Lighting in photography studio’s

Lighting in photography studio’s

Being Natural with artificial Light

This is the first step to understand studio lighting within photography studio’s. Then word photography is from the Greek language and means “Drawing with light.” This is basically what photography is, using photography to make images look natural.

How Many Lights?

There are many lights used within a shoot and there is no specific placement for them, but a good starting point is to use one light and position it in a natural place, for example: this could be where the sun maybe shinning; high up and coming from behind the camera and quite centre. Shades of Rembrandt is also used to adjust the natural shadows to help gain the realistic.

The second point where a light can be involved too, but this must be set at a low light because it will make the image look very unnatural, like causing a second shadow (So it will make the scene look as if it has two suns) or maybe even remove the shadow completely. The image will therefore become boring and flat.

If shadows are needed and they limited because of the lighting positions, then a reflector may be used; this is much easier. This works by the key light reaching the subject will go past and hit the reflector, bouncing off it to decrease the power in the progress to create a dark side of the subject.

Three lights would be a lot better because within many good images you get background, side and front lighting as well as the lighting on the background as well. So the more lights available the better the image. But just be cautious of the placement to avoid making the image look unnatural.

Where to place lights

If the main light is placed very close to the camera it will result in flat lighting (Example: A camera with a flash). If the light is moved upwards and to the side it will gain a better modeling because the subject will look less 2 dimensional, if the lights are moved further up; the modeling affect increases except the shadow will appear more longer and the need for fill lights become more needed.

The main light does not need to be behind the camera, it could be placed at the side of the subject and this will give off a very strong directional lighting and will illuminate quite a small part of the subject. But if you weaker fill light upon the dark lights, this will be an improvement.

If the light is placed behind the subject, the background will illuminate giving an silhouette effect or halo effect. So the key light might be placed above and to the side of the camera, this is less likely to produce a bad photo and will produce a creative and different result.

Hard and Soft Lighting

Having studio lighting is very good because it will give people the chance to edit the direction and lighting effect for the subject/end result of the photograph. But the soft and hardness of a light will depend on the subject (for example: Woman portraits are usually softly lit with a diffused lighting) but say if the subject is young/has sharp features/ scars/ poor skin then a soft and diffused lighting will be the best choice.

Although if your subject has perfect skin and perfect features then you will gain a more striking shot with just 1 light because their complexion will stand the nearby scrutiny caused by the shadows.

Another point to take into notice when choosing the softness or hardness of a light will be the size of your lighting depending on the subject. A light placed up against the subject will light it softly, but a light that is a long way away may result in a harsh and directional lighting. (The sun is a great example of this, the light is usually quite small and it may be further away, but whenever there are no clouds in the sky the sunlight will get harsh. Although when the clouds are nearby they block the sunlight and act like a giant diffuser and will result in a less brighter day.)

To gain a similar affect within a studio to make images more natural, a bigger light source will be needed and will need to be closer to the subject.

Reflections and highlights

The only highlights to be noticeable is the catch-lights inside eyes and sheen on the hair (caused by a well-positioned hair light). To make the image look more natural, there should be one catch light per eye and if this isn’t successful the images can be edited to remove unwanted catch-light. Catch lights are directed reflection of light, so positioning the subject will be important to suit the catch-lights because if not placed right their eyes may turn out larger and their features may stand out stronger.

Backlighting

Backlighting is used with most professional images and are usually completely or very largely backlit. The lights is positioned from behind and adds more to the edges of the subject to make it/him/her stand out from the background. Most product shots are performed this way, the subjects advertising hair.

Backlighting must be pointing more or less at the camera, then the light does not hit the lens, which will result in a flare and ruin the shot. So to prevent this from happening, using a honeycomb, or a grid, whatever fits over the lights and which shields stray light to stop it from hitting the camera lens, unless it is pointing straight towards it.

Also avoiding using the zoom lenses, the reason for this is because the zooms have a large variety number of elements, the more elements present in the lens the bigger the risk of a flare cause by the stray light. This could also be prevented by a a lens hood.

http://www.photographers.co.uk/html/photographic-studio-lighting.cfm

Lighting from behind the camera.