Studio Work- Portrait Lighting

Last week we were shown how to use lighting in the studio for portraits. We were shown all the different types of light and equipment that went with it. We were shown all different lighting techniques and what they were called then after that we got to have a go ourselves. We got shown the four standed positions of light:

Rembrandt Lighting- Light is high and to the side of the face that is facing away from the camera.

Hollywood Lighting- The light is pushed further round the subject, and is about 90 degrees from the camera.

Butterfly Lighting- Light is high in front of the subject, giving them a distinct butterfly-shaped shadow under their nose.

Side Lighting- The light is round to the left or right, creating strong contrast.

We also used reflectors to see how we could modify and lessen the shadows.

We also looked at Broad and Short lighting. In broad lighting the side of the face turned to the camera is lit. Then with short lighting the side of the face turned away from the camera is lit.
Also we looked at the basics of three light studio lighting. First is the main light and thats the primary lighting source and is usually the brightest, next is the fill light once you've set up your main light you use this one to soften the shadows produced my the main light. Then there is back lighting unless you want a silhouette you can use a reflector at the front to bounce the light off.

The other kinds of lighting are background light, kicker light, hair light and rim light. Background light is used to illuminate whatever happens to be behind the subject rather than the subject itself, the light is usually placed behind the subject and aimed at the background. These next backlight lighting techniques are more directional and add a glow around the subjects head. The kicker light is place to the side slightly, the hair light is usually placed above and slightly behind the subject and aimed at the hair, the rim light is placed behind the subject and aimed at the back of the head.
When looking at these pictures its best to click onto them to see them in better quality. 

In these first four pictures we experimented with the lighting to see how it worked. In the first one we use very bright lighting to see what the effect would be. Then in the next we used rembrandt lighting and as you can see when you use this lighting you get a small triangle shape on the cheek. In the third picture we used butterfly lighting and as you can see it worked because you can see the butterfly shape under the nose. Then in the last image we used very dark lighting to see what effect it would give. 

In this image we used short lighting, showing that the side of the face facing away from the camera is lit.

Here we made the background really bright by using an extra flash light on a high setting.

On this picture we made it very dark again but this time used a gold reflector on the face to make it stand out more and be brighter than the rest of the image.

In this image we used background lighting, to create the silhouette effect.  

Here we used side lighting, using this lighting creates a strong contrast as you can see in the image making one side of the face in shadow and the other lit up. 

Here we used kicker lighting and I think that this worked really well to how we wanted it to apart from the distraction of the dots from the flash.  

On this image we used rembrandt lighting again but also used a reflector onto the face to brighten up the face more. 

Here we used kicker lighting again and this time I feel that it worked a lot better and love the effect from it.

Then again we looked at trying to create the silhouette effect.

In this image we used broad lighting where the side of the face facing the camera is lit and the other side more in shadow.

In this image we used rim lighting, where we placed the light at the back of the subject and aimed at the head.

We also looked at doing full body portraits. 

Again we experimented with broad lighting and using a reflector this time. 

And also in the last two images tried to do hair lighting, which I think worked well.

Doing this workshop has helped me understand lighting a lot more than I did before and has also helped me with portrait photography which I had never done before that day. I feel that I have learnt a lot from it and improved as the day went on, and would now be a lot more confident in using all the lighting equipment I might need in the future.