lecture 4

In yesterdays lecture we first of all looked at risks assessments and what we as photographers can do when out photographing to make shoots as safe as possible for our models, ourselves and anyone who would be likely to be in the area. 

After a lot of thought on the matter i feel as though health and safety is obviously an important thing as if you are photographing models in a studio, you have a duty of care over them and without completing a risk assessment, wether this be on a sheet of paper or mentally you are putting your subject in harms way. 

In a professional environment it is very important to carry out risk assessments but as an individual i feel as though people could possibly get to carried away and worry to much about what could potentially go wrong. I think it is about finding a balance and just being aware of situations which could arise and making sure you have taken the appropriate actions when you are responsible for someone else. 

After the risk assessment talk we went down to the studio where there was a basic lighting set up for portrait photography. I volunteered to be the model as i felt this would give me the best insight into how the equipment worked as i was close and able to see what the photographer (lecturer) was doing. 

Below is the lighting set ups we used and why to use them: - www.ephotozine.com

Why might we need Studio Lighting?

Versatility and control. If we put an 'on-camera' flashgun onto the hot shoe of our camera and take a picture of our model, this is what we will get (below). Very harsh direct light, probably 'red-eye', certainly a hard and un-flattering light with a big black shadow behind the head, which, on a darker haired subject will merge with the hair to give a strange shaped head.

The other problem is that this lighting is very flat. It shows no shape or substance to the subject whether it is a person or a product. To show that something is 3 dimensional on a photograph it has to have shadows, not big hard-edged ones but soft gentle ones. By moving our light source around to one side we have immediate advantages. Firstly the shadow has gone from the background. Secondly, we have a lit and an un-lit side to our subject. Even though we have 'over-done' the contrast between the two sides of our models face it tells our brain that the subject MUST be 3D even though we are looking at a 2D image. 

To relieve the density of the shadow we need also to put a bit of light into that side. If we have one, we could add a second light. We would need to be very careful with the amount of light we used as a fill light. Too much and we would be back to flat lighting plus the complication of two sets of shadows! Lets forget the second light for now and use instead a simple reflector panel. By adding a Prolinca Silver 'pop-up' reflector on the shaded side we can bounce some of the light back into the shadows. Simply moving the reflector closer or further away will vary the amount of reflected light. Silver reflector panels are very efficient; a more subtle effect can be obtained by the use of a white one. But it is quite amazing how much light can be bounced back.

So far we have just used the flash head on its own. Now lets add a silver umbrella to diffuse and soften the light. Silver umbrellas are, like the reflectors, very efficient and give a 'sparkly' light suitable for young people with good skin and glamour type pictures.

For a more natural, softer look, a white umbrella and reflector could be used.

We have seen that by moving our light to one side we can make our subject more three-dimensional. The pictures, however, can still look a little flat especially if you are using a low contrast background. So lets now unpack that second head and add a bit of extra depth to our portrait.

By placing a second head behind our model we can put a pool of light on the background. Both Fabric and paper backgrounds absorb light and unless they are lit they can look quite boring. We have to be careful where the light from our second head goes, so to control it we can fit either a snoot or honeycomb grid to the front of the head so that the light only goes where we want it. By adding a splash of light on the background we have livened up the whole picture and given it more depth.

We can also turn our second head around so that we are backlighting our model. As you can see a little light from behind gives great separation from the background and brings the hair to life showing its true texture and colour. The splash of light over the left shoulder further emphasises the shape of our model. 

^www.ephotozine.com

I found this article above very useful and easy to understand as it shows the lighting set up on one side and then the result on the other. After we had gone through this article we then went through each set up (with myself as the mode). Before we could do this though we were shown how to use the light meter.

Below is extracts from a light manual:

This lecture was very important for me as i didn't realise how much work and effort went into a studio shoot. Every ounce of detail has to be planned and thought out.