Moodboard

What is studio lighting?

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.

Why do we use studio lighting?

Shooting with the appropriate LED studio lights allows you to capture images and colours the way they look in real life, removing the need to process photos after the shoot. Most LED lights are adjustable and can be dimmed or brightened depending on what you need. Studio lights are essential tools for photographers to illuminate their images and videos. Lighting is a very important tool when it comes to controlling the image and using studio lights in an effective way is an art in itself.

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

One point lighting would involve just one light and this would be illustrated as the key light.

Two point lighting is when the light sources point directly towards each other and the subject is placed between the two.

Three point lighting is a traditional method for illuminating a subject in a scene with light sources from three distinct positions. The three types of lights are key light, fill light, and backlight.

Key Light

What it provides: Usually the key light is the main source of light and it is placed at an angle to the subject to create texture, depth, and contrast. It highlights the form and dimension of on-screen subjects and allow cinematographers to control the atmosphere of a scene.

Positioning: The key light is normally placed at a 45 degree angle to the person, it has to be only slightly above eye level and to one side.

Effect: Using a soft key light creates more diffused shadows, conveying a gentle, flattering, and natural feel. On the other hand, a hard key light generates sharp, well-defined shadows, which can be used to create a more dramatic or stylized portrait.

Fill Light

What it provides: The purpose of a fill light is to illuminate the parts of the subject that the main light cannot reach.

Positioning: If your main light source is behind your subject, then place the fill light in front of your subject. If your main light source is to the side of your subject, then place your fill light to the side of your subject also.

Effect: Balancing the overall illumination of a scene, especially in areas with shadows or low light contrast. Its main function is to soften shadows and lessen the hardness of the key light. This results in a more appealing and balanced visual.

Back Light

What it provides: Backlight is light that hits an actor or subject from behind, typically higher than the subject it is exposing. Backlighting an object or actor from the background creates more depth and shape to a subject.

Positioning: Place the camera in the direction of the subject and position your subject in a way so that the backlight is directly behind the subject.

Effect: This will help create a light spill effect, where the light seems to spill from behind the outline of your subject.

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle (also called “Rembrandt patch”) under the eye of the subject on the less illuminated side of the face. It is named for the Dutch painter Rembrandt, who occasionally used this type of lighting.

This is a photo that I took of Alef, before and after editing, using the Rembrandt lighting. I asked him to sit facing directly towards the camera and I just positioned the light to be diagonal from him but still facing his side. I used the spot healing brush tool to smoothen his face a bit and I increased the vibrancy and the contrast and I decreased the brightness and saturation.

Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting pattern where the key light is placed above and directly centred with a subject’s face. This creates a shadow under the nose that resembles a butterfly. It’s also known as ‘Paramount lighting,’ named for classic Hollywood glamour photography. Butterfly lighting is a popular setup because it has the effect of slimming the face due to shadows that are created on both sides of the face. This provides a flattering look that emphasizes a subject’s facial features, highlighting the eyebrows, cheekbones, and nose in a photogenic way.

Butterfly lighting often conveys a sense of classic beauty and timeless elegance. The soft, even illumination can evoke feelings of warmth and serenity in viewers.

In this photo I used butterfly lighting to make the shadow under his nose. I positioned him facing towards the camera with a light right above him. I cropped the image so that it is a square and i smoothed out his skin , increased brightness and contrast and the saturation and vibrancy.

Chiaroscuro Lighting

In photography, chiaroscuro lighting refers to the intentional employment of highlights and shadows to draw attention to the shape of the subject.

To achieve this type of lighting, establish a single, powerful light source first in order to create a chiaroscuro impression. This might be daylight coming in via a window, or it could be a studio light. To get the ideal shadow effects, position the light at an angle relative to your subject. chiaroscuro lighting is employed to heighten tension and create terrifying visuals.

This is a photo that I took of Chanell with chiaroscuro lighting. I positioned the light to be on one side of her facing her so that there is only light on one side of her face. I cropped the image so that she is centred and I turned down the brightness and the vibrancy. I increased the contrast, gamma correction and the saturation. This gave the image a more intense look.

Contact Sheet

Final Images

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?

Butterfly lighting should be used in photography as it gives an appearance of the subject having a narrow face, on top of this, the camera is centred on the face and they are engaging with the camera, this is beneficial as it creates a different atmosphere than other images than usual, it not only is a great method for making the subject stand out but it also does so in a unique unusual way to what is normal making you images stand out from the rest.

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 around that time.

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.

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.

What is Chiaroscuro Lighting?

Chiaroscuro Lighting is an Italian lighting technique that stands for Light Dark, it is a high contrast lighting technique that that uses a low key lighting set up, it uses a single light source to create a dark background with lit subjects.

Why should you use it?

Chiaroscuro Lighting should be used as it provides an abstract contrast that helps to draw attention to the subject and to create a dark shadowy background, doing this can add a more unique look to the images that you take to boost the atmosphere and can help to create an almost three dimensional look to the image.

Who created it?

Chiaroscuro lighting was developed by Leonardo Davinci, Caravaggio, Vermeer, and Rembrandt and was developed by multiple people, it was mainly created in the Renaissance era and is still used today in low key photography.

How to create a Chiaroscuro Lighting set up –

Chiaroscuro in photography: Chiaroscuro using one key light and a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.

flash “bouncing”, fill-in flash, TTL / speedlight flash, remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting), fast + slow synch flash and light painting c/w slow shutter speeds

Environmental portraiture is about representing someone’s life or livelihood through the background of a portrait image or the subjects usual environment.

Examples of Environmental Work

In this photo the photographer uses natural lighting from above the subject as this photo was taken outdoors where its implied he spends a lot of his time as he is shirtless outside on the grass in between two tractors. This environment implies the subject works a job within agriculture or a farmers trade. the photo has been taken from a lower angle to accentuate the giant size of the tractors, as well as the frame cutting off half of each of the tractors to keep the subject as the main focus. We can infer the photo is un-posed as the subjects gaze looking away and he is not engaged with the camera.

August Sander

Born in 1876, Sander developed his interest in photography around 1898 when he began working in photographic firms and by 1904 he had opened his own photographic firm in Austria. He then moved to Cologne in 1909 and began to photograph the urban workers and farmers. After WW2 Sander set out to recapture the faces and document life after around 40,000 negative images were destroyed during the war so he started his project “Faces of The 20th century” also known as “Man of The 20th Century” in 1929. Sander created a catalogue with over 600 photos of the people he captured in his project. Many years later his work is still influencing photographers around the world.

In this environmental portrait you can tell a lot about the person such as the fashion of the decade, as well as this, we can guess he worked in construction as he looks to be carrying bricks. This tells us about the history of the time too as we know there was an increase in labour and construction after the destruction of the war left a lot of the cities needing to be rebuilt and repaired. The lighting is pretty dark as we can see the background is black giving the impression this was taken at night or possibly inside a construction site, such as an unfinished house. It looks like there’s lighting coming from behind the camera or the flash could be on. There isn’t much of setting due to this but because of the bricks we can interpret a lot like I’ve previously mentioned. The framing is cropped around the subject and is a three-quarter-length shot with a head on angle. The subject has a deadpanned expression and is looking at the cameras.

What Is Typology?

Typology is the study of types such as classification and categorization.

My Plan for Photoshoots

• I will first go around the school and take photos of staff and students I can find.
• I will then go to town after school and take as many photos as I can of retail workers in local shops, in the market and possibly shoppers.
• I will also take photos of my friends at school or out.

My Photos

Compare and Contrast

I believe both photos are similar as they are both taken in the subjects workplace. The lighting in both images is quite bright with Sanders looking like it was taken in the daytime possibly even outside however mine was taken under artificial lighting indoors. A difference between the works is the direction of light in Sanders is coming from the right side of the image however the light in my photo is coming from above the subject directly down. Another difference between mine and Sanders work is how they’re framed. Sander has taken his image framed as a full body image with the subject slightly to the right where as I have framed my work with a three quarter length. Sanders image looks to be posed with the subjects arm resting and the subject facing the camera with a black face gaze similarly to mine as he is posing with his arms also by having his hands in his pockets as well as his gaze is smiling and facing the camera. Each image is also taken horizontally.

Formal elements of photography

Final images

Final images represented in art steps

Overall explanation –

From the images I have taken so far I have been learning how to use a camera and the more technical aspects along with this, above I have represented as images and in a virtual gallery, I have purposefully chosen pictures that represent use of texture and many other formal elements of photography. These images are the best I have taken so far in which put together represent all formal elements being Focus, Line, Light, Repetition, Shape, Space, Texture and Value. These images were all thought of and created through planning and artist references along with some of my own creative ideas. I decided to represent these images in a virtual gallery because I wanted to get more of an idea of the quality of my images in a more professional environment, I also did this because I wanted to represent my images in a more unique way that was is usual to give a more abstract view on my work, doing this also can give more insight to someone viewing my images as they are seeing them in a location where they would usually see other images taken by photographer. In conclusion this intro into photography has helped me greatly to for one understanding my way around a camera but also in to interpreting photos and giving me the ability to see past just an image and view peoples work as art which can be appreciated more, on top of this, the skills I have learned and will learn in the feature of this will help me in the feature past school.

Mood Board

Studio Lighting

Here are three examples of lighting in more detail

Top Lighting, Bottom Lighting, Side Lighting, Front Lighting, Back Lighting

Top lighting is when the source of light is above the object being shot.

Bottom lighting is when it is below the object being pointed up.

Side lighting is when it is to either side of the object lighting up one side of the face.

Front lighting is when the light is at the front being pointed straight at 90 degrees.

Back lighting is when the source of light is behind the object you are shooting shining through the face.

1. Key Light

• What it provides: The Key Light is the main source of illumination in the scene. It’s typically the strongest light and is placed at an angle to the subject to create depth, texture, and contrast. It defines the overall look and mood of the scene.
• Positioning: The Key Light is often placed at about a 45-degree angle to the subject, slightly above eye level, and to one side (either left or right).
• Effect: The Key Light creates shadows and highlights on the subject, shaping their features and adding drama or contrast. The direction and intensity of the Key Light largely control the mood of the shot (e.g., soft lighting for a gentle mood, hard lighting for a more dramatic or intense look).

2. Fill Light

• What it provides: The Fill Light is used to soften the shadows created by the Key Light. It doesn’t create its own shadows but fills in the areas of the subject that would otherwise be dark or underexposed.
• Positioning: The Fill Light is usually placed opposite to the Key Light, often at a lower intensity. It may also be positioned close to the camera to light the subject from a more neutral angle, reducing harsh shadows while maintaining some contrast.
• Effect: The Fill Light ensures that the subject’s features are visible in the shadow areas, preventing the shot from looking too contrast-heavy or having overly dark regions. The amount of Fill Light can be adjusted to achieve the desired balance of shadow and detail.

3. Back Light

• What it provides: The Back Light is placed behind the subject, often at a high angle, to illuminate the subject from the rear. It’s used to separate the subject from the background and add a sense of depth and dimension to the scene.
• Positioning: The Back Light is usually placed opposite the camera, behind the subject, and sometimes slightly elevated, depending on the effect desired. It can also be called a Rim Light if it’s used to highlight the edges of the subject, or a Hair Light if it’s specifically used to light the hair.
• Effect: The Back Light creates a rim or halo around the subject, which can help define the subject’s silhouette and give the subject more visual separation from the background. It adds contrast and depth, preventing the subject from looking flat. In portraiture, it can also create a nice glow around the subject’s hair or shoulders.

Rembrandt Lighting

What it is:
Rembrandt Lighting is a classic lighting setup that creates a distinctive triangle of light on the subject’s cheek, often on the shadowed side of the face. It is named after the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, who famously used this lighting technique in his portrait paintings to create a dramatic yet natural look.

Butterfly Lighting

What it is:
Butterfly Lighting is named for the butterfly-shaped shadow that is cast under the subject’s nose when the light is positioned directly above the subject’s face. It’s a glamorous and high-fashion lighting style that was popularized by Hollywood portrait photographers in the 1930s.

Chiaroscuro

What it is:
Chiaroscuro is an Italian term that means “light-dark” and refers to the technique of using strong contrasts between light and dark to create a dramatic, three-dimensional effect. This technique has its roots in painting, especially in the works of artists like Caravaggio, who mastered the use of light and shadow to create a sense of depth and volume in his subjects.

Fill Lighting

Fill lighting is a key lighting technique used to soften and balance the shadows created by the key light in a lighting setup. While the key light is the primary source of illumination, creating contrast and defining the subject’s form, fill light serves to reduce the intensity of those shadows without eliminating them entirely. This allows for a more natural, balanced look in the image or scene, ensuring that important details in shadowed areas are visible without compromising the dramatic effect created by the key light.

Purpose of Fill Lighting:

• Softens Shadows: The primary purpose of fill light is to soften or “fill in” the dark areas (shadows) created by the key light, reducing contrast in a way that maintains a more even exposure across the subject.
• Balance Exposure: Fill light helps ensure that no areas of the subject are too underexposed (i.e., too dark), which can be especially important for preserving detail in portraits and ensuring the subject’s features are clearly visible.
• Control Mood and Contrast: By adjusting the strength of the fill light, you can control the overall contrast in the image. A stronger fill light will result in a flatter image with fewer shadows, while a weaker fill will maintain more dramatic shadow areas.
• Preserve Depth and Dimension: While fill light softens shadows, it doesn’t remove them entirely, allowing for some sense of depth and three-dimensionality in the shot.

Artist Reference 1

Rankin

John Rankin Waddell (Rankin) is a British photographer and director who has photographed, amongst other subjects, Björk, Kate Moss, Madonna, David Bowie and Queen Elizabeth II. 

The London Evening Standard described Rankin’s fashion and portrait photography style as “high-gloss, highly sexed and hyper-perfect”. He has directed music videos, documentaries, a feature film, short films and commercials. He is renowned for revolutionising visual culture.

Rankin charges around £500 per shoot. He lets customers pose in front of the lens, solo or with a friend and takes there photos. After the shoot they will receive a digital version of their final portrait and an A4 authenticated print.

This is one of his photos which I really love. He has put the photo in black and white which I think is really effective as it helps emphasise and highlight all the different tones whilst keeping it simple. The lighting in this photo is well thought about her whole face is lit up and you can clearly see she is happy. However, the sides of her face are a bit darker which could mean he is using front lighting where the light is pointed straight at her face. I also really like how her hands are placed the one close to the camera adds a 3D perspective and looks really cool.

As you can see I drew lines on the image and realised that Rankin also uses the rule of thirds in this image as her face sits on the line.

Photoshoot

Rembrandt Lighting

This lighting is created when the light is shining at a 45 degree angle across the models face. The lighting creates a triangle just below the eye as you can see I have highlighted this triangle.

Butterfly Lighting

with this lighting the shadow is formed under the nose. It is achieved by shining the light directly down on the models face from above.

Chiaroscuro

This lighting is half light half dark. it can be achieved by shining the light at a 90 degree angle to the face so half his face is lit up and the other half is getting no light.

Fill lighting

Fill lighting is a key lighting technique used to soften and balance the shadows created by the key light. This allows for a more natural, balanced look in the image

Environmental portraits are portraits that usually feature the person in their “natural environment” for example it could be in their bedroom or their work place. These portraits are a good way to convey a message and get people interested in the story behind the person.

Lighting: Front facing natural soft light. I think this the lighting is coming from behind the photographer and I think the light is coming from a window so that its natural light, however I do think the window may be slightly to the left of the photographer based on the shadows of the image.

Environment: In a diner / restaurant the social class is probably working class. An American women in her place of work.

Framing: Three quarter length body shot, with the arms slightly crossed in front of her. The angle is straight on and deadpan. The dark colour of her hair helps frame her face from the colour and pattern of the wallpaper.

Approach: A formal (posed) image a neutral pose and slightly smiling but other than the slight smile its a neutral expression.

Gaze: The women in the image is making eye contact with the camera / viewer of the image., this shows that she is engaged.

Camera Settings ( predicted )

• Focal length – I think the focal length is 50mm and its a standard lens
• Depth of field – I think this image has a large depth of field as everything in the image is in focus probably, f/5.6-f/8
• ISO – it is an indoor image and everything is crisp so I think that the ISO is low

August Sander

August Sander was a German portrait and documentation photographer. Much of Sanders photography includes nature, architecture, and street photography, however he is most known for his portraits. Sander first learnt about photography whilst working in  Herdorf iron-ore mine while he was assisting a photographer who was also working in the mine at the time.

Sander published his first book in 1929 and it was called Face Of Our Time which includes 60 portraits from his collection called people of the 20th century. In this series of images he aimed to show society  during the Weimar Republic, and the series is divided up into 7 sections called: The Farmer, The skilled tradesman, Women, Classes and Professions, The Artists, The City, and the last people.

Twenty years after his unfortunate passing August Sanders work and entered into the International Photography Hall Of Fame and Museum in 1984.

Images by August Sanders

Sanders Analysis

August Sanders takes his images using an old-fashioned large-format camera, glass negatives and long exposure times. The genre of this image is portraiture.

The mise-en-scene presents the portrait photo of three men in a field / walking path, they are looking straight in to the camera and they don’t look like they’re dressed for the environment they’re in. The tone of this image is quite dark, for example if you look at the colour of they’re suits are sort of blending into colour/ tone of the background, it may even be a little bit underexposed. The use of light in this image is very soft natural lighting as they’re outside, it looks as if its not even that sunny of a day outside and a bit cloudy. The focus distance is short as it is a close up photo and the depth of field is short as only the people are in focus in the image and the background is blurred. The photographer has used leading lines which would be the light colours of the sky and path to draw your eyes across the image.

I believe the ISO is 600 as most things are in focus however there is a bit of grain. I believe that the shutter speed is 1000 as everything is clear.

As August Sander states: “I hate nothing more than sugary photographs with tricks, poses and effects. So allow me to be honest and tell the truth about our age and its people” and I think this really comes across in his images as they are “plain” image of just people posed, however I think he has really managed to capture a story and cause intrigue in his images. As when I look at Sanders portraits I can’t help but wonder about the person in the images life, what the job is ?, how are they feeling in that moment? I think to be able to convey this from such simple images is just incredible and is an enormous amount of talent and skill.

Typologies

Images by Bernd and Hilla Becher

Bernd and Hilla Becher started photographing together in 1959. Most of their work included architecture and had extensive images on water towers, blast furnaces, coal mine tipples, industrial facades and many other industrial architecture pieces.

Typologies are a body of photographs ( more than one or two ) that share a high level of consistency, so they are often placed next to each other to create a series of similar looking images. And grouping them together based on similar characteristics, often showing repetition and patterns. Typologies can be used to explore how small variations within a group can create meaning or convey information about the subject.

photoshoot plan

For my photoshoot I thought that I would use some of my family members and partners. My first idea was to go to my dads karate club that we runs and take some photos of him with his GI and doing some poses such as punches. Then I thought I would take some photos of my friends that would relate to Sian Davey although her images are of her family i thought some of the images relating to her older daughter Martha and her life would be cool to take.

photoshoot 1

edited images

To edit these images in light room classic, I first used the remove toll as there were some scuffs on the floor that I wanted to get rid of. Then for this image specifically I used the

B&W selenium tone for the monochrome, to get the base colour then changed the individual items, for example I increased the contrast by 15%.

For this image I used the B&W sepia to get the old image sort of look. Personally, I really like the warmer tone of this image as I think it really compliment the tones of the wood and the scenery of the dojo. As well as the colour of the black belt against the white GI is good contrast a long with the dark colour of the hair against the light colour of the wall.

The reason I have put my images into these tones is to try and relate it to August Sanders as all of Sanders images were monochrome of slightly warmer monochrome such as this image above.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way that my first photoshoot has turned out as the images are really plain and simple however they are moody and dramatic.

Siân Davey

images by Sian Davey

Sian Davey is a British photographer, much of her work focusses on family and friends and is informed by her background in psychology. Davey was a psychotherapist for 15 years before starting photography in 2014

In 2015 Davey created a series of images titled Looking For Alice which is a series of portrait images focussed around her younger daughter Alice who was born with down syndrome, which was published by Trolley Books in 2015. This series led on to the particular image I like which are about her teenager daughter’s (Martha) life. Two of the images in her series about Martha’s teenage life were selected for the 2016 Taylor Wessing photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition.

Davey held a solo exhibition for her series of images called Together in the National Portrait Gallery London. This was a series of images based on her family and her family life in 2017.

I really like the series documenting Martha’s life as it reminds me of a similar photographer which I like called Elaine Constantine who also document teenage life.

Davey Analysis

This is image is taken using a digital camera and the genre of this photography is portraiture.

The mise-en-scene presents the portrait photo of a group of teens sat on a bench in the park. The tone of this image is quite bright, as they are outside of what looks like a bright day with fairly clear skies. The use of light in this image is very soft natural lighting as they’re outside, it looks as if it is a a little bit cloudy, however you can see where there could be gaps in the clouds with the soft warm light coming through. The focus distance is short as it is a close up photo and the depth of field is short as only the people are in focus in the image and the background is slightly blurred. The photographer has used leading lines which would be the dark coloured clothes of the teens against the bright background.

I believe the ISO is 100 as everything is in focus and not grainy. I believe that the shutter speed is 1000 as everything is clear.

photoshoot 2

edited images

This image from the photoshoot is one of my particular favourites as I think it relates the most to Sian Davey’s images of Martha, this is an image I took on my digital camera of my friends on the beach after we had gone for a swim. This image looks a bit blurry due to the motion blur of the people moving around so in my editing I tried to make the image as clear as possible.

This is a screen shot of the editing that I have done on Lightroom classic to the above image

Virtual Gallery

The way I have laid out the images in the gallery I have done for specific reasons. with my images I took for Sian Davey, two of the images have a blue colour so I have put them opposite each other whilst having the two darker images in the middle.

The way I have laid out the images of my dad I decided to have the images with the 3 different tones of black and white together and I thought although they aren’t the same tone they complimented each other well. So I thought that the other image should be able to have it’s own wall.

Environmental portraits are portraits taken in the subjects usual environment, they highlight and bring attention to there life and everything going on around them, environmental portraits are a genre of photography.

The goal of these photos is to capture somebody’s everyday life, what they like to do and there personality traits (you could control there facial expression to show this)

Evaluating the key features of this photo

The photo has artificial lighting coming from above.

The photos environment is a reception desk at a rich place of work, we can tell its a wealthy place of work because the frame of the painting.

The framing is a half body angle and taken dead pan.

The approach taken was to have the guy pull a neutral face giving him a nonchalant serious feel.

The gaze of the photo is the guy making direct eye contact with camera, engagement with the photo.

The camera settings are wide lens with mid-range f stop and a low ISO.

Alfred Krupp

Alfred Krupp is a revolutionary inventor, worth roughly a billion dollars in the 1960s, Arnold Newman (a Jewish photographer) is a well known environmental portrait photographer, the photo Arnold took of the inventor Alfred was used to preserve his legacy and became a iconic piece of work.

This portrait was taken on July 6 1963, using a wide angle lens, the lighting is weird and eerie with a green tinge that makes the subject appear to be a evil/not nice person.

When Newman and Krupp first spoke, Krupp was racist to Newman after finding out he was a Jew and wouldn’t let him create the photo, Newman ended up eventually convincing Krupp to let him take it by having him look at his portfolio, after how poorly Krupp treated Newman, Newman used the photo to make Krupp look as evil as possible.

This is a environmental photo I took of two pupils working in the studio, shooting a cover for there poster.

Environmental photography is a subgenre of portraiture photography that generally tends to feature the subject in their ‘natural’ environment, eg skateboarders in the skatepark or in the streets, workers at work, labourers at a building site, and that general stuff. Differently to traditional portraiture, environmental portraiture tries to capture the subject in their natural environment, using props lighting and accessories to create more context to the image and create a deeper story which might add layers of meaning to the image.

ANALYSIS – This is an example of environmental portraiture. This photo is clearly taken on a digital format. The mise-en-scene presents an old woman with a sombre, bored expression sat in her old, 70s style house playing solitaire. The lighting is natural lighting, through the window, perhaps with an element of warm, artificial indoor lighting. The lighting is mainly coming from her right and I can tell this because the right side of her face is much lighter that the left side. The ISO is probably low-medium because the lighting is good and there isn’t the stereotypical grain typically seen when a high ISO is used. \the aperture is probably medium as well maybe f/5.6 – I can tell this because most if the photo is in focus but the table has a little bit of blur – the depth of field is fairly medium. The shutter speed is probably also medium to keep these settings balanced. The framing of the image is three quarter length, and she is sat down. She is making eye contact (the opposite of averted gaze) and she is clearly engaging with the camera. The white balance of this image is quite on the yellow side, giving it a warm homely feeling as you would feel inside a dimly lit old persons house.

AUGUST SANDER

August Sander was a german portrait photographer who focused on capturing a wide range of people in society, from farmers and workers to artists and city dwellers, in an honest and realistic way. His famous project, “People of the 20th Century,” grouped portraits by social roles, creating a visual study of Germany in that era. Sander’s style was very straightforward, with natural poses that showed each person as they are, which set a foundation for documentary photography and influenced later photographers like Diane Arbus (according to wikipedia). During the war, his photos faced challenges from the Nazis, as his realistic portrayals didn’t fit what they wanted, which then led to censorship and he lost some photos. Despite this, sander’s work was preserved by his son and continues to be valued for its deep insight into society and human personality. He learnt about photography when he was working in the coal mines and assisting a photographer.

MISE EN SCENE – This is a black and white film photo by August Sander. The mise-en-scene presents a sculpture artist contemplating his work. Surrounding him are tools to sculpt along with different, finished sculptures and this room is clearly an artists studio – his natural environment. The man wears a long white robe fit for an sculptist who is avoiding getting messy. He has an averted gaze, looking towards the light source which hits him dead in the face and comes from the left side of the frame. This mans is comes the the working social class – clearly spending his days labouring away creating sculptures probably to sell to the state of the higher classes above him. This photo tells this story magnificently and clearly has lots of backstory.

PROCESS – When I imagine how this photo was taken, I imagine the photographer had to spend hours with this man, having a cup of tea before, eventually building up a rapport to be able to ask him to take his photo. The photo captures the essence of the scene perfectly – August sanders did a breath taking job about capturing the man in his natural environment, and his natural, contemplative state because of this.

LIGHTING -The lighting is soft, capturing a mysterious, dusty aura around this man and his workshop, however, there is a start contrast between light and shadows created by the darkness of the room and the single natural light source – probably a window overlooking the town.

FRAME – The photo is a full length body photo – capturing his worn out shoes all the way to the emotions on his face. The approach to the photo is informal, natural and unposed, and the man has a fairly neutral expression.

SETTINGS – The camera settings probably have quite a high ISO because of the clearly dark setting and the tell tale grain on the photo. The shutter speed is probably quite slow because the photo isn’t amazingly sharp and there is a clear amount of darkness in the image. The aperture is probably quite low because the statues are blurred and the depth of field is very narrow. The white balance is more on the warm side however in black and white it is hard to tell.

SOME MORE EXAMPLES OF AUGUST SANDERS WORK

TYPOLOGIES

August Sander specifically used the theory of typology to capture portraits from varied social groups.

Typology is a way of grouping things that share lots of similar features. Sander specifically organised people based on tings like their professions and social status to show the diversity of society. There is a few different key points in typology like objective portraits which focus on peoples social roles instead of their personalities, social categories which group people to reveal social structure and the big picture which helps viewers see patterns in society.

Typology is unique because of its systematic approach, which involves capturing a series of images which will soon be a collection, using a consistent method (like similar lighting and background or similar composition). The focus on patterns is another reason why typology is unique – this involves highlighting what is common among the subjects of the images – whether that would be shapes of buildings, facial expressions or everyday objects – in this case however it would be the peoples professions or hobbies since I’m studying environmental portraiture.

PHOTOSHOOT PLAN

1. Overview

• Project Title: Environmental portraiture
• Date & Time: Monday 11/11/24 – 4:30 PM (GOLDEN HOUR)
• Location: Les Quennevais Skatepark
• Subject: I am going to capture skateboarders in their natural environment which is the skatepark – hopefully somehow has a retro video camera which will add to the scene and of course I will ensure their skateboards are in frame.
• Goal/Purpose: I am going to try to capture the essence of skateboarding by attempting to be comfortable with the subject, and hopefully I can make the photos look more street oriented and cultured by making sure there is some graffiti in the background. To capture authentic photos – I need to build some rapport and spend some time talking to the skateboarders. Building rapport can create a more comfortable environment which might let me take more candid photos that don’t feel as rigid. (this will be easy as I am already friends with a lot of the skateboarders.)

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2. Concept & Mood

• Mood/Style: I hope the mood is natural, but if I’m lucky the light will line up and there will be a sunset glow to the image.
• Scene/Background: Scene will be the different ramps at the skatepark, the graffiti wall, the 3 blocks everyone sits on which is usually packed with stuff
• Lighting Plan: I won’t be using a soft box or anything, just natural light and potentially the flash on my camera if needed.
• Props/Accessories: Skateboards, vintage camcorders, fashion (baggy clothes)

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3. Equipment Checklist

• Camera: Canon Camera 7D MK1
• Lenses: Wide angle (will crop in for more of a 50mm portraiture effect.
• Lighting: natural, camera flash.
• Tripod: n/a
• Extra Batteries & Memory Cards: yes

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4. Notes & Reminders

• Pose Ideas: Sitting down – looking away (averted gaze) – looking towards the camera (eye contact). Standing up, about to go for a trick. Watching someone else doing something as well could work.
• Backup Plan: skate video editor (indoors)

PHOTOSHOOT

Presentation

I used photoshop to create a little collage of my images. For the background I used one of the black and white images and added a gaussian blur filter which makes the main images pop out more. I used the guides tools to make sure that the gaps between the images were even and centered them. My favorite image is the biggest one and this makes it the clear place your eye is drawn to.

What is Rembrandt lighting?

Rembrandt lighting is a technique that is used in portraiture which is named after named after Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn who was a Dutch painter. It is a method of lighting the face which in doing so makes it so an inverted light triangle is created under the eyes.

Why should you use it?

Rembrandt Lighting should be used because it makes the subject the main focus of the image by creating a lit up face and a dark background, in doing so the eye of the subject of the image is the first thing that you will see giving a unique view point of the image. Using this style of creative writing is something that will help the portrait that you have taken stand out while still being something different from what people usually expect.

Who was Rembrandt?

Rembrandt (born July 15, 1606, Leiden, Netherlands—died October 4, 1669, Amsterdam) was a Dutch painter, he was a very talented artist and was well known for being able to catch people moods in his portraits, he was also well known for the use of shadows in his work.

How to create a Rembrandt Lighting set up –

Light: Lighting styles are determined by the positioning of your light source.  Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.

Lens: Use a 35mm or 50mm if space is at a premium – or if you’re looking at including more of the subject than just the head and shoulders. A 50mm works really nicely for portraits and will give a nice depth of field if you’re shooting at a shallow aperture. But a 35mm will give you a wider point of view and is great to fit more of the body in of your subject.

Camera settings (flash lighting)
Tripod
White balance: daylight (5000K)
ISO: 100
Exposure: Manual 1/125 shutter-speed > f/16 aperture
Focal length: 105mm portrait lens

Camera settings (continuous lighting)
Tripod
Manual exposure mode
White balance
ISO: 400-1600 – depending on how many light sources are used
Exposure: Manual 1/60-1/125 shutter-speed > f/4-f/8 aperture
Focal length: 50mm portrait lens