makes some slight adjustments to the contrast and other things like that.

Next you can see I decided to crop the image to centre the subject a bit more.

Final outcome

As you can see above from my final outcome images of Butterfly lighting I have taken inspiration from my artist reference and my mood board by getting the subject to engage with the camera with a relaxed and professional expression like Nadav Kander did while also still capturing the shape of the butterfly under the nose. I also decided to use a half body shot as I remembered that is what my artist reference liked to do.

Overall evaluation

Overall I believe that I was successful in not only being able to capture the type of lighting I was looking for, but also being able to capture the idea behind it and was also able to capture ideas from my artist reference.

Virtual gallery representation

By using studio (artificial) lighting it can help achieve some nice dramatic and intense photos, there are many creative possibilities you can use but some well known ones for studio portraits are Rembrandt lighting, butterfly lighting and chiaroscuro.

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt Lighting is one of the many lighting techniques that are used for portrait photography. Rembrandt Lighting is named after Rembrandt Harmenszoom van Rijn who was a great Dutch painter. This technique refers to a way of lighting a face so that a upside down light triangle appears under the eye of the subject. This style ended up gaining lots of popularity in Hollywood around the early 20th century, Film director Cecil B. DeMille introduced spotlights which allowed for more realistic effects of light and shadows to be created into ‘plain’ studio lighting setups which were generally in use. This eventually became widely used in promotional photographs of film stars as it allowed for dramatic and eye-catching pictures of them to be created.

Why use Rembrandt Lighting?

Rembrandt Lighting is effective as it not only gives your subject an individual look but it also acts as a photographic device to draw the eye. In photography there are many ways you can achieve this with using things like leading lines, depth of field and negative fields which are all methods that are effective to draw the viewers eye to the subject of the image.

In portraiture the eyes of the subject are almost always the main focus point of the image and Rembrandt lighting shows this as the light triangle is always under your eye which then helps attract the viewers full attention to the subjects eye.

So by using the Rembrandt Lighting technique it becomes a very effective way to draw the viewers attention to focus on the eye of the subject which is the main aim of portraiture.

To take a picture of Rembrandt lighting you want to make sure that the key light is 45 degrees away from the camera while still shining the light at the subject. You could also use a reflector alongside it which will help create more shadows under the cheek which could make it easier to achieve that light triangle under the eye.

Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly lighting is another lighting technique which is primarily used in a studio setting. The name comes from the butterfly shaped shadow which is formed under the nose because the light being used is positioned above the camera. People also refer it as ‘paramount lighting’ or ‘glamour lighting’.

Butterfly Lighting is mostly used for portraits, It’s a light pattern that flatters mostly everybody which makes it one of the most common lighting setups used. Butterfly Lighting was popularly used to take photographs of some of classic Hollywood’s most famous stars which is why people also refer it to Paramount Lighting. With this lighting technique it can highlight the subjects cheekbones and create shadows under them which in some cases can make the subject look thinner.

Key light is essential for Butterfly Lighting and this can either be a flash unit or continuous. If the lighting is continuous it can allow you to use lights like strobes, speed lights, LEDs or in some cases even the sun. The main focus for Butterfly Lighting is not the quality of the light but the setup as for the best effect you would want to make sure your light is creating the right amount of shadows and highlights that you want to achieve.

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro (Italian for light dark) is a visual element in art, it refers to the bold contrast between light and dark. It first appeared in the 15th century on a painting in Italy and Flanders (Holland), it is the effect of light modelling in paintings, drawings and printmaking where the three-dimensional volume is encouraged by high amounts of light and shadows.

Chiaroscuro in films

Film noir (French for “black film”), was a cinematic term which was used to describe stylish crime dramas made in Hollywood, Specifically ones which highlighted the moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. The classic Hollywood film noir period was popularly used from the early 1940s till the late 1950s. Film noir of that era often used the low key black and white visuals that were previously used in German Expressionist cinematography.

How is it used in photography?

In photography chiaroscuro is used to increase the amount of highlights and shadows which helps attract attention towards the shape of the subject.

To take a photo using the chiaroscuro lighting technique you would want to use a low key lighting setup where a key light will be used as the sole light source in order to achieve those dark backgrounds while also illuminating the subject with high shadow tones and highlights.

What is Studio Lighting?

Studio Lighting is artificial light that is used to light up the environment you want to take photos of. This can be used in a range of techniques to create different types of unique images.

People use Studio Lighting to get a range of special effects that can be applied to the subject, some of the effects are named Rembrandt lighting, Butterfly lighting and Chiaroscuro. Each effect involves manipulating the studio lighting to create a balance of light and shadows against the subjects face.

Types of studio lighting

Continuous lighting

2 Point Lighting Setup

With a 2 Point Lighting Setup you setup both lights facing the subject at a 45 degree angle with one angled up and one angled down. The goal of this lighting setup is to eliminate shadows from under the subjects nose and cheeks.

3 Point Lighting Setup

With a 3 Point Lighting Setup you setup two of the lights (The Key Light and Fill Light) so they are facing 45 degrees from the subject similar to the 2 Point Lighting Setup however the third light (Back Light) is placed behind the subject. By using Three sources of light it allows for more control of the shadows casted on the subject, highlights and the overall contrast. Its one of the best and well known lighting setups as it allows for total control of the environment and also allows for you to shape how you want your subject to be viewed as.

Fill Lighting

Fill Lighting is used to fill in any shadows that the key light may create, it is usually placed in front of the subject but on the opposite side of the key lighting. It is primarily used on a 3 Point Lighting Setup. Fill lighting can be useful for revealing more details of a subject that were hidden due to the shadow of the key light.

Coloured Gels

Coloured Gels is a transparent coloured material that is attached on to the red-head lights which can modify the temperature and the feel of the image which is useful if you want to find a type of lighting to suit the subject your taking a picture of or if you want to make your picture look unique or standout more.

It is used for multiple different purposes such as to colour light and for colour correction and it is used in not only just photography but in videography and theatre as well.

Evaluation:

Overall, I think that the images that I took were effective and this is because I was able to capture the subject actually doing their work in their usual environment so not only did it make the image feel authentic but you could also see what was happening at the moment and what the subject was doing or in the middle of doing. I also like the environments used as its easy to identify what my subjects usual environment is and the tools/equipment needed to proceed with their work. Editing these images also helped a lot as I was able to bring more detail out which helped show more things in the environment which can make the image look more compelling. However I do feel that I could of attempted to take more images of other different environments as well as using different composition techniques which would of helped to make the image stand out even more.

Typology like representation using art steps:

Image #1

What I have done to this image is that I have decreased the exposure of the image in order to make it less brighter which will help capture some more detail around the bright areas as well as increasing the contrast to help reveal more detail all around, I have also increased the temperature of the image to reduce some of the bright white colours along the top of the image.

I have also cropped the image so it focuses more on the subject as well as also using composition mainly rule of thirds which has helped make the subject occupy most of the image making it the main focus which is what I want.

Image #2

I did not crop this image as I wanted to retain the perfect symmetry of my subject being at the centre of my image. This helps the subject be the main focus of the image especially as they are right in the centre so its most likely the first thing you see when you view this image.

Image #3

With this image I adjusted the exposure slightly to brighten up the image and then I also increased the contrast in order to preserve more detail, however due to the high ISO this image was taken in, increasing both the exposure and contrast made some details in the image hard to view so to counter this I decreased the Highlights dramatically which helped restore the visibility of the details in this image.

With this image I didn’t adjust the exposure as the image was already bright when I took it, I did adjust the contrast to bring out more detail in things like the engine or the texture on the floor and wall, I also decreased the Highlights a lot as it helped decrease places in the image where it was overexposed primarily in the wall so now it makes the texture on the wall much more visible compared to before I edited it. Last thing I did was decrease the image temperature to remove some faint yellow light that was present before.

With this image I adjusted the exposure slightly to give some dark areas of the photos more light and also adjusted the contrast to bring more shadow and detail into the photo. I also decreased the Highlights as some areas of the photo were too bright especially around the face so decreasing the highlights helped reduce the bright areas and bring out some details. I also decreased the temperature slightly as it helped to remove the faint yellow tint you could see in the image due to the lighting.

I cropped the image to ensure that the subject is the main focus of the image using the rule of thirds composition, its also cropped really nicely in a way where you can see not only the subject but what he is doing with the vehicle which helps identify what his usual environment is.

Image #6

This image needed a lot of editing done to it as the image quality before the edits were quite grainy and dark due to me accidently leaving the ISO at a high value, to counter this I first made sure to increase exposure slightly to brighten the image and slightly reduce the contrast as adding more contrast to this dark image made it look darker and more grainy. To preserve as much visual detail as I could I turned the highlights all the way down which was needed for this image as it helped uncover the missing details in this image like the corner of the wall on the left side of the image, that was completely white until I adjusted the highlights. I also adjusted the image temperature by turning it down to remove the yellow tint in the image which helped to show more minor details that was missing.

With how this image was taken, I was had to crop it to meet the rule of thirds composition which in return made this image not look too bad. We can clearly see the subject at her workplace interacting with the fridge which takes up around half the image so it makes it easy for the subject to be identified and seen.