STUDIO PHOTOGRAPHY

Studio photography is the photograph which is taken in a studio. A studio can be described as an enclosed space where photographs are taken.

There are certain equipment which can be found in a typical studio which are:

BACKGROUND

A photographic background is normally placed behind the subject during a photo shoot. The background is usually selected to match the mood and intension of the selected theme of photograph.

TYPES OF PHOTOGRAPHY BACKGROUND

There are mainly two types of photography background;

·       Paper/ Seamless background: Paper background is made of heavy durable paper. They are also called seamless background because they create a seamless effect, which means they show little or no wrinkle.

Paper background normally come in various lengths and is chosen depending on the space available (6ft, 9ft, 12ft, 18ft etc.). Paper background is heavy and requires special care and maintenance e.g., they cannot be stores horizontally because they tend to bend in the core.

To hang paper background for use, either a background holder or a wall bracket is required.

Seamless paper background is available in a wide range of single colour with the most famous ones being white, grey and black.

·       Fabric background: Fabric background is the type of background with is made of either cotton or muslin fabric. They are best known for creating textured background.

Unlike seamless background, fabric background does not usually create seamless effect, (this does not mean that it cannot be done but it is a lot harder to create a seamless effect with fabric because of their soft nature). Fabric background is a lot more versatile and easy to maintain compared to seamless paper background, they can be hung from background stands or just pinned up against the wall.

Fabric backgrounds usually come in various colours and can be dyed with different colour to create different effects.

PAPER VS FABRIC BACKGROUND

Paper	Fabric
Creates a seamless background	Creates a more textured background
Requires more attention and care to maintain	It is relatively easy to maintain
Is only available in single colours	Colours can be mixed together to create more variety
It is relatively expensive to purchase	It is cheap as a simple bed sheet can be used
It is not portable hence why it is mainly used in a studio environment	Can be folded for easier mobility and portability
It is a lot easier to achieve an evenly lit background	It is a lot harder to achieve an evenly lit background
Creates a clean and professional look	Because it is harder to achieve a seamless effect, amateur photographers find it harder to get a professional result.

STANDS

Studio stands are used to hold photography equipment. There are different types of studio stand which all have their individual function for example;

·       Light stand: these are used to hold studio lights

·       Background stand: these are used in holding up studio background

·       Reflector stands: These are also known as reflector holder, and are used in holding up studio reflectors

·       Tripod: this is used in holding the camera. A tripod is one of the most important equipment especially for taking product shots. It can be used both inside and outside the studio and is used outside for long exposure shots in order to eliminate camera shake.

In purchasing or choosing a tripod, several factors has to be considered in order for it to do its job (eliminate camera shake). These factors are

1.   The weight of the camera: the heavier the camera, the more weight the tripod has to handle. Buying a tripod that cannot take the weight of your camera would be of no effect as any slight movement would cause camera shake

2.   The material of the tripod: this is mainly for duration purpose as a cheap plastic tripod would be rather useless when it comes in collision with wind or fall on the floor. Most professional tripods are made of carbon fibre, aluminium, and metal of course the latter being the heaviest.

More professional tripods can be purchased as head and legs separately as this gives the photographer the choice to buy either the head and legs depending on the type of photography it will be used for and the budget of the photographer.

There are different types of tripod head

1.   Gymbial tripod head

2.   Ball head

3.   Pan and tilt head.

LIGHT MODIFIERS

A light modifier attaches to studio lights and produce certain effect on the image depending on the type and style of photograph that would be taken.

There numerous types of light modifiers, too many to mention so I`ll just list the characteristics and uses of some of the most common ones.

·       Softbox: Just as the name implies, a softbox is a piece of equipment that attaches in front of a studio light and diffuses the light, making it less harder and giving more control compared to using a bare studio light.

There are various types and sizes of soft box with each used by the photographer depending on the effect to be achieved in the photograph. Some of the most commonly used soft boxes are;

·       Rectangular softbox: This is a rectangular shaped softbox with a diffuser in front of it that diffuses the light. A standard rectangular soft box is approximately 24x16 inches and they go bigger

·       Square softbox: This type of softbox is very similar to the rectangular softbox except that it is square in shape

·       Octabox: Unlike the rectangular and square softboxes, the octabox or octagonal softbox id an 8-sided shaped soft box with a diffuser in front to difuss the light (some has one inner and outer diffuser). The octabox are usually larger than the conventional softboxes with the smallest starting at around 3ft in diameter. Octaboxes are generally used in creating a softer lighting effect due to their larger sizes. 

 

·       Barn doors: Barn doors are equipment which looks like a 4 way door ( 2horizontal and 2 vertical). They are used in restricting the direction of light in order to avoid light hitting where it is not needed or wanted.

 

·       Snoots, gobos, flags, and grids: These are equipment that help direct or restrict light specifically to where it is needed.

  

Reflectors: These are used to reflect/bounce light towards a desired area of an image (usually to brighten up the shadows). They can also be used to diffuse light with their translucent material

 

Lights are the most important aspect of photography because without light, it would be impossible to take a photograph. Studio lights are the lights that are used in a studio environment. Due to the fact that a studio is usually an enclosed apace, the level of light is usually low which makes artificial (studio) lights important equipment.

The advantages of studio lights over day (ambient) light is that studio light gives the photographer the ability to control the amount, direction, and intensity of light that is hitting the subject.

TYPES OF STUDIO LIGHT

There are two types of studio light;

·       Strobe/Flash Light: Strobe lights, commonly known as flash lights are the type of lights that fire only for a brief second, usually 1/700 of a second. They are very bright, powerful, and often made to match the colour white.

Strobe lights comes in two different forms; Flash gun and strobe heads (monobloc)

Flash guns are small compact strobes which are battery operated and can be used both inside and outside studio due to their portability. They are very fast and can flash as fast as 1/6400 of a second.

Studio strobes, also known as monoblocs are larger flashes and needs a direct power source in order to operate them (more advanced and expensive ones uses power packs or generators). They are a lot brighter than flashguns but do not flast as fast as flash guns. Typical monoblocs usually flash at durations of 1/1000 of a second.

Due to the size and weight of monoblocs, they have to be on a light stand.

Although both strobes are useful in their own way, they also have their pros and cons.

FLASH GUN

ADVANTAGES	DISADVANTAGES
They are portable, light  and comact which make them easy for location shoots	They use a lot of battery power, which can in time be costly
They do not require a direct power source which makes it cheaper to maintain	They are do not have a very high power intensity which makes their usage limited
They are relatively cheap to purchase	They do not have a large variety of modifiers available
They have a very fast flash duration which makes them perfect for high speed photography	Cheaper ones are not very durable and reliable
They can be mounted on the camera for direct use and may not require a light stand	Off brands usually cannot be used on camera.
	They do not have modelling light, which makes it more difficult for the camera to focus on the subject in poorly lit environment

 

STUDIO STROBES (MONOBLOCS)

 

 

Advantages	Disadvantages
They are very powerful and can be used for a variety of shoots	They can be heavy which makes the purchase of alight stands a necessity
They have a large range of modifiers available to use	They can be very expensive, and cheaper ones tend to disappoint a lot
They are more durable and consistent	They have a very high wattage which makes the risks of electric shock more of a concern
Because they use direct power source, they are less likely to fail due to lack of power	They cannot be used outside where there is not direct power supply ( except the top range ones)
They are usually consistent in terms of flash output and white balance.	They are not portable and compact which makes them harder to use on location
More expensive packs usually have battery packs or generators which can be used on location shoots where direct power source is unavailable	They can add to the cost of electric bills due to their high wattage
They usually have modelling lights which makes it easy for the camera to focus on the subject. The modelling light also aids in giving the photographer an estimate of the direction of light without having to guess.

 

TUNGSTEN/HALOGEN LIGHTS

Tungsten lights (hot lights) are lamp that uses a tungsten filament. These are filament lights with similar characteristics as a domestic table lamp in a house, but usually a lot bigger and brighter with some having as big as 20,000 watts.

Colour balance: Nominally 3200K although it can vary, usually downwards towards 3000K

Advantages: Cheap to purchase and uncomplicated; like a household light, they plug directly into the mains so there is no need for an additional ballast . They comes in many fixture designs, some of which are very controllable. One of the most relevant ones available on the market today is the Dedolight, which also gets over many of the disadvantages such as short bulb life, long term costs, heat and inefficiency, while also providing astonishing lighting control, quality and flexibility.

Disadvantages: Hot to work with as barn doors get really hot. Because of their heat they can turn your environment into a sauna very quickly, which can make life very uncomfortable for the models, make-up artists and crew as the heat causes foreheads to sweat. If shooting food, the excess heat can cause it to melt. Bulb life can be disappointingly short, and they are often expensive bulbs, and it all adds up to a very expensive long term purchase. Because it has a colour temperature of 3200K, when it needs to be used in daylight, a colour correction filter is required and up to half the light output is lost when you need it the most. Inefficient, Lumen-Per-Watt; this is the least efficient technology on the market today.

TYPES OF PHOTOGRAPHY STYLES/TECHNIQUES

Portrait photography or portraiture is a photo of a person or group of people that displays the expression, personality, and mood of the subject. Like other types of portraiture, the focus of the photograph is usually the person's face, although the entire body and the background may be included.

Portrait photography has been around since the invention and popularization of the camera. The relatively low cost of the daguerreotype in the middle of the 19th century led to its popularity for portraiture. The style of these early works reflected the technical challenges associated with long exposure times and the painterly aesthetic of the time. Subjects were generally seated against plain backgrounds and lit with the soft light of an overhead window and whatever else could be reflected with mirrors. Advances in photographic equipment and techniques developed, gave photographers the ability to capture images with shorter exposure times and allowed photographers to take portrait outside of a studio.

LIGHTING USED IN PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

When portrait photographs are composed and captured in a studio, the photographer has control over the lighting of the composition of the subject and can adjust direction and intensity. There are many ways to light a subject's face, but there are several common lighting plans which are easy enough to describe. Examples of these are:

Three-Point Lighting

One of the most basic lighting plans is called three-point lighting. This plan uses three lights to fully model the subject's features. The three main lights used in this light plan are as follows:

The Key light

Also called a main light, the key light is usually placed to one side of the subject's face, between 30 and 60 degrees off centre and a bit higher than eye level. The key light is the brightest light in the lighting plan.

The Fill light

Placed opposite the key light, the fill light fills in or softens the shadows on the opposite side of the face. The brightness of the fill light is usually between 1/3 and 1/4 that of the key light. This is expressed as a ratio as in 3:1 or 4:1. When the ratio is 3:1 this is sometimes called Kodak lighting since this was the ratio suggested by Kodak in the instructional booklets accompanying the company's early cameras.

The purpose of these two lights is to mimic the natural light created by placing a subject in a room near a window. The daylight falling on the subject through the window is the Key light and the Fill light is reflected light coming from the walls of the room. This type of lighting can be found in the works of hundreds of classical painters and early photographers and is often called Rembrandt lighting.

The Back light

Also called a rim light or hair light, the rim light (the third main light in the three-point lighting plan) is placed behind the subject, out of the picture frame, and often rather higher than the Key light or Fill. The point of the rim light is to provide separation from the background by highlighting the subject's shoulders and hair. The rim light should be just bright enough to provide separation from the background, but not as bright as the key light.

Sometimes the rim light is set just off to the side, on the fill light side. This can add edge detail to the shadowed side of your model's face. This can add the effect of having a kicker light using only the three basis lights of three point lighting.

Butterfly lighting

Butterfly lighting uses only two lights. The Key light is placed directly in front of the subject, often above the camera or slightly to one side, and a bit higher than is common for a three-point lighting plan. The second light is a rim light. Often a reflector is placed below the subject's face to provide fill light and soften shadows.

This lighting can be recognized by the strong light falling on the forehead, the bridge of the nose and the upper cheeks, and by the distinct shadow below the nose which often looks rather like a butterfly and thus provides the name for this lighting plan. Butterfly lighting was a favourite of famed Hollywood portraitist George Hurrell which is why this style of lighting is often called Paramount lighting.

Portraiture Approach

There are essentially four approaches that can be taken in photographic portraiture — the constructionist, environmental, candid and creative approaches. Each approach has been used over time for different reasons, which can be technical, artistic or cultural. The constructionist approach is when the photographer in their portraiture constructs an idea around the portrait  happy family, romantic couple, trustworthy executive. It is the approach used in most studio and social photography. It is also used extensively in advertising and marketing when an idea has to be put across. The environmental approach depicts the subject in their environment be that a work, leisure, social or family one. They are often shown as doing something, a teacher in a classroom, an artist in a studio, a child in a playground. With the environmental approach more is revealed about the subject. Environmental pictures can have good historical and social significance as primary sources of information. The candid approach is where people are photographed without their knowledge going about their daily business. Whilst this approach taken by the paparazzi is criticized and frowned upon for obvious reasons, less invasive and exploitative candid photography has given the world superb and important images of people in various situations and places over the last century. The images of Parisians by Doisneau and Cartier-Bresson to name but two, demonstrate this. As with environmental photography, candid photography is important as a historical source of information about people. The Creative Approach is where digital manipulation (and formerly darkroom manipulation) is brought to bear to produce wonderful pictures of people. It is becoming a major form of portraiture as these techniques become more widely understood and used.

Lenses

Lenses used in portrait photography are classically fast, medium telephoto lenses, though any lens may be used, depending on artistic purposes. See Canon EF Portrait Lenses for Canon lenses in this style; other manufacturers feature similar ranges. The first dedicated portrait lens was the Petzval lens developed in 1840 by Joseph Petzval. It had a relatively narrow field of view of 30 degrees, a focal length of 150mm, and a fast f-number in the f/3.3-3.7 range.

Classic focal length is in the range 80–135mm on 135 film format and about 150-400mm on large format, which historically is first in photography. Such a field of view provides a flattering perspective distortion when the subject is framed to include their head and shoulders. Wider angle lenses (shorter focal length) require that the portrait be taken from closer (for an equivalent field size), and the resulting perspective distortion yields a relatively larger nose and smaller ears, which is considered unflattering and imp-like. Wide-angle lenses – or even fisheye lenses – may be used for artistic effect, especially to produce a grotesque image. Conversely, longer focal lengths yield greater flattening because they are used from further away. This makes communication difficult and reduces rapport. They may be used, however, particularly in fashion photography, but longer lengths require a loudspeaker or walkie-talkie to communicate with the model or assistants.[3] In this range, the difference in perspective distortion between 85mm and 135mm is rather subtle; see (Castleman 2007) for examples and analysis.

Speed-wise, fast lenses (wide aperture) are preferred, as these allow shallow depth of field (blurring the background), which helps isolate the subject from the background and focus attention on them. This is particularly useful in the field, where one does not have a back drop behind the subject, and the background may be distracting. The details of bokeh in the resulting blur are accordingly also a consideration. However, extremely wide apertures are less frequently used, because they have a very shallow depth of field and thus the subject's face will not be completely in focus.[4] Thus, f/1.8 or f/2 is usually the maximum aperture used; f/1.2 or f/1.4 may be used, but the resulting defocus may be considered a special effect – the eyes will be sharp, but the ears and nose will be soft.

Conversely, in environmental portraits, where the subject is shown in their environment, rather than isolated from it, background blur is less desirable and may be undesirable, and wider angle lenses may be used to show more context.

Finally, soft focus (spherical aberration) is sometimes a desired effect, particularly in glamour photography where the "gauzy" look may be considered flattering. The Canon EF 135mm f/2.8 with Softfocus is an example of a lens designed with a controllable amount of soft focus.

Most often a prime lens will be used, both because the zoom is not necessary for posed shots (and primes are lighter, cheaper, faster, and higher quality), and because zoom lenses can introduce highly unflattering geometric distortion (barrel distortion or pincushion distortion). However, zoom lenses may be used, particularly in candid shots or to encourage creative framing.

Portrait lenses are often relatively inexpensive, because they can be built simply, and are close to the normal range. The cheapest portrait lenses are normal lenses (50mm), used on a cropped sensor. For example, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II is the least expensive Canon lens, but when used on a 1.6× cropped sensor yields an 80mm equivalent focal length, which is at the wide end of portrait lenses.

EXAMPLES OF TOP PORTRAIT LENSES

 


IMAGES I`VE TAKEN IN THE STUDIO

 

This image of Ashleigh was taken in my home studio. This was shot at 1/200th of a second at F/16 and ISO 100. 

The lighting of the image is a beauty dish attached to a Bowens 500 flash head on a boom stand. A reflector was placed below the models face to reflect light back to the face and to eliminate shadows. 

I like the beauty dish because it creates a unique lighting effect as it is neither hard nor soft and it is also selective and can be controlled easily. 

Below is the picture of the lighting used in this shoot.

The two umbrellas act as side light to illuminate the side of the models face.

The image above was taken in a studio and a simple setup was used. The image was taken against a white background which was extended to cover the floor. 

The camera setting was: 1/125th of a second at F/10 and ISO100

The lighting was a 5ft octabox on a bowens 500 flash set to full power and at a distance of about 15ft from the model. The model was close to the background which helps to create the high key effect. The Inverse square law had a major part in achieving this image. 

The flash was also set on a boom stand and was above the model inorder to cast the shadow downwards.