Portraiture Lighting definitions

Irving Penn
Low key lighting


What is a portrait?
Portraits convey emotions an insight to a persons mood, identity
choice of lighting
control of lighting

Hey key lighting an image with predominantly light tones: used in beauty images, light hearted, fun
Low key lighting an image with predominantly dark tones: creates mood, show strength and muscular.

In photography, a snoot is a tube that fits over the studio lights so the photographer can control the direction and the radius on the beam on the subject. The image on the left is an example of what a snoot looks like. The example shown on the right shows how a snoot can be used to make an intense spotlight on the subject, making the surrounding area dark.


A Honeycomb is place on the lights in a studio, so lighting can shine through is part of the honeycomb shape creating tight beams of light onto the given subject, however it isn't as intense as the snoot shown above.






Reflector dishes in photography are used to help direct the lighting to the subject. It also makes it easier to control the lighting. The example of the reflector dish in use shows how unlike the snoot, reflector dishes make a wider range of lighting on the subject.






Low key lighting…
This is when the photographer controls the lighting yet only the part of the subject is visible- creating a mysterious idea of the subject. It can also be used to show muscular parts of a male face- a jaw line, and with women it can be used to hep show cheek bones.
 These 4 images are examples of low key lighting. I like the deep emotions joined with these images. with the top 2 images you can tell the lighting is on the side of the person as their further side is lit up. Whereas the bottom left image there was be tightly control lights on either side on the face, making the face unseen but the hair is. Then on the bottom right hand images, you can see how lighting is used to show the muscular part of him- his jaw and sharp facial features.