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portrait
An important concept to understand when dealing with studio lighting for portrait photography is contrast. Con-
trast is the difference in the amount of light that falls on the dark areas of a scene and the amount of light that
falls on the highlight areas of a scene. The Human eye can see a wide range of contrast while film and digital devices
are much more limited in the light level ranges that they can record. For this reason, we consider the ratio of the
amount of light between light and dark areas or the Lighting Ratio.
Below is a chart that will help illustrate some of the common light ratios and what they mean in terms of f stop
differences. As you can see, a rule of thumb is that to calculate ratio, using stop difference, take 2 and raise to the
power of the stop difference.
When the reflector or second light is placed such that fill light can spill into the highlight areas, extra cau-
tion must be used to calculate the resulting ratio. Be sure to measure highlights again and recalculate the
ratio after adding a second light or reflector.
The definition of a proper lighting ratio can vary widely between photographers. There are, however several
lighting ratios commonly used in commercial portrait photography that we can use to illustrate the process
for determining this ratio in the studio setting. For example, a lighting ratio of 4:1 is common for traditional
portraits. A 4:1 ratio indicates that there is four times (or two stops) more light in the highlight areas of the
face than in the shadow areas. A 4:1 ratio gives enough light in the shadows that details can be seen, while
creating the sense of depth required for realism.
lighting ratio
Everytime that you move lighting or reflectors ensure that you take
another light reading, this will make your images consitant and will
also ensure that you have the correct ratio and exposure for your
images.
The image to the left is a typical flash meter used for calculating
lighting ratios.
In order to accurately expose a greater range of subject lighting and reflectance combinations, most cameras
feature several metering options. Each option works by assigning a weighting to different light regions; those
with a higher weighting are considered more reliable, and thus contribute more to the final exposure calculation.
center-weighted Partial Metering Spot Metering
Knowing how your digital camera meters light is critical for achieving consistent and accurate exposures. Metering
is the brains behind how your camera determines the shutter speed and aperture, based on lighting conditions and ISO
speed. Metering options often include partial, evaluative zone or matrix, center-weighted and spot metering. Each of
these have subject lighting conditions for which they excel — and for which they fail. Understanding these can im-
prove one's photographic intuition for how a camera measures light.
lighting ratio
Props and anything taken
into the studio
lighting - dark room
curtain - backdrop tripping
heat and hydration
STudio Photography - Portrait brief
all studio
personel
all studio
personel
all studio
personel
all studio
personel
medium medium
medium medium
medium medium
medium medium
ensure all props are handeled properly with
care
it will be dark so ensure that you are sensi-
able when in the dark
tred carefully as the curtain may catch your
feet
keep a bottle of water near by as the light
will be hot
likely
likely
likely
likely
ensure all props are handeled properly with
care
it will be dark so ensure that you are sensi-
able when in the dark
tred carefully as the curtain may catch your
feet
keep a bottle of water near by as the light
will be hot
minor
minor
minor
minor
project manager will inform all personel
to identify hazards within work place
project manager will inform all personel
to identify hazards within work place
project manager will inform all personel
to identify hazards within work place
project manager will inform all personel
to identify hazards within work place
BUTTERFLY LIGHTING
This is incredibly quick and easy lighting! Your main light goes directly in front
of, and above, your subject. This highlights the tops of the facial planes, de-
fines the jaw line, and creates the little “butterfly” shadow under the nose
that lends it’s name to the lighting style. Add a reflector to give the eyes
some sparkle!
REMBRANDT LIGHTING
This is traditional, timeless, lighting. This is traditional, timeless, lighting.
Your main light is about 45 degrees of
center (and above!). The key is to have
the shadow created by the nose con-
nect with the shadow on the far side
of the face – creating a triangular
highlight on the subject’s cheek.
By varying the amount of fill, and the
harshness of the light, you can have
crazy dramatic light or classic por-
trait lighting
Lighting Techniques:
Portrait photography uses not only the camera techniques but lighting is vital to get right in creating different
effects and the mood to an image, knowing how to use light will vastly improve your images, now I am not going
to pretend I know everything about lighting in a studio, but here is what I have learnt about lighting and how,
what and why to use it.
On this page i have placed a few images against my first attempts at recreating these lighting effects, with the On this page i have placed a few images against my first attempts at recreating these lighting effects, with the
correct lighting and information i have attempted to create the same lighting, each of these lighting techniques are
to give a better look to the image, and to make your images look better and more professional.
LOOP LIGHTING
This is very similar to Rembrandt, but This is very similar to Rembrandt, but
the light moves back towards the
front of the subject. As a result the
shadow from the nose doesn’t connect
with the shadow on the side of the
face.
This is a favorite scheme of many wedThis is a favorite scheme of many wed-
ding photogs. With a nice soft light,
it’s hard to get it wrong.
BROAD LIGHTING
Broad lighting is simply the opposite Broad lighting is simply the opposite
of short lighting – the camera is
shooting from the same side as the
light. This is generally less slimming
than short lighting, and is typically
more appropriate for shooting men.
SHORT LIGHTING
Once we move to talking about short, Once we move to talking about short,
or broad, lighting, we are talking
about where the camera is in relation
to the light instead of where the light
is in relation to the subject. Make
sense?
In short lighting – what we have In short lighting – what we have
below – the camera is shooting from
the side that is away from the light,
leaving more of the visable face in
shadow. This is very flattering, femi-
nine, light.
Finally Hairy, this word was more of a joke but I
thought that it would make a good image and was show
a little bit of lighting techniques, in this image I have used
again butterfly lighting, this is to give a more even
lighting tone, with a high contrast and correct exposure
I wanted this look as a more commercial portrait feel,
as this was to show the words I had a close crop on
the face (in camera not post ) and focused on the beard, the face (in camera not post ) and focused on the beard,
to show of Corse the word hairy. Editing again was very
little to contrast and exposure, but I have converted
all images to black and white. Over all I feel that this
image was again a good representation of the word
hairy and I feel I have completed this task to its full po-
tential, out of all of these images I have as my finals I
feel that the this is again a better image and I have tried
to show all my lighting skills and I have in my first try,
completed my task exactly how I wanted them.
This image was taken to represent relaxed, shot as you would with butterfly lighting to
give depth and shadow within the hands and to add contrast with image, again turned to
black and white I feel that this image was my best of my finals, I have shown that I can use
lighting effectively and have used my camera and the right settings to get this even lighting
and exposure correctly to fit with all my images, I want to make sure that I show what
these images were showing and what better way to show being relaxed that actually
being relaxed, getting a good relationship with your model is vital and to stop awkward
images you would need to ensure that you don’t have a stiff model, the better you can images you would need to ensure that you don’t have a stiff model, the better you can
engage with your model the more relaxed they will be, and more willing to work well with
your images, creating a better result and final images.
Describing himself as Shy I thought of many ways to show this, and I thought that the best way to show this was
to have his face being covered, fully covering the face may have given the different feel to this image, and may have
given this loss of identity, so by only covering half the face with the iconic guitar I feel like I have achieved this well.
Again with this image I have shot with very broad lighting techniques, by having the image at a correct exposure and
even lighting, I chose to go this way with my own creative freedom.
Little file editing but was converted to black and white in adobe Photoshop.
Going through this brief I have enjoyed it allot, I did not realise the depth that portraiture could go into, from
painting and photographers to graphic designers to the simple snap shot, there are so many ways to describe
a portrait, but without going into that to much I want to evaluate my work.
Research for this brief helped me allot, looking at not only new portraits but old established painters and
photographers helped me understand what type of portrait photography I was interested in, the work of
such photographers as Platon, and Chase Jarvis, were my main influences and the discussion with class about
how portraiture can be seen really opened my mind.
Lighting techniques and learning more about how studio lighting can affect the overall image I believe that I Lighting techniques and learning more about how studio lighting can affect the overall image I believe that I
understand very well however I know that I have trouble showing that in my work, when placed in the envi-
ronment in the studio and under the pressure of a photography shoot, I think personally that I understand
how lighting works and have an above average knowledge on studio lighting, but in my work I feel that I have
not shown this to its full potential, moving on toward taking photos of these lighting techniques I found that
after a few tries I could understand allot more about these techniques and could get the positions correct
when taking my final images.
Light metering, although I have used this before in a previous brief in this one I have gone into detail about talk-
ing about this, I have also found more information about lighting ratio, this really helped when taking my
images as I understood allot more about getting more contrast in my images.
Finally I want to talk about my final images, with the influences of the photographers that I had researched,
I knew what type of photographs I wanted to take, looking at chase Jarvis Seattle 100 I wanted to create
images with the same atmosphere using the 5 words that were given to me by my subject (Tom Fletcher ). As
this was a small brief I feel like I have not done enough work but have ensured that everything in the brief
with extra is included in this brief, I also think that I have no shown my full potential in development by
showing more about my final images, but as I have said I feel that does not need to be shown.
In my work I have shown that I have a good understanding about lighting in a studio, so finally to end this In my work I have shown that I have a good understanding about lighting in a studio, so finally to end this
small evaluation I want to say that I have enjoyed this brief, I have added a small evaluation on each image
about what I have done and why I have chosen that image, also what editing I have done.
This image was chosen from the word indirect, so some background info about why this word was chosen
was because of his guitar playing, he has an unusual way of playing the guitar and is very talented, and so
described himself as indirect, as of his indirect way of playing his guitar.
I have tried to show this by having a profile view with him playing his guitar, this was to show not only I have tried to show this by having a profile view with him playing his guitar, this was to show not only
that he can play the guitar but with this indirect view on the image to show that side of the word, al-
though I feel that this is not my best image I feel like I have described this and fits with the rest of the final
images.
Editing, I have turned this into a high contrast of black and white, but the contrast was taken in camera
and has had very little editing to the file, other than the colour correction to black and white.
In the studio I have shot this image with a very even lighting, this is because I wanted that feel and look, I
portrait