Lighting Techniques

Lighting Techniques 

With never having experienced studio photography before, all kind of lighting techniques were something which were completely new to me. 

After watching a demonstration in class showing us the different basic lighting techniques which could be used in the studio when creating portraiture images, I then researched into it further at home.

Here is a video which i found helpful in making the different lighting techniques more understandable. 

For my own studio photography, i tried experimenting with each basic lighting technique. To achive the simple 'passport' portrait images i mainly wanted to achive, i chose to use simple lighting techniques. My favourite and most suitable lighting technique for this project was the Frontal Light;

"A benefit of this technique is the beautiful eye light showing up exactly in the middle of your protagonist's pupil: The reflection of your key light make the eyes look alive."

The light which I used along with the beauty dish was positioned above the camera as close to it as possible. 

I really wanted to achive a very simple style photograph, in which the model would be looking into the camera looking almost expressionless. it was really important for me that there was a noticable connection between the models eyes and the camera. 

Although the frontal light was the lighting technique which i found worked best in order to achieve the kind of portrait i wanted, in some images, i did experiment with a Side light. This technique is one in which you place the light more towards the side of the model, to create a shadow on one side of the face. I found through experimentation that the more i moved the light to the side of the model; so almost in-line with their shoulder.. the more dramatic the shadow would appear on the other side of the face. Because I was ultimately aiming for a very straight forward portrait, almost like that of a passport photograph, when I used the side lighting technique I only moved it a small amount to the right, just off the center. This then created a much more subtle shadow on the models right side of her face. This technique is visible in at least one of my final prints. 

Something used in all my final images which i have found became a really important aspect of portraiture images was using a backing light. This was created by putting a snoot onto one of the studio lights which were attached to the ceiling, the light was then pointed straight at the background. This technique would then create very flattering lighting behind the model, often around their head. In of my final images this technique has worked incredibly well. I often found it difficult in my shoots to aline the camera, the model, and this background light. Despite this sometimes coming as struggle however, i found that even if this background spot light was not perfectly central and maybe to either the left or the right of the models head, this still seemed to work. 

This diagram and photograph below which i found on google are perfect examples of the set up of the studio lights and the kind of outcome you get when capturing a studio portrait using this background light technique.