2011 February | lightGIANTS

24Feb/112

3. friday night shoot [review]

Rembrandt lighting is a lighting technique that is sometimes used in studio portrait photography to create a dramatic look. It can be achieved several ways, with just one light source, one light and a reflector, or two lights. It is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a minimum of equipment. Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle under the eye of the subject, on the less illuminated side of the face (i.e. the side of the face furthers away from the key light source)

Quelle: Andreas Schott

It derives it name from the Dutch painter Rembrandt, who often used this type of lighting that occurred naturally in his Amsterdam studio.

Quelle: Christian K.

Normally, the key light is placed high in front and to one side of the subject. A fill light or a reflector can be placed on the opposite side at the front. If you use a fill flash it should be set to between1/4 or ½ the power of the key light.

Quelle: Scott Lewis

The key in Rembrandt lighting is creating the triangle or diamond shape of light underneath the eye. One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric form on the face. The triangle should be no longer than the nose and no wider than the eye...

Quelle: Alexander Andl

lighting setups of the evening:

Filed under: Pictures, Shootings, Workshops 2 Comments

9Feb/110

Shooting the Vamp

Intro

I (Scott) have set myself a few projects for 2011. One is the “last Friday of the month” shoot in the lightGIANTS studio. Another is to do at least 1 theme based shoot per month. The third will be an ongoing project recreating paintings from the old masters in the studio (e.g Rembrandt, Goya, Dürer, Vermeer etc. ) on an irregular basis.

Meeting the models

A friend and a few of his friends came to the studio last year, wanting to learn a bit about photography and lighting. I set up a basic shoot with a few different lighting set-ups, and explained the lighting as we went along. Like always when I’m shooting I talk a lot and ask a lot of questions, especially with people I haven’t met before… As it tuns out my models/students for the night are also make-up artist who are involved in a lot of local theatre. Me being the opportunist that I am I jumped at the chance to get my theme bases shooting up and running.

As they are currently working on a vampire musical I suggested that we meet get together again for a shoot:).

Lighting Concept

I wanted to keep things relativity low key and simple. The colour pallet had to be dark tones and blacks with a splash of blood red. I used a dark charcoal background as it looks black in low light but you still get contrast to any black in the photo. That way I could could use very minimalist lighting and hopefully not need any rim or hair lights.

I chose a Sony Alpha 900 with 4 lenses (Sigma 14mm 3.5, Sony 50m 1.4, Zeiss 85mm 1.4, Zeiss 24-70mm 2.8) and planned to only use the 50mm and 85mm, but I ended up shooting 80% of the shoot with the Zeiss 24-70mm. I found it gave me a very comfortable working distance. I was close enough to interact and get an intimate feel to the photos with out crowding the models.