Studio Photography - High Key Unit 25

                                                        

           

                The high key style of photography was a method used throughout the 50's and 60's by photographers such as John French and David Bailey and in simple terms it's aim was to reduce shadows yet make every part of the subject matter visible. John French (1907-1966) was an English fashion and portrait who originally worked with the Daily Express but went on to pioneer  a new form of fashion photography suitable for production in newspapers which involved the inclusion of reflected natural light where possible and low contrast to produce high key prints where most of the detail was in the lighter areas. To achieve this , he often rejected popular tungsten lighting for softer daylight photography, by bouncing light off reflector boards. I've chosen this image of Patti Boyd in a Mary Quant dress with the Rolling Stones, England, 1964 as what I see to be an example what was produced by this reflected natural light as it also includes the white backdrop which has since become a main feature of high key photography.

                                            

                         Now the above image still contains various amounts of shadowing to the some of the faces that would imply the lighting in the foreground wasn't completely balanced, with even a suggestion of natural light, yet the lack of shadowing on the backdrop suggests that it was still evenly lit to ensure this and in turn produce a high key image. Now I've included another image of his Marla Scarafia in a Federica printed cotton sunsuit, London, 1958 to show how with the backdrop lighting being set 1 or 2 stops higher than the lighting on the model, then the backdrop then becomes blown out yet the detail and tones are visible evenly across the model with minimal shadows.  I would also take this opportunity to point out that this is merely my interpretation on the lighting of both these images as I haven't been able find any additional information on his lighting techniques as yet so any feedback would be appreciated in the comments box below .

                                              

                         On his death his wife donated a large proportion of his images to the V & A Museum but if you'd rather just see a random selection then I selected mine from a live fashion journal at bygonefashion .  

                         Bringing things forward a little, modern high key photography is often interpreted as simply a bright white background with the subject dominated by bright tones, usually relatively low contrast. Now you can drive yourself bonkers ( I have) reading different peoples opinions on what is and what isn't, but high key is simply a high setting on the key light  to bring out the detail on the subject where as low key would do the opposite. I've included a lighting diagram that best explains how this can be achieved and as I said earlier the way the blown out background is just simply a matter of having the lights behind the model set one or two stops above those trained on the model.

                                      

                                   
                             This is a standard set up and the thing to keep in mind is that the light on the subject should be evenly spread and that there are no harsh shadows or contrasts. You can also use a white reflector placed between the 2 front soft boxes (and below the camera, obviously) to help bounce light back and fill in shadows that may occur under the chin. You could also prevent the light falling onto the subject by placing some panels to block light spilling onto the subject from the lights facing the backdrop.

                f2    ISO100    1/30

                                            


                This is my interpretation of high key photography with this being shot in the studio using a medium format camera. You'll notice I've managed to remove the majority of the shadowing under the chin via the reflector but the lighting comes across as slightly uneven to the left hand side of his face perhaps brought about by the slight twist in his head but I feel I could prevent this by either a slight reposition of the light or even just controlling the light via the use of another reflector or polyboard to bounce the light back down that side. A lot of high key photography is considered to convey a positive or upbeat tone and could be considered to be flippant, lively, dreamy or young with many high street portrait photographers using such images in window displays to promote their trade  as they are usually eye catching and often used in accentuating the cuteness of children or the more as a ,more flattering approach to photographing the fairer sex. Personally I'm not such a big fan of the modern take on high key photography, especially when it becomes borderline over exposed, it does however serve it's purpose well in such instances as newborn baby portraits, glamour and even as floral wall art.

Studio Photography - Low Key Unit 25

                In the studio low key photography is used to create darker, sombre and sometimes even more menacing portraits for dramatic effect and this can quite often be achieved by the use of one key light with either a carefully controlled fill light or just the use of a strategically placed reflector. Ideally shot against a dark background you are looking to produce darker tones and shadows to try and add some atmosphere to the image and although traditionally used with male subject matter it can be used to good effect in certain female modelling assignments but that's down personal choice and what you are hoping to purvey. 
                When it came down to selecting an iconic image as an example of what we were looking to produce within the studio I thought it would be easy, but the reality is it took me quite sometime to root something out that I was happy with before eventually settling on this one of Robert De Niro by Hedi Slimane a French born fashion designer who now works as a photographer capturing the likes of Pete Doherty and the Berlin club scene so I wont say any more about him as it is this image I'm really interested in.

Robert De Niro by Hedi Slimane

             Shot against the typical black backgound, I feel this to be a classic example of a single light source being used to full effect to create the shadowing down the left hand side of the face yet allowing the light to pick out the finer details that we associate with the man himself. Again, I presume there to be a subtle use of a reflector to bounce some of the light back so that all not all the features down the darker side of his face are left in the shadows. Classic suit, rugged features and strong hands all define him as an iconic figure yet the lack of eye contact suggests he's not to be taken for granted and what you get as a photographer is what HE wants to give you. I could of course be completely wrong about  all of this but as with any image it is down to the viewer to take from it what he will and see what he wants to see, because if we all agreed about everything, then the world would be a pretty boring place. 

                    So to find out how we went about trying to produce a similar sort of darker more serious image, we set the studio up as below with just a single light source, dark background and reflector as required but with the light shining through two black polyboards to reduce the spread.

                                                

                                     
                       In general low key photographs should have a darker tone and contain plenty of dark areas but you also try to highlight the contour lines of your subject which is where a controlled fill light or reflector and the key word here is controlled as a 1:1 ratio from say the front, may make your image too bright for your desired effect.

f2    ISO100     1/30s

The above image was one of those taken during our early studio sessions and I chose not to use it as my final  submission for the studio brief because I wasn't happy with how the light hadn't caught enough of the face to show at least one eye but it was early days and I think we were all a bit edgy and a little apprehensive about moving things around that had previously been set up by John.   I didn't necessarily feel it's a poor image but more that I thought I was capable of producing something better in a more relaxed studio atmosphere so I decided to use the one below from the tail end of a reshoot I was able to do when Mina had booked the studio and let me borrow her model. 

                                                                                                            

f9   ISO100  1/100s  @50mm

                  The initial set up included 2 soft boxes but I'd decided to switch one off and move myself round at about 45 degrees and concentrate the focus on the eyes. I'm pleased with this shot as the catch-lights came out really well and the single softbox has given it a softer light which compliments the rather contemplative type of pose. 

                                   

                                             

Studio Photography - An Introduction Unit 25

                 The first thing to remember when entering the studio is to be aware of your surroundings as not only are you going to be in the presence of a whole host of expensive and fragile equipment, you also have to observe health and safety issues so watch out for trailing leads, remember that studio lights get very hot and above all else that electricity can kill. With these things in mind, when you are setting up your lights the first thing to do is to inspect all power leads for any signs of damage and as obvious as this may sound it is can often be over looked as people are inclined to presume that who ever used it last would have checked it so it must be ok. Don't presume anything....check each lead by feeding it through your hands checking for plug damage, insulation damage and whilst you're at it, make sure there are no knots in the lead and then you can proceed to setting up your lights, which you should also inspect, and make sure you try and route your cables in such a fashion that you aren't going to be tripping over them as you move around between shots.
                   Now that we've got the scary stuff out of the way I want to talk about the range of equipment that's commonly used in the studio starting with the lights....

Compact Flash Heads/Monoblocks

                  These units have all the electronics built into the head itself and are often favoured by both amateurs and professionals alike as the head contains a a lamp holder for the modelling lamp, the flash tube, all the circuitry and a fan to keep it cool.

               

Power Packs 

                    These units are generally used when they high speed over a long period of time is going to be required, such as fashion photography, as they can generate a huge amount of power (up to 6000w/s) . The parts that generate the most heat are housed in the head and the electronics are contained in the pack itself which is fan cooled. Care should be taken when setting up lights to the power pack especially if it has different rated  output sockets which are usually colour coded. 

                                            

                                               

                                      

Lighting Choices

  Hot lights: Also known as tungsten lights, they are basically ordinary quartz halogen lights around 500-800w they are more of a continuous lighting source for such things as product photography and not really suitable for portraits as they appear brighter than they are so it may be necessary to adjust the ISO, they produced heat so can make the sitting uncomfortable as can the glare in the sitters eyes,  plus they can be warm in colour so white balance is a thing to be considered. Simply called hot lights because they get hot .

  Cool lights: As with hot lights they produce little in the way of power but being fluorescent they run cool so a sitter is made more comfortable. As they are considered to imitate daylight, they work better with flash and if there is natural light in the room from an external source.

  Flash: Either hot shoe or studio and with far more power than either the hot or cool lights and without the limitations of either. 

 Modifiers   

Umbrellas: Mounted so that the strobe faces away from the subject and so bounces the light back of the reflective surface of the umbrella to produce a diffused, soft light. Choices of lining mean silver is more efficient and can concentrate a more direct light than white which has a wider spread of reflected light and gold which produces a warm tone.

                                                 

Soft boxes:  Usually square or rectangular and in a variety of sizes, they are attached to the front of the strobe facing the model and the light bounced of the inner reflective surface and diffused through translucent front to produce a soft light. More controlable than umbrellas as the light is contained, where as when using umbrellas the light can spill outside the boundaries or the subject matter and cause problems if bouncing of other reflective surfaces.

                                                            

Soft light/beauty dish: These create a hard light with soft edges but without any hot spots yet are considered to have a sweet spot where they work best. It's recommended to keep them within 2 feet of the subject to get the full effect and because of this they are mostly used for portraits.  I've also included a short video here on the beauty dish to give you (and me) some idea of what results to expect. 

                                                 

                                              

Snoots: Being of conical shape, they are used to produce a narrow, concentrated, harsh light and for this reason are often used as a spot light or to light a background as well as a hair or rim light when lighting the model from behind.

                                                  

Barn doors:  Usually consisting of four flaps that allow a little more directional control of the strobe by means of adjusting the flaps to control the spill of light but not as directional as the snoot.

                                                      

Honeycomb: This is quite simply a grill that fits on the front of the light source, be it a dish or a snoot, and it works by directing the light as a concentrated beam to produce a hard circle of light with soft edges they can also be used as back light or hair light as the spread of light is restricted so it can prevent any flaring.

                                                 

Deep reflector: These are used to produce a large patch of light and can be considered quite contrasty especially those with an internal silver reflective surface.

                                                      

Used in conjunction with the above, the studio should also have a range of gels that can placed over light sources to change background colours and create moods, bounce reflectors that are used to fill in shadows such as under chins and large polyboards used as either large reflectors or just simply as screens to shield from unwanted light spills.

                                                  

Andres Serrano: Medium Format Portraiture Unit 25

            Andres Serrano is an American photographer born in New York City on August 15th, 1950. Now I wouldn't normally feel a need to mention that he was from a half Honduran, half Afro-Cuban background and raised a strict Roman Catholic, but in this instance it becomes quite relative to a lot of the imagery he went on to produce. Originally working as an assistant art director for an advertising firm it wasn't until 1983 when he began to produce his own work before eventually achieving notoriety for such works as Piss Christ, in which he chose to photograph a plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of his own urine, and Blood & Semen II ....you get the idea ? He's big on bodily fluids, enough said. Forever ready to court controversy he has also produced work featuring 'cheeky' nuns, burns victims and morgue dwellers. yes, the dead. 

What really impresses me about Serrano is more of his straight up portrait work, such as that of  Klansmen, where he met and photographed various members of The Klan and  in it's reveals more about their hypocrisy towards their beliefs than anything, and also his work Portraits de la Comédie Française in which he produced something like 160 portraits, shooting with his Mamiya RZ67 to achieve a series of those close up shots with an attention to the finer details of his subjects. When it comes down to his America series, then that is when his work really captures my attention as it features 112 portraits of some well known, and some less so, Americans in a celebration of life after 9 1 1 on what I take to be seen as the inability of a external force to break the spirit of the American people despite what atrocities they may be faced with.  You can see in many of his portraits that the use of a reflector under the chin to reduce shadowing also helps bring out the humanity in the face of the subject and leaves you with an impression of truthful and strong. The final thing I will add about Serrano is that when asked which is his favourite work he would reply it's always his last one, which, if more than anything else, informs us that he isn't done yet and strives to go on producing quality works whether or not we agree or not with his chosen subject matter.....for me I'm happy to appreciate the quality in his portraits so he can keep his bodily fluids to himself.

Johnny, Nomads, 1990

Walter Fischer, America, 2002

Michel Vuillermoz, C de F, 2007

     So that's Sorrano, but if you feel you could do with a little more then you could check out a few of his more 'shocking' images that I mentioned earlier which are on show at the Saatchi Gallery and then of course there's always good old youtube if you fancy a visit to the morgue.

        Now with John being John, we were then lead into the studio to try our own hand and reproducing something in the style of Serrano. The set up was pretty much as seen below with the idea being that the backdrop was lit up evenly yet the model was asked to face towards a single oblong softbox so there was an even distribution of a soft yet bright light across his face with a bounce reflector being used to try and balance out any severe shadowing. This shot of the other Jon was taken with a Leaf medium format camera with the instruction being to pin point the focus on the eye lashes, which I succeeded in doing (blows own trumpet), even though personally I've always gone for the eyeball as a focal point but I'm guessing that because of it's varying levels of opacity, eyelashes would offer a much more positive focal point.   

ISO 50    1/18s

                                          

Studio Photography - Glass Unit 25

                  When it comes to shooting glass in the studio one of the first things I'd recommended considering is rogue reflections. Now it isn't something you can often spot when looking through the view finder but it is definitely something you should be aware of because by the time you get to the editing stage there's every chance you wont have a suitable image to display. Some reflections such as those from soft boxes and windows, can often add to an image if controlled , but others, such as a photographer, assistant or say a light stand, can ruin the shoot, so be aware of your surroundings. 
                     If I had to choose a photographer of influence, then I'd go down the commercial route and select images from someone such as Fleur Olby as she tends to keep it simple and yet get the best from her given subject as you can see in the clarity of her glass product photography but you'll have to click on her name for the link as they aren't readily available for reproduction. With that in mind I've decided to include something by Simon Bruntnell because I appreciate the use of the reflective table here and goes someway to explain what I was trying to achieve in my final submission.

                                                    
                                            


                   The set we used for shooting glass initially started with 2 soft boxes and a light table which was also lit from below plus several pieces of black card used to reflect outlines onto the clear glass. 

                                                

                       You can see in the image below how the reflected surface of the black card is visible in the glass and helps define the outline yet more care was needed to get an even balance of light across the product table as I'm not too happy with the gradients in this one and only used it to show how the card works. 

                                       
                              Because softboxes produce a grey background it may be necessary to adjust the white balance accordingly and the inclusion of a coloured liquid or even a flower can add something to the image. When shooting coloured glass you can experiment by swapping a softbox for a honeycomb with shutters so it lights through the glass and shows textures and creates shadows.

                                      

                             For my final submission I'd decided to include something that, although it was rather bland, it does show that I was prepared to experiment with reflective surfaces by means of the acrylic table with a light set up underneath and adjusted so as to remove the major traces of the table edge at the back of the shot. Again, when it comes to shooting glass in future, I'll take some time out to consider composition and reflections as I'm not too impressed with the way the soft boxes are prominent features but not in a natural fashion. One of the suggestions offered to create a false impression of a window reflection in glass, is to simply tape a cross onto one to the offending soft box.

                                                          

Studio Photography - Flora & Fauna Unit 25

                      When we were first introduced to the joys of shooting flowers, we were encouraged to try and bring out texture as well as the colours and details and shown examples in published books by such people as William A Ewing - Flora Photographica, Fleur - Fleur Olby and Portraits Of Intimacy - Adam Kufeld as well as still life images from the likes of Irving Penn and Robert Mapplethorpe. The general theory behind floral photography is to try and make them look alive and show them as a delicate, living object but then there are variations on this depending on what mood you are trying to portray. Take for example Irving Penn's image from 1968 Lavander Glory Poppy, now he was said to give the flowers attitude and as you can see from the image below, the lighting was a strong factor in presenting the flower as something of an expose providing the viewer with the opportunity to indulge in it's fragility whilst appreciating it's strength in beauty. 

                                      


                     Adam Kufeld's approach could be considered a little more intimate as he went closer to the heart of his subject inviting the viewer to explore the detail found within the stamen etc yet without losing any of the vibrancy of colour that acted as a magnificent backdrop to really drive the image home.

                                      

                         Now I was looking for something off my own back that was a bit more unusual than the flower shots we maybe use to and I came across an article on a guy called  Alexander James over at Design Boom . Alexander has taken things a step further by developing a technique for removing the pigment from the flower and replacing it with purified water so the flower continues to live. He then photographs them under water and presents them without any post production work and you can see the detail in the fibres and texture is quite stunning. 

                                         

                    Getting back to my own studio work with flowers, it should be taken into consideration that whilst still fresh they contain water and water transmits light, so with this in mind it is recommended the first light comes from behind to make it look delicate. The opposite could be said for dead flowers as they tend be shot primarily from the front to add drama. To add texture to live flowers you can use something like silver foil card as a reflector to bounce a gentle light back onto the front of the flower to produce texture but bare in mind that bunches of flowers can be harder to photograph as they produce more shadows. If you were choosing to lose the delicate touch and go for something more sombre you could use gold as a reflector when the bunch are being lit from the front.
                   The reality of photographing flowers, as with anything else, is that there are plenty of different ways to explore your subject and the bottom line is it all comes down to you and your willingness to experiment. My first attempts at flowers were something of a rushed affair as you can see from the example below. I'd thought very little about composition and when I tried to introduce additional props it was more a case of just getting something to show than something to be proud of.         

                              

                        As you can probably see it's something of a neither here nor there kind of shot, with very little attention to detail. The lighting does nothing to bring out the detail of the pink flower and the lack of definition in the white flower could possibly have been amended by use of some card to send some detail back onto it. I knew this wasn't going to be good enough as a final submission so I decided to reshoot the the whole floral thing using the lighting set up below..... 

                                       
                            ....and even though I shot numerous different types of flora and fauna I think the tulip in the glass with the delicate hint of texture in the petals is by far a stronger image and I opted for the sophistication of black and white via the a gradient layer over the colour option as my final submission.