Studio lighting

A core element of a successful photograph is effective lighting and lighting used correctly. Although it can sometimes be digitally manipulated it is often more organic if it done correctly in the studio first time. Two factors that contribute to effective lighting are the direction it is coming from and the quality of the light.

Direction of light

Firstly, direction of light. Direction is shown by shadows in a photograph and without them images can come across one dimensional and shallow (Child, 2008). So what this means is that without lighting depth is really difficult to achieve, it may be useful to some  photographs to have little to know depth however most photos, especially portraiture depth is really important because the photographer wants to immerse the viewer into the scene.

© Natasha Djurdjevic

© Irving Penn 

The photo on the left by Irving Penn demonstrates a lot of depth due to the direction that the light is coming from, the left side of his face appears to have been sucked into the background because we see no significant detail on this side of his face, in contrast the right side of his face is highly detailed and is very pronounced in the foreground because of the light on this side of his face. On the other hand the Natasha Djurdjevic has used a light right in front of the models face so that there is limited depth to the image.

Quality of light

Secondly, quality of light, which refers to the harshness and hence the type of lighting used by a photographer and how that impact an image. Tarrant (2001, p.101) argues that the dominant light impacts how we perceive a subject or setting, for example the use of a tungsten light gives a scene a sense of warmth and homeliness, whereas if a white light is used, photographs can come across as more commercial or staged.

© Joel Meyerowitz

This photo by Joel Meyerowitz is taken in Times Square and is a great example of how the quality and harshness of light really matters to the mood of the scene. This photo has a dominant yellow hue coming from washed out artificial lights of Times Square.

My project

I aim to apply this to my own work by thinking carefully on how I can use the direction of light to create depth and make sure that my subject is always the main focal point. I will use quality of light to make sure that my photograph is lit well using natural lighting, because I doubt I will be using studio lighting in my project.

Bibliography

CHILD, J., 2008. Essential skills: Studio Photography. 4th ed.

TARRANT, J., 2001. The Practical Guide to Photographic Lighting