An overveiw of Studio Lighting Module

To view this module in its entirety click here - http://rebeccalighting.blogspot.com/

Before this year I had never used a studio or any of the photographic lights or backdrops available to us, so I was very excited to start this module.

I was very clear from the beginning of the module what I wanted to photograph: “ With this brief i want to photograph low key portraiture. Very sharp focused images with dark shadows. The models i use will almost certainly have a lot of make up on and possibly costumes, photographed on sets or with curtained back drops, depending on whether i want to do full body shots or not. I want to create a really eerie and spooky series of photographs using lots of make up etc to enhance this. A low key lighting set up i think would be perfect for this.”

I began to research relevant artists and photographers in order to develop my ideas and ensure that I fully utilised my time with in the studio.

Research

Tyra Banks
These photographs were taken by Tyra Banks and featured on ‘America’s Next Top Model’. These photographs directly influenced the idea behind my studio shoot. I want to create a series of strong portraiture shots that have a hint of an editorial fashion shoot to them. I have chosen to follow a horror-esque theme similar to these photos by Tyra Banks. I really like this series of photographs. In all the photographs contact lenses were used and this, with the addition of the make up, really work well towards creating the scary horror theme to these images.





Paul Plews
Paul Plews is a photographer from the north east of England, he recently produced a series of images named 'mordern classics'. The style of these photographs, which were shown to us at the beginning of the year, heavily influenced my work and most specifically how I edited one my final images. Below is one of Paul Plews Images.


I also did some research into how low-key lighting is used in horror films and to create an eerie feel to photographs. Before getting into the studio I made lots of notes about ideas for photographs, costumes and props, as I knew I only had 4 hours in the studio I wanted to be as organised as possible.

Below is a series of the images I produced for this module.







I edited all these photographs with the same technique of slightly decreasing the exposure and contrast of the image, before adding a hint of blue and almost entirely de-saturating the image.

Having carefully planned for this shoot I was surprised when I stumbled across a photograph that I hadn’t planned, which sparked off a new series of images. In between shooting, my model got cold so wrapped her scarf round her, I liked it so I shot it; she went from acting the monster/ghost or daemon to being the victim. The same black eye and face make up that was used earlier to create a scary face is now used excellently to make the model look sad, hollow and repressed. This digression led to my three final images, which are shown below, and also taught me a lesson that I feel is very valuable: even though I was pleased with how well organised I was with the shoot, sometimes


This is the image that was directly influenced by Paul Plews, I wanted the image to have a painted effect, to achieve this I selected very small parts of the subjects face and feathered the selection and then applied a small Gaussian blur to the selection. I repeated this many times over the subjects face to erase definition and create a painted effect. I made sure to keep her lips, eyes and other areas of detail unblurred as to not spoil the image. I really like the way the lighting picks out the models face and the scarf leaving the rest of the picture and the top of her head to fade into black.

With this image the camera is looking down at the subject making her look small and vulnerable and even though the model is looking directly at the camera, a technique I have used in the past to create tension and conflict, with only one eye visible and her left arm clutching her body for strength the subject looks depressed and downtrodden. The eye contact with the camera almost acts as a plea for help.


With this image the subject is pulling a similar pose, still holding her shoulder, although with this photo, instead of it looking like she’s clutching for strength it seems like she is closing her self off from further pain. This photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/320 and an aperture of f/13.0. With these images I applied an editing technique that I learnt during a Digital Post Production work shop, I firstly edited the image how I wanted it (with levels, contrast, saturation and colour balance) I then duplicated the layer, added a screen effect to the top layer and then decreased the opacity of the layer. This made the models skin look luminous, with fewer imperfections visible and accentuated the effect of the low-key lighting set up I used. Learning this technique proved invaluable and I have used it lots throughout the progression of my following work.

I learnt a huge amount throughout the lighting module and I am now fully confident within the studio, using all the lights and equipment. The module also made me more aware of lighting in general, even when using available light I am now more aware of where to position the model and the camera. The presentations at the beginning and the end of this module were the first presentations I have done; I found them nerve-racking but I am now a lot more comfortable speaking in front of crowds and also presenting my work.