High Key Lighting

High Key Lighting

High key photography is a modern lighting technique that is based on using mid-tone greys through to bright whites. The use of bright lights and lighting to eliminate shadow reduced the contrasts in the picture.

 

The light diagram above shows the set up in a studio when photographing high key lighting. The model has to be in front of the main light rather than the rear flash lights because it will be too light. As the rear lights are brighter they will be too bright for the model whereas standing in front of the main light will be better as the f stop is lower. The lighting ratios between the main light and the rear flash lights is 1:2 because the rear lights are twice as bright as the main light. The reflector is used to reflect the light onto the subject to make it a bright as possible

High Key Lighting Experiments

Rear lights at f5.6

Rear lights at f8

Rear lights at f11

From the experiments that I have carried we can see the difference that the rear lights make. The soft box f stop stayed the same throughout all of these image, f8. The camera settings stayed the same also, f8, shutter speed at 1/125 and ISO 200. From the three pictures above we can see that when increasing the f stop of the rear lights the image gets brighter. F11 was the best outcome because the background is completely white whereas the other images the background is not completely white. To improve the image at f11 we could have changed the f stop of the soft box as this would've made her face slightly darker. I think I have experimented with this technique well and I am able to set the studio equipment out to enable me to perform this technique again. 

Multiple Flash

Multiple Flash

A flash technique where you fire the flash several times to increase the exposure allowing a smaller aperture to be selected.

Edwearde MuyBridge

Muybridge's The Horse in Motion, 1878

used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop-motion 

zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography.

Multiple Flash Experiments 

To respond to this technique I took images in a studio environment using two lights and settings at a shutter speed of 10 seconds, an f stop at 5.6 and an ISO of 200. 

These experiments are successful because the movement of the people within the image is obvious by the blur present in the image. I think I have succeeded in this technique because I have shown the technique well within my experiments. 

Multiple Exposure

Multiple Exposure  
http://learnmyshot.com/multiple-exposure-photography-technique/

Multiple exposure: is a photography technique of combining two or numerous separate exposures into one.

Most of the multiple exposures we see in recent times came from digital manipulations by blending two layers of separate images into one.

Multiple Exposure Experiments

To experiment with this technique I went out and took a few images with a light background and used Photoshop to merge them together and create the technique. 

The first experiment I completed didn't work as well as I had hoped. Instead of using a brighter background I took the image facing against a tree which caused it not to work when I tried to merge the images in Photoshop. 

As you can see when looking at the image the merge didn't work as the background of the picture is not bright enough.

After not succeeding at the first attempt I tried a second time and created one that worked extremely well.

With this one I rotated the picture of the plant I took when merging this image as it looked better rotated this way as the only aspect of the portrait picture that is visible is the face. This technique worked extremely well at my second attempt. 

I also took another picture to merge with this image and it also worked extremely well. I think I have progressed well in this technique as I didn't succeed at first but eventually I produced good experiments. 

Glossary

Glossary

Fine Art Photography "Photography that is done as a fine art -- that is, done to express the artist's perceptions and emotions and to share them with others".

Pictorialism creates images that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The pictures have been made to look nice but the surroundings outside the lens may not be as pleasing as the image.

Connotation - All the social, cultural and historical meanings that are added to as sign's literal meaning.

Denotation - The literally face-value meaning of a sign.

Punctum - What stands out to you, everyones should be different as other things grab other peoples attention.

Semiotics - the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.

Documentary Photography - usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life.

Recording Blur

Recording Blur

• Large aperture   =  low f.stop   = narrow depth of field.

•Small aperture  = high f.stop   = wide depth of field

Narrow depth of field:

Wide depth of field:

Shutter speed means timing and duration of opening and closing of the shutter curtain at the back of the camera. A fast shutter speed will freeze action while slower speed creates blurring effect. 

Slow shutter speed:

Fast shutter speed:

WHAT IS SLOW SYNC FLASH?

Slow sync flash is just a fancy term for using your flash with a slow shutter speed. It helps you keep your subject

sharp while capturing motion or a dark background.

•You see, with a normal flash photo, the shutter is only open for a fraction of a second, so the flash is firing for most of your exposure.

•With a long exposure, your camera's shutter is open for much longer than the flash is firing - perhaps even several seconds.

•You can choose whether you want to fire the flash at the start or end of the exposure.

•Firing the flash at the start of the exposure is known as "front curtain" or "1st curtain". Firing it at the end is known as "rear curtain"

Recording Blur Experiments
These images showing slow sync flash photography were taken in a studio with studio lighting. The images that are showing blur were taken with a longer shutter speed to capture the blur and the freeze frame image is taken at at faster shutter speed. 

As well as recording blur in a studio I also recorded blur outside. To capture the blur outside I had to use a longer shutter speed, I found the best one to use was 1/15 which worked well with f/25 and ISO 200. The blur was captured well in both pictures because only the moving vehicle/person is blurred. 

Location Portraiture

Location Portraiture

Alex Soth
The artist Alec Soth‘s frank style of portraiture is realized through his ability to make his subjects feel comfortable in front of his camera. In an article last year in the New York Times, Julian Cox, Curator of Photography at the High Museum, was quoted, saying that Soth “communes with his subjects and his environment through the ritual of the photographic act. Although this is one approach other photographers such as Diane Arbus have adopted a radically different approach, making their subjects feel uncomfortable in front of the camera or capturing unguarded moments.   

Location Portraiture Experiments

In response to Alex Soth's work I went out and took some location portraiture, starting from the first picture I changed the f stop to f4.0, f5.6, f 8, f11. The location of the image links to the person because she lives in this town. By changing the f stop the depth of field changes from narrow to wide which is visible because the background becomes more in focus as the bushes start to stand out more. If I was using portraiture in my examination shoots I would use a tripod because I didn't use one here and it becomes visible.