Studio Induction and Introduction to Studio Lights

This week I had my induction in the college’s photography studio. We we shown how to operate a DSLR and setup Low/High key lights I’m already familiar with using DSLR cameras and typically shoot in manual mode. I’ve previously experimented with different shutter speeds/aperture/ISO on my camera to achieve the correct exposure and different depths of field as well as other effects. I’ve been doing a lot of wildlife photography in my spare time but I normally shoot with only the available daylight. I’ve taken photographs using Low Key lighting with an under exposed background and correctly exposed subject before. I did this by changing the angle I took the photograph so that the background appeared a couple of stops darker than the subject, I usually try to find a dark or shaded patch of leaves. I want to practice using different external lights to have more control of the lighting in my photographs. I want to do this because using only the available daylight restricts when and where I can take photographs as well as the type of photographs I can take.

I took this photograph in strong daylight with a pitch black background without darkening the background in Photoshop. I managed to get this effect by positioning the camera so that the subject appeared in direct sunlight but the background was a dark area of bushes in the shade. I also used a high aperture and fast shutter speed. This resulted in a photograph with a correctly exposed subject and a black background.

I haven’t used studio quality lights before so I spent time in the studio playing with the lighting strength and positions to see how it would affect the photograph. I started off trying Low Key lighting techniques with a highlighted subject and black background. I moved the light source closer and further away from the subject as well as adjusting the angle to achieve a brighter subject and darker background. I used settings of 1/30 f5.6 and ISO 320 to get the correct exposure while avoiding increasing the ISO too much to avoid adding noise. I also didn’t use a lower shutter speed than 1/30 to avoid causing blurring if the subject moved. Asking the subject to move closer to the light source helped raise the light on the subjects face without lowering the the shutter speed or increasing the ISO

After playing around with Low Key lighting techniques until I was happy with the results I started looking at High Key lighting. To do this I used a combination of two lights, A key light pointed behind the subject so it appears blown out to get a solid white background, and also remove any imperfections in the backdrop. I also used a soft light positioned in front of the subject to highlight facial features on the subject. This resulted in a photograph with a blown out background and correctly exposed subject.

At the weekend I decided to have a practice with different external lights at home. I chose a couple of ornaments I found at home because they had interesting shapes and curves, I wanted to see how the light would fall on the different parts of the ornaments. I used a mixture of lamps/ceiling lights and a speedlite. I took the photographs on a desk underneath a ceiling window, so I had plenty of natural light. The front of the ornaments were shaded in the natural daylight and you could see where the desk joins the wall behind it them. I wanted to experiment with different combinations of lights to highlight the front of the ornament, and blow out the background so you couldn’t see where the desk joins the wall. Blowing out the background also helped make the one of the ornaments stand out more as it was a light colour being photographed in front of a white wall. I used a combination of; daylight, ceiling spotlights, positional soft light, bare lamp bulb with reflector and a speedlite. I used a few different combinations until I was happy with the results. Looking at the results side by side the differences were harder to see. I compiled the different test shots in a GIF to help visualise the difference between the lighting techniques. I also found that converting the images to monochrome made it easier to see the differences between the lighting set ups.

1. The darkest photograph in the GIF is the first one in the sequence. It was taken with only available daylight through the window.
2. For the second I used the daylight and three ceiling spotlights about two meters from the ornament pointed directly at the subject. This partially highlighted the subject (mainly the top but lower parts were still shaded).
3. For the third photograph I used the daylight, ceiling lights and introduced a soft light from a lamp with frosted glass to increase the exposure of the subject. I placed the soft light about half a meter in front and to the lower left of the subject and angled up.
4. For the fourth photograph I placed a bare light bulb behind the subject and used a small mirrored reflector to bounce the light onto the background instead of the subject. This enabled me to over expose the background to the point where you can hardly see where the desk joins the wall. While the reflector also avoided any light spilling onto the subject.
5. For the last photograph I introduced a speedlite positioned to bounce off the ceiling in front of the subject to further increase the highlights on the ornament.

I used the same lighting set ups in the same order for the second ornament. I placed the ornament away from the window so I could see what it looked like with only the lighting I was controlling. I found that I had more problems with shadows without the ambient daylight in the background. I compensated for this by adjusting the angle the lights were shining at the subject from. I also moved the bare light bulb and reflector closer to the wall behind the subject, this was where I was finding the most shadows. Moving away from the window, the ornament was a lot closer to the wall which made it difficult for me to over expose the background without any light spilling onto the ornament. I decided to concentrate my lights on removing shadows and highlighting the subject instead of blowing out the background.