Studio Lighting for Portraits (Part One)

I had a very interesting day in the workshop of studio lighting. We were told about placements of lights, settings of lights and about the use of combination lighting.

Of course there are a few safety rules to consider when handling such equipment:

• Make sure cables are out of the way.
• NEVER put the bulb cover on the bulb when it is hot.
• Let the bulb cool down, pack up and pack the lights away LAST.
• Hold the light head with strong hands, like holding a baby.
• Wait for the recycle of the light - it goes dim for a second until it's ready to flash again.
• When you have no alternative sync equipment, switch the light head to 'Cell' this detects action on the camera so it will flash for you.
• Take care when lifting or unscrewing, everything is rather HEAVY.
• The light stands MUST have weights put on them as the light heads are heavier than the actual stands, they otherwise will have no support and will fall over.
• Extras - shoes off when walking on the background, it saves editing out footprints! Put the white balance on flash so that it will add in the yellow tones. If the skin has yellow patches, then the aperture is too wide, so change it, the aperture is the only thing you need to change the most throughout the shoot. Have the ISO on 100, there is a lot of light for it to take in. Make sure the shutter speed is no bigger than 1/200 as the sync of the shutter blades cannot cooperate any faster in such lighting conditions. Control more about the camera than messing with the lights too much. Use the histogram to check if your highlights or shadows are blown. 

This is the type of lighting we used (Bowens Gemini 750w) aswell as a standard light that isn't adjustable (Calumet Genesis 400w). The functions are pretty basic to use, the 2 dials change the brightness, one that does it in bits, one that does it in chunks, so if it's too bright on one whole number but too dark in the one below (or vice versa) then smaller adjustments can be made. There is also a button that can turn off the modelling light and put the flash on, the modelling light is a guiding light which shows you where the light is going and how bright it's going to be. 

Rembrandt Lighting:

(ISO - 100) f4.5 1/60

(ISO - 100) f5 1/100

(ISO - 100) f4 1/100

This type of lighting is where the light is high and round the side of the subject, it lights most of the subject but there's still some shadow. The third image is when a reflector was added which filled in the shadows.


Hollywood Lighting:

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/100

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/100 (Studio light darkened/moved)

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/100

Hollywood lighting is where it's still positioned high, but it's simply moved round so that there's more shadow on the face. Of course as you can see the lighting was too bright for the shot but the aperture wouldn't change, so the brightness of the light had to be adjusted down a notch or two. The third is when the reflector was added in to fill these shadows on the face.


Butterfly Light:

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

Butterfly lighting is where the light is very high and close down on the subject. It brings out shadows underneath the chin. It seems to be the most flattering effect there is. The first image is just that, the second is adding a reflector underneath, this is called the 'Clam Shell' technique because there is light shining both down and under the subject's head. It can be done with either a light or a reflector, just like in any circumstances. It also highlights out the blemishes on the skin, they tend to give off a shadow, so if you 'Clam Shell' it, you can brighten out the under side of the shadows. For this, the model tends to face the light, usually looking at the velcro part of the soft box.


Side Lighting:

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

 This is simply Side Lighting where the light is literally at the light of her face and at her level too. It lights up half of her face just like this.

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

This is called Short Lighting where when she turns her head towards the light and her face is away from the camera. The lighting tends to fall behind or over the nose but without revealing much of the cheek.

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

This is called Broad Lighting, this is where the face is turned away from the light and more towards the camera. The lighting falls all over her cheek, which emphasises it.