Lighting P3(c)

Skills in Using Lighting

How I Set Up Lighting

By researching various ways to light an interview, I concluded that the three point system would work best for what I aimed to achieve. Firstly, I set up our most powerful studio light behind where our subject would be sitting (Back Light), however a light dampening umbrella was placed in front of the light to reduce intensity. I placed this behind the subject to illuminate the subject so they stand out from the background, giving s subtle halo affect.

Secondly I placed another studio light offset to the left of the subject, which would be positioned behind an interviewer's shoulder opposite the camera, illuminating the subject's face. 

Lastly I used another side light to the right of the subject and camera, this light fills in shadows created by the key light, meaning the subject can be evenly lit on camera. 

Low Key Lighting

Low Key Lighting is a photographic lighting technique that usually uses a key light, fill light and back light together to create a Chiaroscuro effect. This is the effect created by using a strong contrast between dark and light, meaning shadows are created to emphasise parts of the image. Chiaroscuro photography is commonly shot in black and white, and the contrast and shadows created by dark and light define and create the image, however colour images can also use this effect. 

Photographers

George Edward Hurrell was born on June 1, 1904 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He first began taking pictures at Art School, as many other artists used photographs as a reference whilst painting He then went to visit Laguna beach to continue his painting career whilst a student. He brought an old camera to capture images of landscapes when painting. He eventually became very well known and is said to have made a 'significant contribution to the image of glamour presented by Hollywood in the 1930s and 40s.' His black and white images were so sharp, using low key lighting to create a chiaroscuro effect, meaning many people were enticed by his photography skills, resulting in Hurrell becoming head of photography at MGM, photographing a wide variety of Hollywood celebrities. Throughout his career he also worked with Columbia Pictures and Warner Brothers, he is extremely well known for his low key, sharp images of celebrities form Hollywood. 

Richard Avedon

Born on May 15th, 1923 in New York City. Avedon is well recognised as a fashion and portrait photographer. He has worked for various companies including Vogue, as well as The Beatles and Electric Light Orchestra. His unique and sharp images gained him great popularity throughout his career, resulting in him becoming of one America's most respected fashion photographers. Avedon also chose to shoot in black and white, using low ket lighting, again creating a Chiaroscuro effect. Resulting in striking images with strong contrasts from dark and light. Some of his images would contain no shadows, and he would use high key lighting for these, however if he wished to define features of a subject, he would use low key lighting, to emphasise these features, causing a contrast in highlights and shadows. 

Youseph Karsh

Born December 23rd, 1908 in Turkey. Youseph became internationally popular after photographing Winston Churchill after a speech in the House of Commons, which is said to be the most reproduced photographic portrait in history. He was a so called 'master of lighting' taken every single aspect into consideration, even lighting the subject's hands separately, to create the best image. Karsh aimed to capture the emotions, feelings and the most inner thoughts of his subject, by using low key lighting, Karsh achieved this on many occasions, shooting some of the most iconic and distinct images ever taken. 

Setting Up 3 Point Lighting 

I believe this images worked well. This is because there is no huge contrast between dark and light, meaning the subject's face is evenly lit, showing all features of his face. I also chose to put the camera in aperture priority, this meant the camera automatically selected the best aperture for the images I wished to take, leaving me with a shallow depth of field, which with the back light, helped define the subject from the background. It worked better than some of my other images because the light is evenly spread across the subject leaving no dark shadows. 

I also believe this image turned out very well. The overall tone of the image is warm, and bright. But more importantly the lighting in the photograph has resulted in no dark shadows on the main features of the subject, this is because the key light and fill light lit the subject evenly, resulting in his whole face being lit and fortunately not over exposed. There was a lot of light in the image, to I turned the ISO down so light sensitivity was less, resulting in a darker, and warmer toned image. As well as this, having the F-Stop at f/1 created a shallow depth of field, resulting in more focus on the model, drawing the audiences attention to the focus of the image. 

This image overall worked well, however I had my ISO up much higher, although aperture priority was on, which allowed me to separate the background from the subject, having a high ISO meant more light was allowed to hit the sensor, as light sensitivity was high. This resulted in more of the background being lit rather than darker, which is the opposite to what I wished to achieve, I aimed to get more definition between the subject and background. However the subject is well/evenly lit, meaning all features are shown and in focus. 

This image did not work very well whilst using the three point lighting technique. This is because the left side of the image did not receive enough light from the key light, there was more light coming from the fill light on the left side, resulting in a contrast between dark and light, creating more of Chiaroscuro effect, rather than a high key, evenly lit image. 

This is an image taken by another media student of myself. I have analysed this image too, for variety purposes. I believe the overall image is well lit, the key and fill lights have been positioned well to allow very little shadow on my face. The ISO is 3200, meaning light sensitivity was high, resulting in a slightly over exposed image, as much more light was let in than needed. The aperture priority and the head light allow myself to be well separated from the background. 

On Set

Lighting Used for Photographic Shoot