Technique - High Key Lighting

High Key Lighting 

Definition and Theory 

Soft box - a type of photographic lighting device. This light creates even and diffused light by transmitting light through some scattering material.

Key Light - The main light which is used within the studio setup.  

Studio Setup

The key light used is the soft box light which was placed in front of the model. The other two bowers mono-bloc lights used have light shaping attachments and they have been positioned behind the model. This is so that the light was not over powered on the models face. The lights were placed there to ensure that the background was very white and not discoloured. The camera and row tripod was set up in front of the soft box, with the model standing directly in front.

We measured the camera settings in two different places. Firstly we did this where the model was going to be standing. We then measured the camera settings in the centre of the two lights located behind the model. We did this because we wanted the f-stop in the second location to be about one stop higher than where the model was standing. This was because we wanted the background to be crisp and white and by having the lights on higher settings this is what we created.    

My Images 

Camera Settings and Equipment 

To create these images I used a shutter speed of 1/125 and an f-stop of 11. This was the camera settings that I gathered from measuring the settings where the model would be standing. When measuring the camera settings behind the model the f-stop that was identified was f/16. This is roughly one stop higher than the f-stop we used on our camera. I also used an ISO of 200 when taking each of these photos.

Evaluation  

The photos that I created were successful because I feel as though I managed to use the soft box light attachments to create soft, diffused lighting throughout the images. Something I feel could have been improved upon is that the lights located behind the model could have been on a slightly higher setting because the background of the images is not pure white. Although this is not a major issue I do feel as though this would have improved the overall look of the image and this would have been a simple thing to do when shooting in the studio. 

Progression

When progressing with my project I feel as though I could use this technique when photographing photos in a studio. This would be useful when wanting to take photos with diffused light. I feel as though using this type of lighting technique could be useful when looking at the shape and structure of flowers. This could be something I use in relation to Imogen Cunningham's photography.