Studio Photography

Studio photography can simply be defined as photography done in a setting where the lighting is artificial and controlled (i.e. the opposite of location photography!). We investigated different styles in which studio photography is used (high key/low key, commercial, flowers etc.) and also familiarised ourselves with the different equipment.

Types of Lighting...

SNOOT... 

 

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Snoots help give small, very bright contrasting lights because the cone shape helps concentrate the light... à

This effect produces bright highlights and heavy shadows.





DEEP AND MID...




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This also produces a contrasting light however it is not as sharp as the snoot the light produced has a larger area.

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A mid is very similar to a deep fitting except the deep fitting is silver on the inside whereas the mid is matt therefore the deep reflects more giving more light. The light that the mid produces is more 'blended' i.e. there is not as definite an area as the deep fitting (decrease in intensity as you get closer to the edges)

BEAUTY DISH/SOFT LIGHT... 

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Beauty dishes (called a Soft Light in Britain) produce a large area of low intensity light. Similarly to the mid light the light blends around the edges. This very diffused light is a result of the smaller dish in the middle; the light hits it, is reflected onto the larger dish behind and again is reflected onto the subject, which is why the area is large but low in intensity.  

SOFT BOX... 

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Soft boxes produce a very large area of very low intensity light (the larger the soft box the larger the area of light...). Shadows are very week as are the highlights. They are perfect for lighting up larger subjects and give the opposite effect to the snoot (snoot=small, bright, concentrated and softbox=large, quite dull, diffused). You have to choose the pertinent size depending on your subject e.g. if you are doing a portrait of a persons face a small soft box will suffice however if you are doing a full body portrait a bigger soft box might be needed!!!