Lighting.

Artificial and Natural:

Flash- Allows light to be added where there is none originally, (portable, hand-held, studio).

Flash lightening has been used to focus on the dress being illuminated and white to portray a traditional convention of a wedding photograph. The background is in less focus as it creates black contrast to the central figure.

Portable Lightening:

• Portable lightening allows you to have even more control over how much the light source exudes in your environment.
• By using these kits so you won’t have to remove bulbs to adjust the amount of light you want.

 

Studio Lighting: Lighting controlled for certain effects. (Tungsten, light-emitting diode (LED), soft box, HMI’s reflectors).

•  A studio is a simple room with no windows, so there’s no sunlight involved. The walls are white so there’s no colour introduced. There’s a simple backdrop using a roll of white material. And there’s space for a model or subject and some equipment, such as the soft box’s and strobes.

Examples of Studio lightening photography:

A common principle of studio lighting is the dark background which allow the central focus to appear eye-catching due to the luminous glowing effect as an outline around the subject/model.

 

Natural Lighting: Shot lit only with the suns light – no electric/artificial lights involved.

For natural lighting the main light source is usually the sun and a typical natural lighting shot takes place near the window so that the sunlight can emit through. The background furthest from the light source is the darkest point in the photograph.

LED lightening:

• LED stands for light emitting diodes.
• These lights are becoming the new standard in the photography.
• The use of LED lightening is getting more common, especially as perimeter lighting for domestic use, eg. lights on a bike.
• Depending on the brand name and quality of LEDs, they can range from very stable in colour temperature to very unstable.
• The quality of the light from LED’s tends to be a bit harsh and doesn’t spread out much, so you might need to soften this light with a spun diffusion material, or bounce it off a wall.

Reflector Lightening: 

• A reflector is an improvised or specialised reflective surface used to redirect light towards a given subject or scene.
• Similar to a  lampshade, these reflectors are fixed to an artificial light source (for example, a flash tube) to direct and shape the otherwise scattered light, reflecting it off their inner surfaces and directing it towards the scene to be photographed.
• Most common types are:
  • spherical- short-sided, giving a relatively broad spread of light.
  • parabolic- providing a tighter, parallel beam of light.
• Photographers make regular use of walls, ceilings and even entire rooms as reflectors, especially with the interior of buildings which may lack sufficient available light.

Example:

Soft Box lightening:

• A softbox is a term that describes an enclosure that surrounds a light source on all sides and diffuses the light that escapes from it.
• Photographer use soft boxes for soft light for any style of shooting therefore it is very adaptive for the type of photography desired.
• Soft boxes are preferable to umbrellas for certain angles with front lighting and also for separating lighting without getting lens flare or spilling stray light onto the background.
• A soft box grid can be placed above and behind a subject whereas an umbrella would not work.

Examples:

This image shows the different types of lightening that can be obtained by using a soft box.

Strobe Lightening:

• Strobe (or flash) lighting is not continuous like the other lights but rather it bursts out a huge amount of light in a fraction of a second.
• Strobe lighting is probably the most common used artificial lighting in photography.
• Strobe lighting is not suitable for video, as the duration of the flash is too short.
• There are many manufacturers of strobe lighting systems and many light modifying accessories to go with them such as umbrellas and soft boxes.

 

Colour Temperature- The higher the number the cooler the light. The warm colours are represented as lower numbers however the Cooler shades (e.g blue) are measured in larger numbers. Kelvin is the measurement for colour temperature.