Night Photography (Shutter Speed Assignment)

Here are a collection of photos I took at night time using a slow shutter speed.

(ISO - 100) f3.5 1/4

 I took this as soon as I was outside, just to adjust the settings. It's the most sharpest one and the rest were too dark.

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/4

 A few photos later, I got out into the street and I'd changed my settings before then, so this didn't quite capture the street lights very well, they're merely floating dots! 

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1 sec

 The aperture was at it's limit so I had to change the shutter speed, thankfully this got the correct exposure but I had a weakness of trying to be too quick at this shoot, so unfortunately was out of focus. This is pure practice though, I've never photographed night properly like this. I need a tripod!

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/3

 I wanted a nice street view, this one was ahead of me, I adjusted the seconds on it as there was a more even light. I had several goes to actually get it in focus this time, this was the most focused one and I'm actually quite proud of it! I still feel like it's on the softer side though.

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/3

 I decided to try out some lighting trails using car headlights as they went past, I've done this before but not stood out on the street. I felt this shot was too early and too short in exposure, the line is short.

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1 sec

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1 sec

(ISO - 100) f5.6  0.8 sec

Then these were more of the results with a longer exposure to get these more better light trails.

I feel that I will come back to these and try them again one day and hopefully create some wonderful night time images!

Studio Lighting for Portraits (Part Three)

Hi Key Lighting:

Hi Key lighting usually persists of a lot of lights, with the background being fairly bright. So for this task we used 4 lights.

Instead of playing around with lights infront of the subject or using one light behind, this time we added 2 lights that lit up the background to make it appear white in the photos, we used umbrellas to spread out the light so that it wouldn't look 'blocky' and the small poles slide through the reflectors that attach on the lighting heads.

(ISO - 100) f11 1/100

This is what the lights do, they make the background not appear grey, but white and very very bright. They usually have to be set quite high on the brightness number too, but not too much more than the front lighting, perhaps 2 stops.

(ISO - 100) f11 1/100

And this is with the main and fill light added. You can see the normal tones coming through just like in the previous lighting images blogged earlier. 

(ISO - 100) f11 1/100

(ISO - 100) f11 1/100

 We tried to do some silhouettes, the first attempt was ok but the lights around the subject could have been darker and the background lights may had have to be more brighter. The second attempted didn't work because the set up next to us had their lights turned on at that moment unlike in the last take, in which the light leaked over to our side too!

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/100

Then the next thing we did was create a typical high fashion style hi key lighting photo, so we opened up the apertures to get over exposed images. Then doing the same again, I changed the white balance too, to tungsten which gave a blue cast to the image which you can see in the second image. It's a good technique if you want a blue toned image! 

RAW and JPEG

So I borrowed a Canon 550D again today to find that someone previously had been using it in RAW, I had no idea which to set it back to, I wanted it back on JPEG but I saw so many options to choose. I was suggested by my uncle to download the manual, there I found this table.

The symbols all represent JPEG, which I did not know, the symbols underneath the rounded ones are more compressed files.

So now I know what to change my quality to thanks to this!

Studio Lighting for Portraits (Part Two)

The next tasks we were given, were to try adding lights into the set up, we learnt more about the lights in the back.

So these are the lights that could be combined together, but shown separately.

Main Light:

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

This is basically the main light source which is coming from the front, this was the light that had been moved around in part one. It's usually the brightest light source depending on the effect you want. In this exercise, it was coming from the right.

Fill Light:

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

The fill light is usually the opposite side of the camera in a similar angle to the subject, in this case, on the left side. Fill lights pretty much fill in the shadows in opposition from the main light source, they tend to be more dimmer if you still want some tone on the skin.

Background Light:

(ISO - 100) f8 1/100

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/100

(ISO - 100) f5.6 1/100

Background lighting is basically that, it illuminates the background, you can do it fully with 2 lights to make it white or like in these images, use one specified background reflector light. So in the first one, having the previous settings on the camera, I felt it was too dark, so I opened up the aperture to let more of the light into the lens, yet this didn't work, so I figured the light actually had to be closer. The third image shows that this was the answer to my problems!

Rim Light:

(ISO - 100) f4.5 1/60

(ISO - 100) f4.5 1/30

(ISO - 100) f13 1/100

The Rim light is the light that is placed behind the subject and aimed to skim across round the edges of the head which highlights the hair, making it look like it's glowing. The first attempt was too dark, the second I slowed the shutter speed but the problem was that the flash wasn't synced up. Then later on in the tasks when we were trying different techniques, we'd synced the flash already and found this out, only the aperture was more closed which I'm guessing made sure the light didn't leak over too much perhaps? Well the settings in the third made it work anyway.

Main and Fill Light:

(ISO - 100) f5 1/60

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

Main and fill lighting are the two lights at the front of the subject, the combination looks like these examples. The first one was too bright, so I closed up the aperture a bit and made the shutter speed quicker. Then in the third one I turned down the fill light.

Main and Background Light:

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

The main light and the fill light basically lights up the subject and background with single lights lighting each, I think the fast shutter speed may have caused the orange tint in the background light. I used the same settings in each but there were shadows from the adjacent studio lighting set up, so I had to redo the shot. The background light emphasises the shadows and silhouette on the left side. 


Fill and Background Light:

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

This is different to the main light and background light, not only is the fill light on the left side, it's also softer and not as harsh. 

Background and Hair Light:

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

The hair light is meant to shine on the hair basically, so this is the combination of the background light and the emphasis of the shine on the hair with the hair light. The second one has a brighter setting on the light.


Fill and Hair Light:

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

The hair light and the fill light is almost identical to the main light and fill light, however; the hair light being on the same side; is moved anticlockwise slightly in this case.


Background Light, Hair Light and Fill Light:

(ISO - 100) f6.3 1/100

The background is white, the hair has a shine and the face is lit up.


Rim Light (Remastered!):

(ISO - 100) f10 1/100

(ISO - 100) f10 1/100

(ISO - 100) f10 1/100

This time when a tutor told us we'd not had the flash synced up, we managed to get this right! So we started off with a simple main light to begin with, then added the rim light behind the head and then the fill light. The main light and rim light combination is the favourite because it's nicely toned  and nor too dark or bright.

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.

Shutter Speed - Experiment (Light Painting)

I decided to try out some light painting at home with a torch.

(ISO - 200) f4 2 Sec

 This was a difficult experiment because my walls are so closed in compared to the studio and they are white meaning the light reflects around the room easily, so as you can see, you can see the room still here.

(ISO - 100) f4 5 Sec

 I then turned to the middle of my room that had no wall and quickly waved the torch in front of the camera and it came out with this!

(ISO - 100) f4.5 5 Sec

 Thought I would try a still long exposure on the hand over the torch whilst I was trying to focus ready for another light painting capture, but for some reason it wasn't in focus! Neither was this next image!

(ISO - 100) f4.5 5 Sec

(ISO - 100) f4.5 5 Sec

I think I will try this again in a more darker area like outside at night or something like that.