Lighting Practical

Lighting

Back lighting

I wanted to experiment with lighting in order to create different effects, this was very successful as I was able to create mystery through different types of lighting and having it at different angles.

My first photo-shoot was encouraged by The Woman in Black. In The Woman in black the ghost/ villain of the film is cloaked so no one is able to see her face, this is very effective as it helps make the audience more cautious of the character due to the mystery. I wanted to recreate this character in my photos, therefore I used a net veil over my model to hide her. However this only became more effective when I place the light behind my model as the light could pass through the veil slightly, it also created a silhouette of my model beneath the veil. During the first images it was difficult to place the model and the light in the correct locations so I was able to get a good image, not only this however I also encountered the problem of shutter speed. As the light was shining directly at the camera there was a very short shutter speed which made the images very dark, some of the images you were barely able to see the model under the veil.

 

This image is too dark and would not work very well if turned black and white

However once I had practiced a few times I finally understood how to use the shutter speed and made sure that the shutter was open long enough to get a good image of my model. After obtaining a good image there was very little editing that I needed to do. Though as the veil was bright red I changed the image in to a black and white photo so that the veil wasn’t as bright.

Half Lighting

I also practiced with half lighting and colours, I wanted to learn how to use it effectively so we would be able to incorporate it with our filming work. I made sure to place the light on one side of her face so that the single side was shown and that the other was in the dark. I think this is very effective different lighting can suggest different personalities to a character, for example having half the face hide could convey the idea of a split personality (one good and one bad).

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Using colours was a lot harder than normal lights as I needed to balance the lighting on both sides of the face so that the image doesn’t become too dark. When taking images using only the purple lighting the entire image became very dark and not very effective. This was also due to the fact that I had to use a slow shutter speed so the image became slightly blurred. On the other hand when using two lights, one coloured and one normal, they balanced one another. By using two lights you are able to see her entire face and a strong contrast between the two colours.

This is the single light, therefore slightly blurred and too dark