Week 6 - Lighting

This week we went over the guidelines for the oral presentation. The oral presentation will be due in week 9 (April 9) but a post to your blog with choice of photographer is due next week.

Next we learned some of the basics of lighting.

First, the characteristics of light:

DIRECTION

Light from front - even, descriptive, visa photo


Side light - dramatic shadows on one side of face


Back light or Rim light - silhouette, shadows/no detail in face, outlines shape of subject, defines subject from background


Light from above - dramatic shadows, eyes hidden, mysterious, interrogation light


Light from below - "creepy" light, scary, eyebrow ridge shadows


Rembrandt lighting - light from above, 45 degree angle from subject, looks "natural" to us because we are used to seeing the sun above our heads


For reference here is a self portrait by Rembrandt, note the triangle of light underneath the left eye.

As you can see the direction of the light completely changes the shape and look of the face and therefore the overall mood or feel of the photo.

INTENSITY (and Inverse Square Law)

Intensity is the relative brightness of a light source. Some light sources have variable intensity that you can set on the lamp itself. We did not have lamps with variable intensity so instead we relied on one of the laws of light to control intensity - the Inverse Square Law. 

Inverse Square Law says that light intensity changes in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from the source. In simpler terms, moving the light closer and farther away will make the light more or less intense. The "inverse square" part basically means that every time you double the distance of the lamp from the subject you lose 2 stops of light.

Lamp approx. 2 ft. away from subject

Lamp approx. 8 ft. away from subject (loss of approx. 4 stops of light)

Note: the exposure settings for the above two photos remained the same.

QUALITY 

Hard Light - high contrast, shadows have hard edges, emphasizes texture, similar to a sunny day

Soft Light - lower contrast, shadows have softer edges, texture is de-emphasized, similar to cloudy day

We created soft light by using a diffusion panel in the studio, this also cut down slightly on the intensity of the light.

You can diffuse a light by bouncing it off a large, white surface such as a wall or piece of mat board or foam core, you can also pass it through a sheer white panel like vellum, tracing paper, or semi-sheer fabric. Keep in mind 1. SAFETY - DO NOT PUT ANY DIFFUSER TOO CLOSE OR DIRECTLY ON A LAMP unless it is specifically designed to do so and 2. different materials will create more or less diffusion and will also cut down on the intensity of the light.


COLOR TEMPERATURE

Color temperature is the color of a light source. Because our brains so often adjust to the light around us and still see a white object as white, even under a light with a slight color cast, we might not be used to perceiving different color temperatures of light sources. We briefly discussed color temperature last week when discussing white balance and how to adjust the setting on our cameras to accommodate for light sources with different color temperatures.




REFLECTORS and CONTRAST RATIO

We also learned to use a reflector to control contrast ratio.


No reflector - deep shadows on one side of face


With white reflector - some fill on shadow side of face


With white reflector slightly farther away - less fill on shadow side of face (inverse square law means less intensity when light source is farther away)

USING MULTIPLE LIGHTS

We built up to a 3-point lighting set-up

Two lights, even (1:1) contrast ratio


Two lights - Key and Fill

Main/brighter light is the key 
One light was moved farther away to create less intensity of light on one side which make it a fill light



3-Point Lighting Set-up

Key = Main/brightest light

Fill =  Less bright light, fills in shadows
For this we moved one lamp farther away to use the inverse square law to create less intensity

Back Light = light to separate subject from background
For this we used a small, handheld lamp directly above the subject

A simplified sketch of 3 point lighting from above (note that this diagram does not indicate that the key is brighter than the fill)



Next we tried out the gold reflector


No reflector


With white reflector


With gold reflector


With gold reflector - placed closer to subject

If the gold reflector is placed very close to the subject it can look a little obvious/over-dramatic

Next we added a back light from directly behind to see its effect on light colored hair


One light with gold reflector and back light


One light with gold reflector and back light

Next our student art directors decided to get dramatic with the hair and back light including a few hair flips

First attempts...


A side hair flip worked better on camera


In this one we added on-camera flash to freeze the movement a bit more

The shutter speed for each of the hair flip photos was around 1/200 second.

In all these photos you can also see the difference in color temperature between the back light and the key light (which we tried to hide in the others by turning them black and white.) The key light had a cooler/more neutral color temperature and the back light had a warmer/yellower color temperature.

Further information on lighting in this week's slideshow and handout.

All photos from the class shoot can be found on Google Drive in this folder.

HOMEWORK

• Lighting Assignment - due next week to blog and Google Drive
• Blog post with your choice of photographer for oral presentation (list your choice of photographer along with 2 images by them and 3-6 sentences about why you chose them)