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