Portraiture Low key lighting work diary, Tuesday 8th December 2015

Shutter speed: 1/125
F-stop: 16
ISO: 200

Shutter speed: 1/125
F-stop:16
ISO: 200 

 During today's lesson, I was able to further my exploration into portraiture, however unlike my other lessons, I was able to control the lighting- something I've been wanted to lean. I really enjoyed learning about controlling the light in this way because I believe it creates a really well final result- doesn't even need to be edited too much. My set up is shown below. However, I didn't keep my light in the same place when taking my photos. I experimented in different ways, such as making the light close up to the face. High above the head, or low. I also varied how much exposure there was on the white reflector wall because this meant the other side of the face was too dark.

My studio set up...
As you can see, I had a simple white background and a white reflector wall on the left side of my subjects. The way this is placed is very important because if it was too far away, it wouldn't have made a difference, however as it was close, it made my images much better- by making the shadowed side of the face lighter- yet not as light as the high lighted part, so there isn't much distraction. Also you can see how my subject was placed in the middle of the light and the reflector wall. This photo of my set up shows the closest my light was to the subject. However as mentioned above, I did vary my light placement. I believe this is the main thing in this type of set up that you can manipulate, other than the subject of course as you won't want the same position throughout your images.





A photo I like from this shoot...
This is one of my favorite images that I shot today. This is because when researching Low key lighting on portraiture, I came across images where the highlighted section wasn't on the face, yet was on the hair. I really liked this idea and believe this image is a good way of showing this. The main concept of portraiture is to show expression, I believe that this is still conveyed in this photo even if the highlighted section isn't on the face. The camera settings on this image was the shutter speed was 1/125, the F-stop was 16 and the ISO was 200, these camera settings made the background as dark as this and it also meant the focus was on the light. I also like how the features on her face are very clear, such as the eye lashes, showing a very feminine touch to this photo.





A photo I don't like from this shoot...

I don't really light this photo because my subject was mid laughing and as she ducked down from the light, there is a clear division of lighting- going from clear highlight to clear shadow. If she was sat up, it would have varied much better. Although as this is the final image, I don't really like it very much. I also don't like how the lighting is clearly on some of the background because it is lit up more than I had anticipated- unlike the image above.










Progression...
If I were to re-shoot this task, I would like to have made only small sections on a face or body light up, whilst the rest was in darkness. I would also like to experiment with different camera settings- to see which is the best way to capture the images in the way I wish to. Examples of this progression are shown below...