Portraiture Studio Low Key Lighting Work Diary

Description of shoot:

For this shoot I was in the studio so I could artificially manipulate and adjust the lighting to make it suitable for the effect I want for the certain picture. We used a honey comb grid in this shoot over the light. This made the light beam defined on one side of someones face. This created that dramatic lighting effect that created a high contrast in tones. These pictures usually have a mysterious connotation because not all of the face is lit and this made some of the face blend in with the negative space.

I really enjoyed doing this task as I think it is a quick and easy way to create dramatic portraits just by adjusting the lighting. I think this captures a lot of emotion and this goes hand in hand with the general idea of portraiture. Most of my shots had a dead pan expression, I think this adds to the mystery and depth of emotion to the picture.

Studio Set up:
To set up the studio to make it suitable for the shoot, I  used the plain white backdrop to create the negative space in the picture around the picture, this is to ensure all the focus is on the face. We put the honey comb over the light. I also used a plain white screen at the other side of the person, parallel to the light so that the light does't bounce back into the picture.

Below is a picture of the studio when I photographed:

Examples of Images:

Below are some pictures that I took that show the emphasis the light and the negative space has on the portrait.

I really liked how this one looks very mysterious and dramatic. I think this is because of the way I took the picture from a straight angle and she is looking straight into the camera. I liked the way half her face is dark and this blends in with the background/negative space. I think the effect this gives a serious effect as there is more darkness than light.

This image was taken from a close up angle with a landscape view. I liked how she was looking away from the camera but still with quite a serious facial expression. I like the clear definition between the highlighted side of her face (left) and the darker side (left).

Both these images have a very similar look as it has the same angle and facial expression, however one I took in landscape and one I took in portrait. I prefer the one that is portrait as I like how the studio light has effected the contours on her upper body as well as her face, eg. her collar bones.

With these pictures, I like how the highlighted areas are very highlighted making the contrast of tones very high, this makes her contours and facial features very defined and emphasised.

For all of these pictures, my camera settings were on 1/125, the ISO was 200 and the F stop was 16.