STUDIO LIGHTING

In all genres of photography, the crucial component is light, after all the word itself comes from the Greek and translates roughly as “light drawing”. It can dramatically alter the feel and composition of a photograph, softer lighting can be more “generous” in portraiture and give a softer feel or harder light can be less forgiving – giving a portrait a “harder” feel.

Lighting in photography can be divided into 2 main categories, available light, and studio light. Available light is exactly that – the light available in the environment you are in, although this can be natural light (sunlight) it also covers artificial light (streetlights, room lighting, candles, fires etc) it covers lights that are not added for photographic purposes. Light added for photographic purposes that you can control, no matter what the source is called “studio light” and covers anything from the flash on a camera to stand lights and even a torch if it’s applied for talking photographs.

Controlling lighting

Where it comes from in relation to your subject, in front, behind side on above or below. The direction of light can really alter the appearance of your subject, and essentially controls where the shadows will fall – this can alter the look of your composition drastically as shown here – the lighting on the same level shows the features well but the lighting from the bottom up makes a far more menacing image!

You can also control the quality of light you use, “soft light” will create softer edges and more diffused shadows and can be achieved by using a large reflector or a soft box to disperse the light. Hard light will give your shadows a sharper edge with cleaner lines a snoot that concentrates the light source or a smaller reflector will help achieve this. If you have a lighting source with barn doors on you can control the light by adjusting them to create hard or soft light by blocking or exposing more of the light.

You can also alter the tone of your light, low key lighting will accentute dark tones while high key lighting will give you much lighter tones. High contrast will give you more defined black and whites while low contrast will give you less definition and more greys.