Work diary - High key lighting

Evaluation and Technique

Today I learnt another photography technique in the studio, exploring high key lighting. To the left is the set up that we used. In order to create an extremely bright white background, we used two 12" parabolic dish lights either side of the backdrop, set towards the background in order for the light to bounce off the paper. We used two large soft box lights at the end corners of the paper, with the camera in the middle. My subject (Connie) stood on the paper, in the middle of the lights, and I took the photo from in-between the lights as shown to the side. This allowed for all of the light to be situated on Connie's face/body, creating a high key lighting photograph. I had a couple of successful outcomes from this shoot that I was really pleased with because bright photographs are my favourite kind in this subject and is now definitely something that I will be developing in my own personal project.

This landscape style photograph is my favourite out of the whole shoot. The reason that I find this one to be the most successful is because high key lighting has been used effectively in the background, Connie's hair, her face and her clothes. There are slight dark parts in the bottom of the frame, however not so much so that it spoils the overall piece. The subjects hair is glowing under the bright light, along with her crystal blue eyes that have had their shine emphasised through the use of the lights. This style of photography is a very flattering technique used to take attractive and beautiful photographs, as it adds colour and sheen to a portrait that could have looked dim and vague. The use of a white background is something that I definitely prefer using in photography in comparison to a black background because I like bright images; ones that convey happiness and positivity. Black backgrounds sometimes allow for a certain item to stand out against it, however with most products I find that if they are shot on light backgrounds they immediately look more inviting to the viewer instead of appearing quite harsh and daunting on a dark backdrop. 

This portrait version of Connie is another example of high key lighting being used productively. The whole frame is filled with light, apart from dark tones in the hair and a slight dim corner in the top right. The tones in the hair are effective unlike the dark corner, however I don't think it ruins the beauty of the piece; instead it just leaves room for improvement in the following shoots that I use high key lighting. Because there is a larger frame here, there isn't anything that emerges from the picture to the viewer unlike the picture above. This is something that means the image lacks that special shine. It is evident that composition is necessary in photography as the above image is more of an effective outcome of high key lighting because Connie's eyes and hair stand out a lot more than this portrait picture. 

Progression

I will definitely be using high key lighting in my project when I explore my advertising topic because I have created an image bank looking at food being captured with high key lighting, and after photographing pictures with it in this session I know that it is an effective technique that could be extremely useful in advertising. I will make sure that the frames are clean and the composition is filled with bright lighting naturally and edited with curves and levels.