Studio Time

For this terms project we are getting introduced the equipment in the Uni's studio rooms, then being split into two groups within our class and working together to create portraits of each other using a Hasselblad camera with a Phase One digital back rather than shooting film.

We will be sending photographs to be professionally printed at the end of the project so I cant wait to see how those are going to turn out.

After getting shown into to the studio we went through how to safely set up lights and health and safety measures in the studio :

• tape down wires, so nobody trips over
• set up the light so the flash is facing a leg, this means it is sturdier
• no food or drinks in the studio, incase of spillages
• take the cap off the light before switching it on, the cap will melt within 10 secs
• wait for the lights to cool down before replacing lights cap, same as above
• turn to the lowest flash power and discharge all energy before turning off
• do not leave flashlights without some sort of cover or attachment on them, if people knock them there is less chance of the bulb breaking
• wrap the power cable around the bottom of the tripod, if the wire is pulled it will pull the tripod not the light
• when changing the light fittings ensure they are properly dis/connected 
• ensure the electrical equipment is PAT tested 

There are also some general tips to working with models in the studio as well :

• use model release forms
• inform them of exits and fire drills
• be careful of what might hurt the model, certain poses may only be achieved for a certain amount of time and costumes may be heavy, help the model anyway possible

We have been shown different lighting style set ups such as frontal, glamour, rembrandt and slight side and asked to create them ourselves, I took photographs using each set up however between shooting and transferring them over to my student account I have lost the Capture One session details so I am unable to open them.

Paintings

To start my research I am going to look at painting because photography is an evolution of paintings and many of the lighting setups we use now had been used in paintings beforehand. Painters would typically use windows at the side of their models to generate the light, such as in Jan van Eycks " The Arnolfini Portrait " this is why we now use the flash light at the side of model to recreate this effect.

Jan Van Eyck - " The Arnolfini Portrait "

Van Gogh also used side lighting in his work, although this could be from many different light sources as most of his work is close ups of the models, I can see the line down the side of the nose where the shadows start.

Head of a woman with her hair loose

Another style of lighting developed from paintings is the slight side lighting seen in Vermeer's " Girl with the pearl earring " and Leonardo Da Vinci's " Mona Lisa "

 

Mona Lisa

Girl with the pearl earring

Now the hardest part is deciding on a theme for my photographs, hmmmm....