Studio Lighting

Studio lighting setups give photographers the flexibility to create different looks and lighting effects in their photos. These setups have a big impact on the style and mood of images allowing the desired effects to be created. Ambient or general lighting is a necessary part of any good lighting plan because it provides an overall glow to a room, creating enough light for to move around comfortably and safely. Accent lighting creates a focal point, building upon the ambient lighting of a room by adding dimension while it can be used to draw attention to a feature. Task lighting can be provided by a variety of different sources allowing the lighting to be adjusted for a work space or chosen area. A fill light may be used to reduce the contrast of a scene and record the same amount of detail typically seen by eye.

Studio Photos

With my example photos of attempting to achieve two photography techniques, I photographed my subjects against a black background to make the outcomes more dynamic with the shadows from the artificial lighting creating visual effects on their faces as they appear to be sinking into the background void. For the Rembrandt lighting, I moved the light bank around horizontally until I was able to see a triangle of light appear on the cheek of the model. Following a similar method for my chiaroscuro photos, I directed the subject to turn her head to one side slightly to further emphasise the split lighting with one side in heavy shadow with the other in light. I photographed the subjects at a medium close up distance from the shoulders up to highlight the effects of the lighting against them.

Butterfly Lighting Photos

I took these photographs on a white background with a bright light positioned high above the subject to bring attention to her face and the shadows forming on it, especially focusing on shadows under the nose. I took a variety of differently framed photos with the model in multiple positions to show my understanding of the technique while bringing diversity to the collection of pictures.

Edited Photographs

I decided to edit my photos in black and white while also noticeably heightening the contrast of the whole picture. I did this in order to highlight the shadows in the original photographs by making them more defined and dark. This makes the photos generally more effective as it brings attention to tone and composition.

Colour Gel Experiments