The highs and lows of studio key lighting and an inbetween!

We were given a new assignment from Bill today, it consists of three studio photography related tasks.

Task One: Three head shot portraits, HIGH KEY, MID KEY and LOW KEY. These portraits must be studio based and reflect the models persona.My final three images must be lab printed and no smaller than 6x9in

Task Two: Product photography. Several shots of products that are related to me and about who I am. They can be shot in either low key or high key or both. They have to reflect a particular aspect of my own persona. The final images have to be produced as jpeg for publication on the internet.

Task Three: I am to produce a series of four images that relate to one of the following themes- escape, love, insecurity, found, lost, time or place. The images can be in any key and in any subject.My final images must be in the form of four prints that work together as a series of images and should be a minimum of 6x9in

Task One

I completed this task in one day. The morning before, I devised a plan of what I would like to shoot for each image and what lighting and prop set up would be required.
My model was my daughter Sarah, we booked the studio for one hour and had all images complete within that time. I then did a few tweeks on the images and printed off as required.I have gone into more detail on how I achieved the finished images below:

HIGH KEY

High key is bright, vibrant and sharp so in this image I wanted to capture Sarahs fun cheeky side. I used a few props to help her relax and have some fun and she particularly enjoy trying to blow bubbles with the bubble gum. 

The two small softboxes were attached to the strobe lights on 1/2 power. As a fill light I used a large soft-box attached to a bowen 750. The main light source was a bowen 1100 with a beauty dish attached.

My camera was on 1/90 shutter speed, ISO 125, F16, focal length 75mm.

To finish off I opened in PS cs6 and added a black and white adjustment layer and unsharpen mask @50%

The composition of this image is almost central and full frame with just a slight area of negative space surrounding her. I cropped the image to a full head-shot to enhance the silly props and to allow the viewers to focus on Sarahs eyes which clearly sparkle with fun!!

 LOW KEY

 For the low key I wanted to bring across a dark mood. The set up was basic. With a black backdrop I positioned Sarah close to me and far away from the backdrop in order to create a decent falloff. 

With just one light, the bowen 1100 and a snoot I positioned it above her pointing down. To the left was a white reflector board to bounce a little light to ensure that side of her face wasn't in total darkness. My camera settings were fully manual with a 1/90 shutter speed, ISO 125, f.16

The only editing I did on this image was a crop and I used a tear brush to enhance Sarahs tears. I left the negative space at the top of the image to enhance Sarahs loneliness and isolation and the angle of the camera looking down on her also enhances this.

MID KEY

For the Mid Key image I wanted to portray Sarahs imaginative/romantic side. I had my assistant drop some feathers (left over prop) whilst Sarah was holding a bunch of spring flowers. To create the flat lighting I had two medium soft boxes attached to the flash lights, sat on tripods on wither side of Sarah at shoulder height. A white backdrop was used with Sarah positioned about three foot away. My camera settings were manual with a 1/90 shutter speed, ISO 125 and aperture set @ f16.

I cropped in photoshop and duplicated a few of the feathers to make it more symetrical . I purposely made this image bottom heavy with looking space at the top where the feathers are falling from and Sarah is looking. Overall I think the finished result is exactly what I was looking for. Calm, romantic and imaginative.

Conclusion

Overall, I think I completed this task with ease. I think it helped to plan the shoot beforehand with themes, poses and props, that way my mind was clear and I knew what I had to do to achieve the moods I wanted to portray with each KEY.

HIGH KEY = FUN. BRIGHT. SASSY. MODERN

LOW KEY = SAD. MOODY. ALONE

MID KEY = IMAGINATIVE, ROMANTIC. CALM

I would love your feedback so feel free to comment 

Lea x

NB: see next post for task two