What is studio lighting?
Studio lighting is the use of artificial lighting in order to create a mood or atmosphere by adding to the light that’s already there.
Different lighting techniques
Rembrandt lighting
Photo shoot plan
In order to get the most effective lighting and the best photos, i planned to use a studio that had access to different back drops (one white one black) and a plethora of lights , flash lights ,ring lights and more.
I planned to capture split lighting and different coloured lighting and possibly explore rebrand lighting
inspiration
Raw images
Editing and photo selection
Here is my selection of images from a total of three photoshoots , in each photoshoot i used different models to experiment with how light hits different structures and features on each face
I then took my preferred images and edited them to intensify the lighting
Results anaysis
With this image , i cropped the photo to make the subject more central and eye catching , i changed the image to black and white and altered the exposure , contrast , shadows etc. Then i created a ‘mask’ over the eye and increased exposure and contrast to make the iris stand out giving the image a better focus point.
Once again i cropped the image to centralise the subject , i created a mask over the eyes and eyebrows to make them more distinct and then increased exposure and contrast , i decided not to overly edit this image as i didn’t want to take away from the natural context of the contrasting skin
I wanted to keep this image uncropped to explore the idea of negative space , i left the background dark to leave the subject undefined i then adjusted the saturation and exposure
For this image i tried to capture contrasting subjects in the same image without using much editing so i positioned two lights facing two people to make it appear as though its two different environments , i then enhanced the colours in editing and cropped the image
Amelie, overall the blog post demonstrates confident and assured ability with some very strong portraits using appropriate lighting techniques. Your portraits have a strong sense of identity and attitude using hands and face expressions to create interesting poses, shapes etc. The layout of your images is varied and interesting with a mix of single/ diptychs and grids.
The only thing to improve would be to provide more written annotation as you develop images, comment on lighting set up/ techniques and image analysis of best portraits. For example:
1. After each edit of your set of images choose your best portrait and analyse using photography vocabulary sheet: TECHNICAL, VISUAL, CONTEXTUAL, CONCEPTUAL.
2. You could include diagrams of lighting setup that show how you positioned the lights in the studio – see our blog post for examples or use internet.
3. Lastly you could compare one or two of your best studio portraits with an artists/ photographer case study that inspired your shoot, if relevant.
Good work…keep going!