photo:lighting
photographic lighting basics
Functions of photographic lighting:
to enable the photographer to see and focus on the subject, and then to create an image of the subject with a camera
to convey information about the subject such as shape, colour, size, texture and form
to comment by giving mood or atmosphere to a subject and implications of worthiness, value, happiness, misery, honesty, purity, etc.
to give sensual pleasure to the viewer - the “eye-candy” factor:
in addition to the above factors, use of lighting to modify your image will allow one to adjust image contrast and potentially simplify a confused scene by removing detail in unwanted areas by placing them in shadow or excessive brightness, or by decreasing the impact of busy multiple shadows in a scene by choosing a large light source such as a cloudy day to remove the shadows.
What does light do to a subject?
whenever light falls on a subject, depending on the direction of light, the size of the light source & the reflective qualities of the subject, varying degrees of each of the following parts of the subject will be present:
direction of light:
the direction of light on the subject will determine how much of each of these regions are visible to the camera
front-lighting:
side-lighting:
half-side lighting or angled lighting:
light source is in a position between front lighting & side lighting
for portraits, 45deg horizontally and vertically from the face is often used to give a good mix of lit area showing skin tones/make-up, and boundary areas showing modelling & form, with a smaller amount of shadow area for contrast & further shaping.
top-lighting:
backlighting:
light aimed from behind the subject and towards the camera
will result in even matte surfaces gaining highlights thus backlight behind a portrait will create highlights in each hair, but those hairs will take on the hue of the light source rather than their own colour.
cause lens flare which lightens dark areas in the image thus reducing contrast
if the light source is small & directly hits the lens, it will create flare spots on the image the shape of the lens diaphragm.
eg. hair lights or kick lights
eg. contre-jour
thus, if you wish to emphasise the subject's colour, you need to maximise the amount of lit area such as by front lighting, but you will lose textural information
if you wish to emphasise form & texture, you need to maximise the area of the boundary of the lit area such as by side-lighting the subject but you will lose colour saturation
size of light source:
subject surface:
shiny surface:
highlight area is prominent while the lit & shadow areas tend to merge into one
photographer needs to consider shape, size & position of the highlights, in general, shiny objects are photographed with a medium to large light source for best effect.
semi-matte surface:
both the highlight & shadow areas are clearly distinguishable from the lit area
front-light or angle light to show colour and minimise shadows
use a small light source to reduce the size of the highlight area
matte surface:
the surface contains millions of particles reflecting light in all different directions & thus there are millions of minute highlights which are usually too small to be seen
the lit area shows the colour of the subject but is largely flat in appearance
to show texture, light it using a small to medium light source positioned so the lit area/shadow boundary is prominent.
colour of lighting
Lighting the background:
Studio lighting kit:
a few notes
a soft box placed 2m from a subject will generally provide light coverage of about 4m diameter with about 1-1.5 stops light fall off irrespective of the size of the soft box when comparing the usual small, medium and large soft boxes.
adding an egg crate to the soft box reduces the coverage by about a 1/3rd and is used to reduce the spill of light
the larger the soft box at a given distance to the subject creates more wrap around light with less well defined shadows
to get a soft wrap around light from a small soft box, it needs to be relatively close to the subject and thus will only provide coverage for a head and shoulders shot.
reflectors can be useful as a fill light, or even as the main light such as when a soft gold one is used on a tanned model outdoors in bright sun with the sun as a rim light.
a beauty dish with tube cover is not as soft as a soft box, but not as hard as a bounced umbrella. It is often used with a grid to provide a much reduced well defined area of coverage.
a few lighting set ups for portraits
front spot 40's glamour style
spot light aimed straight into model's face thereby avoiding shadows on the face apart from the rear of the cheek and under the chin - the spot should not be lighting her arms much
ruby red lipstick, eye lash extensions, natural looking foundation with matte finish, styled hair
add a hair light and a background light, have the model looking off at 45deg to the camera and upwards and you have a classical glamour B&W look with almost no texture on the over-exposed skin
one light butterfly or clamshell Hollywood lighting
place a broad light source such as a softbox or umbrella above the camera, often placed at about 60deg to subject face, or alternatively bounce the light from the ceiling
place a silver reflector in front of and below the subject to fill in shadows under chin and eyes
a small “loop” of nose shadow will be present under the nose
gives a nice cheek lighting with some subtle shadowing on both sides of the face while creating a strong chin line
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two light clamshell
loop lighting
Rembrandt lighting
the aim here is to create a triangle of light on one cheek with a longer “loop” of nose shadow forming the lower border of that triangle but not crossing the lips
place a light 45deg above and to the side of the subject's face
one can add a fill light to soften the shadows
single large softbox close to subject
a very large softbox placed above to and the side of the subject will provide a nice wrap-around light with enough spill to light the rear white backdrop
can be used for portraits with subject looking towards same side as the softbox
dramatic beauty dish lighting
dramatic split lighting
a light aimed at one side of the subject's face only, usually at subject height
additional fill light to the shadow side as needed
broad lighting
similar to the Rembrandt lighting set up, but the camera is re-positioned to mainly photograph the lit side of the subject's face
this is often used with a rim light to outline the shadow side
one light backlit beauty shots
the light light is used to light a white background
the subject's face is lit either by 2 reflectors on either side of the model (and in front of the camera if you wish to block some flare), or by 2 walls on each side of the model
this will need some post-processing including:
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fashion-style with large ring light
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a large ring light is designed to give even shadowless lighting with an interesting round catchlight in the eyes if the ring light is large enough and close enough
if the ring light is too small or too far away, the catchlight will only be a small dot, and worse, you will get red eyes if the light is around the lens.
these shots are often done with the subject in front of a wall so that there is a soft-edged shadow all the way around the subject
single broad light behind subject
a single light just above and behind a subject lying down will show lovely sculpting
this could be an umbrella, soft box or strip light
simple overhead broad light
a softbox or umbrella placed overhead as the mainlight
simple fill flash from camera set to -3 stops
can create a nice dramatic effect
single broad light in front of subject
backlit basic 3 light set up
2 flashes aimed at a white background, each placed equal distances on each side of the subject - set flashes as wide angle as possible to get a diffuse even light on the backdrop
the background light will act as the main light, spilling around each side of your subject in a similar manner to placing a subject in front of a bay window
have the 3rd light placed to form a right angle triangle with the other 2 lights, to act as a fill light facing the subject, perhaps at 45 deg from the subject.
this fill light should be set to underexpose by 2 stops (if using TTL flash with back lights as one group and fill light as another group, set ratio A:B as 1:8)
basic 4 light bilateral side-lighting set up
2 flashes aimed at a white background, each placed equal distances on each side of the subject - set flashes as wide angle as possible to get a diffuse even light on the backdrop, expose to desire tones of the background
2 umbrella or soft box lights, each just in front of, and to each side of the subject to primarily provide a main side light on each side
basic low key set up
2 main lights, preferably as soft boxes, each set to either side of subject and set to under-expose by 1 stop
single background light onto gray background set at -3 stops to create vignette-like effect
photo/lighting.txt · Last modified: 2018/02/07 12:06 by gary1