Photography as Stage

I got this book out of the library at the beginning of the project because I found some interesting lighting styles in this book and some great ideas for my project, even if I don't use them for this project it will still be good to have to look back at.

(I took some images of ones I found that I thought could be useful but forgot about them until now) 

Jean Baptiste Huynh

A black background can always add dramatic effect and make the subject stand out, but sometimes details can be lost, this is not the case with these photographs as the background has been exposed differently (darker / lighter) to the model. There is quite an obvious side light set up to create shadows down only one half of the face, the light is on different sides of the models but typically it is set up on the left as we read from left to right so our eyes usually follow the same rule when viewing photographs, I am not saying that the light must always be on the left though, it all depends on what the subject and purpose of the photograph is.

Valerie Belin

The slight side light used in these helps draw the attention to the faces in addition to the models not wearing visible clothing. I like how they do not have direct eye contact as it makes me more interested in the photographs as I want to know what has captured their attention (even though I know it would have been the photographer posing them and they are not actually looking at anything else)

Luigi Gariglio

The photographer has used a slight side light for the first image, I think this is because it balances the image out as her hair is in her face on the opposite side. Whereas on the second image the model has not got long hair down the side of her face so the photographer has used a frontal light to equally light both sides of the face.

Robert Mapplethorpe

In this image the model is not looking at the camera and has her eyes closed, this gives me the impression she is dead as I cannot see the light reflections in her eyes which gives the viewer the impression she is alive. The lighting set up looks to be a frontal light with two black reflectors on either side.