LIGHTING WORKSHOP II

LIGHTING WORKSHOP II

A SHOWREEL OF GELS AND LIGHTING 

Overall I'm pleased with the set ups created in this workshop and so decided to make a short showreel of some of the shots we managed to achieve in this lighting workshop. Working as a team of 6 or more we managed to execute a 3 point lighting technique using a complicated set up involving back lights, fill lights and key lights, filters and other textures to break up unwanted shadows. Doing so we managed to get a desired affect using these useful techniques.

BIBLIOGRAPHY


- Music by:

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/new-dawn

LIGHTING WORKSHOP I

Lighting has always been very visually powerful and has been consistently used through film, even in paintings. Lighting creates the mood setting emotions in place and creating a unique style, what we mostly use it for is for storytelling because like words and music it has its own language we can interpret. 

the objectives for this workshop were for us to be able to understand, set and operate lights to industry standards. Operate and identify the variety of light diffusions, gels and filters. 

Above is a hybrid temperature chart showing the colour temperatures that most professionals in the industry have come across frequently.

Three point lighting was used in our layouts in order to create a professional standard well lit scene. We began at first using the open light to cast shadows in order for us to determine where the next light source should be placed to counter the shadow making, the best way we did this was trying to distance our subjects away from the wall as much as possible. This ensured our background wasn't going to be in focus and preventing any shadows. Further on we began exploring the different ways we could harness the light through diffusion, using gels and filters we could soften the lights for a gentle glow or even make the light change colour through coloured gels. This created subtle differences with some filters and in others created a vastly different style of shooting. I myself was particularly fond of the gels, this is because they had a dramatic change on the subjects themselves and seemed to amplify their emotions which was really interesting to see, from the perspective of a camera's eyes. However in future I would like to use a similar method using the lights with as little coloured filters as possible, this could help me understand the language of effective lighting a bit more with a bit less enhancement to the lights itself. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Colour chart:

http://lowel.tiffen.com/edu/images/colortemp/colortemp.jpg

LIGHTING WORKSHOP

INDUCTION ON LIGHTING  

Steve Jobs, photography taken by Albert Watson.

Our studio lighting induction covered the basic settings on the camera, such as how to adjust the aperture, iso and shutter speed in accordance with the type and amount of lighting used in a shoot. We were then introduced to the different lighting kits available to us, and the common setups the lighting could be placed in. We were also shown how to use a light meter to get feedback on how much light is being projected onto the subject, so that we were able to change the F. Number on the camera to avoid the photograph becoming over or under exposed.

 

During our lighting induction we discussed the various techniques used to create dramatic portraiture.  One of our group tasks was to recreate the portrait of Steve Jobs, taken by Albert Watson. This was to demonstrate to us of how we could create a dramatic portrait using lighting and positioning on the subject without post editing. 

diagram of Albert Watson's photoshoot layout. (Figure 1)

The above diagram (Figure 1) shows a basic sketch layout of how Albert Watson managed to set up his shots of Steve Jobs. Watson placed two lights with light modifiers attached (Umbrellas) behind Jobs one on the left and one on the right which illuminated the white background and removed all shadows.  The key light that helped make the infamous right shadow was placed to the front of Jobs on his left. If an additional light had been placed to Job's front right there would have been even lighting and no shadows. 

Figure 2

Figure 3

   

Each member of our team was assigned a specific role within the shoot. Our attempt to recreate this setup was not completely successful. At first we were able remove most of the shadows. However, we did not create the desired effect that Watson had in his original. The lighting was not even, and our front light did not give us the side shadow effect. The product of this setup can been seen above in figures 2 and 3. We had intentionally positioned the subject in a pose that was the opposite of the one seen in Watsons image.

Figure 4

Our final setup did achieve a somewhat similar effect as that what can be seen in Watsons original. We had positioned the lighting in a similar setup, and managed to recreate the partial shadow and remove all other shadows. However the lighting was not bright, or wide enough to light up the background at the levels seen in Watsons image. 

Our final photograph can be seen above in figure 4. Upon later researching further into the original setup of Watsons photograph I realised that he had used a white umbrella on his bulbs, which created a wider spread of reflected light.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Steve Jobs Photograph by Albert Watson-

http://guessthelighting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/steve_jobs_albert-watson.jpg

Albert Watson's layout of his photoshoot-

http://guessthelighting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/stevejobs_watson.jpg