The Body- Lighting Test Shots

Digital Lighting test shots

My lighting idea for my portrait for 'The Body' project is too capture a soft and delicate feel. I'm going to use the same set up in this lighting diagram I made previously but for the test shots I'm going to use a digital camera. I decided to use a digital camera for the test images so I can easily see the results of the lights and how I need to change them to improve the image.

This is the lighting set up I used for the test shots:

The lighting set up included:

- A boom arm with a broncolor covered by a 'lantern' with rolled up curtains

- White background

- 4 polyboards

- Two broncolors with spill kills

The camera setting's on the digital camera were IS0 100 and the shutter speed was 125th of a second. The aperture on the camera was F8 whereas the aperture of the light from the key light was F11 and the background was F5.6. I had to make sure the aperture of the light hitting the background was two stops darker compared to the light hitting the model.

For the first picture I felt the background was too bright and the lighting was too harsh which didn't give the photo the soft feel I wanted it to have.

I decreased the lighting that hits the background to give it a more grey colour tone to it so it isn't as bright  I felt the lighting was too harsh on one side of the subjects face which cast shadows on the opposite side.

I moved the lantern light on the book arm slightly higher so it was directly above the models head, however this created shadows underneath the models chin.

In the previous pictures I felt that the lighting was too harsh so I added some diffusion material to soften the light so it looks more even in the picture. I also rolled up the curtains on the lantern attached to the boom arm to make the lighting appear even and soft as it spreads the light out more.

For the final image I lowered the boom arm slightly to soften the shadows under the subjects chin to make the photo appear more softer. I'm pleased with the lighting effect I created for this image as it has a softness to it and a delicate feel as there is no harsh shadows. I'm going to use this lighting set up as my final photo because of how even the lighting is.