Lighting P3 (c)

Three-point-lighting

For this task we used the 'Three-point lighting' method, where three separate lights are are placed in three separate positions, to control the shadowing and shading of light that is on the subject e.g. person, that is being photographed.

Setting up 3-point-lighting

In class we used three-point-lighting in groups of four. One person sat on a chair and we had to set up the three lights we were going to use to create the three-point-lighting effect. This worked well and the images we took, we tried to reduce the amount of shadow that was on the subjects face as much as possible. We had to move around the lights a few times in order to remove the shadowing on the subjects face.

I think that this is one of the strong images that we took in our class task because there is very little shadowing on the subjects face which is what we aimed to do. The subjects figure is outlined well and he doesn't fade into the background of the image. The shutter speed was at 1/200 sec, which means that the setting didn't allow much light in. The ISO setting provided a low sensitivity to light and gave a higher quality image. The image is very clear, in focus and well lit up, I think that the position of the lights were good with the aperture, shutter speed settings and ISO speed. They all balanced each other out and produced a well balanced, lit up clear image.

This image has the same shutter speed as the one above, but a slightly higher aperture. This aperture setting allowed more light in which balanced out with the shutter speed not letting much light in. The subjects body is very light and clear, his face is well lit up with no shadowing, so we succeeded with this photo because we aimed not to allow shadowing in the face. I think that these two images above were one of the better images that we took in our task.

For this image, we used slightly different ISO speed and aperture value settings. This cause the photo to be slightly over-exposed which is not what we wanted for these images, so this was not a completely successful image because the it is just slightly to bright. This is because the aperture setting was at a low value so it let a lot of light in, f/2.0 which also allows for a blurred background which is what has happened in this image. The ISO speed setting was at 320 which provided a low sensitivity to light. The shutter speed setting didn't allow for much light to be in. I think that one of the 3 lights was too close to the subject for this image. We should've move it slightly further away and put a shade on it, so it wouldn't of been so harsh. I think that this was one of the weaker images that we took in our task.

Low key/Chiaroscuro lighting

Chiaroscuro lighting is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually to create a bold presence in an image. It is normally use din modelling to create volume of figures and objects.


George Hurrell

George Hurrell's work was based on photographing glamour shots of celebrities throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He used low key, black and white lighting for photograph glamour shots because he thought that is showed people in the most glamorous way possible.

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon was an American fashion and portrait photographer. His style of photography was considered to be different because instead of photographing models standing still, he photographed them in motion, smiling or laughing and many times outdoors. But later on in his career, he grew tired of photographing outside, so he set up his own studio, using strobe lighting.

Youseph Karsh

Youseph Karsh was an Armenian-Canadian portrait photographer. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Karsh experimented with artificial light for the first time. His career hit off after his portrait of Winston Churchill with artificial lighting, known for capturing a clear shot of the people he photographed.

Our group during Three-Point-Lighting Task images: