Light Unit
Here we looked at all the controls on the lighting units within the studio.
Cell Button - This is what turns the sync with other surrounding lights on and off
Beep Button - This turns the beep noise on and off, the beep noise indicates when a light is powered back up after taking an image/flashing
Ready Button - This is similar to the beep button but this uses a dim light till its ready to be used again when it will then return to full brightness after taking an image/flashing
Lamp Button - Lets you scroll through the options of relative, maximum and User. If you select User it will take the modelling lights current intensity/brightness and keep it at that even if you change the brightness/intensity for the flash. Maximum gives you the maximum modelling lamp brightness/intensity. Relative keeps it controlled by the dials on the side so as you just these the lamp will adjust as will the flash.
Camera Settings
We then spent some time quickly running through and setting up the camera.
- Should have the camera on manual mode so that you can control each and every setting of it.
- Exposure for the studio is best set at 1/60 to get good results.
- ISO should be 100 or as low as possible to get as high quality images as possible.
- ALWAYS SHOOT RAW!
- Always manually set the white balance, best to use is Flash or Daylight but this can always be adjusted afterwards.
Wireless Flash Trigger
Next we looked at and attached the wireless flash trigger to the camera/light.
- The Transmitter goes on the 'hot shoe' of the camera.
- The Receiver plugs with the lead into the back of the light unit. Use the lanyard provided to attach the reviewer and hold it up to the light so that the sync lead isn't being pulled on. (Avoids Damage!)
- If you only want the one light with the receiver in to go off make sure to turn the cell button on the light unit off.
- Make sure you set your transmitter and receiver to the same channel however make sure you on a different channel to others in the vicinity.
Lightning Techniques
Now we have started looking into lighting techniques.
- Butterfly Lighting: This is the use of one single light high up pointing down on the subject that creates a butterfly shadows under the nose hence the name. This can be a very simplistic but dramatic way to leith a portrait.
- Commercial Lighting: Usually this would be using one single light positioned head on with the subject looking directly at their face. This is usually used for commercial imagery as it reduces the shadows round the eyes however it doesn't give much contrast and therefore can be a bit bland.
- Rembrandt Lighting : Usually best not to have the subject looking directly at the camera as this can be very confronting. (unless this is the look/style you want!) Also you want to avoid a profile view where by the nose protrudes past the line of the face as this isn't very flattering. The best pose is a light head turn/tilt just sideways of where the camera is. Then with the light you can position it to the side of the subject gently pointed down towards the side of their face. However if you position the light on the side of the face which shows less (turned away ) this is called narrow lighting like so:
Then if you were to position the light on the side where most the face and usually ear show then it is broad lighting like so:
It is this use of narrow and broad lighting which we must try and experiment with in our own portraits we take. Here are some practices I took during the class:
Broad Lighting
Broad Lighting (Feminine Head Tilt)
Broad Lighting
Broad Lighting
I have experimented with a lot of Broad Lighting today however ran out of time to try too much Narrow lighting but am looking forward to getting to use it more next week when I capture my own portraits in the studio.
Composition and Framing
While capturing some images we spoke about composition and framing.
- Instead of aiming to get eyes middle of the frame which is what a lot of people do subconsciously you should actually aim to get the models mouth or chin in the centre of the frame as this will keep the head looking a lot more central and filled within the frame.
- Feminine Head Tilt - body facing slighting away from camera but head angled back towards the camera. Head also needs to be on a slight tilt and chin up. This is a really nice graceful pose to use.
History
We then looked at the brief history of artist to see where the Rembrandt and Caravaggio Lighting techniques came from.
- Caravaggio: He was a painter in the 1500's who was famous for his style of painting. He uses a lot of black and darkness within images which means the highlights stand out a lot more because it is much higher contrast! Usually his subjects are lit with this narrow lighting technique as this was his way of expressing that they were a hero. Villains he did paint would usually be lit in others ways. Here are some of his paintings where narrow lighting is used...
Rembrant - He was a painter in the 17th Century who had a very specific and now renowned style to his paintings. He found the perfect way to position his models so that even though he was using broad lighting the light still just passed over the bridge of the nose and onto the eye socket of the narrow side just enough so that the narrow side wasn't plunge completely into darkness. This meant it looked very graceful and this type of lighting really interests me. Here are some of his paintings which show this...
This lesson has really taught me a lot about specific lighting techniques which create some really nice atmospheres within the photos. I am very excited to start using these lighting techniques much more.
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