Lesson Task – Studio Lighting

Question 1

Written Assignment

1. Name three lighting sources and their functions.
2. Name two light modifiers and explain the difference between them.
3. Draw a diagram of and describe the three-point lighting setup

Key light – the key light is the main light source of the photographer. It is often placed in front of the motive, and can alone give a flat and boring photo with few shadows.

Fill light – Used as a supplement to the key light. Often used to soften the shadows in portrait photography.

Back light – Placed behind the motive facing the camera. This is used to separate the motive from the background. This can be used in many ways, and can create a nice and soft light in portraits or it can be used to create really sharp sillouets.

2 – The soft box is a light modifier that creates a soft and beautiful light to your subject. The umbrella is also a light modifier that creates a very forgiving and soft light. However does it spread the light all over the place in comparison to the soft box where you have more control over the light.

Three point camera set-up:

Question 2 

Research Assignment

• Draw three studio setups for the following subject matters and list all the equipment that you would use to light your subjects:
  • Portrait
  • Fashion
  • Beauty
• In a magazine or on the Internet, find one fashion shot, a beauty shot and a portrait shot and explain how you think the lighting was set up in each shot.

SET UP FOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY.

SET UP FOR FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY.

SET UP FOR BEAUTY PHOTOGRAPHY.

This is the beauty shot I found. The model has a very soft light over all. To get that look I think there must be a soft box for the main light facing her and a soft box above her. There is also a backlight as you can see that her hair has a nice sharp yellow light around the edges.

This is a dramatic portrait and I think it is shot with one single light source slightly angled down and direct at her face.

For this fashion shot I think that there is natural evening light hitting her from behind. There is created soft shadows on her face, probably by using an umbrella with no light.

Question 3

Practical Assignments
Take some portrait shots and pay specific attention to the lighting you use. Do one shot with soft lighting and one with more dramatic, harder lighting. It would be beneficial to hire studio lighting, but if you can’t, you may use natural light, reflectors and your camera’s flash.

Portrait photography is so much fun, and oh so challenging! So I asked a fellow photo enthusiast to be my model and spent two days shooting. I ended up using natural light as I do not have proper studio lighting at the moment. For the first portrait I tried to create a soft light. I placed my model between two windows. One facing him and one to his right side. I placed him so that the light would create soft shadows and give some light to all of him. For the second portrait I wanted a more dramatic light. I placed the model close to a big window and placed the camera really close to the light source (as close as I could get). I wanted a lot of shadow in this photo to create some mystery to the scene (revealing the face of Boba Fett from Star Wars). I managed to get a really dark shadow on his left, where you cannot separate the background from the model.

Question 4

Practical Assignments
Choose a portrait photograph from the ones you took in Question 3. Create a unique movie poster for a fictional fantasy movie of your choice. Make use of different backgrounds and editing techniques you have learned.

I had this idea from the vey beginning as I knew my model is a true Star Wars fan with a really great character costume. The movie is about the revealing of a mystic character and the reveal of his face. I used photoshop to add some important elements to the poster. This is very nerdy, and kept in the style of typical SW posters. May the force be with you.