Portrait photography is photography of a person or more people that displays the expression, personality and moods. Like other types of portraiture, the focus is the person's face, although the body , the background or context may be included.
Portrait photographs have been made since the invention of the photo- camera. The relatively low cost of the daguerreotype in the middle of the 19th century and the reduced sitting time for the subject, led to a rise in the popularity of portrait photography over painted portraiture. The style of the early works reflected the technical challenges combined with long exposure times and the painterly aesthetic of the time. Subjects were seated against plain backgrounds and lit with the soft light of an overhead window. Advances in photographic equipment and techniques developed gave photographers the ability to capture images with shorter exposure times.Than came the making of portraits outside the studio.
Dr. Frederich Wolfert , German dirigible engineer
When portrait photographs are captured in a studio, the photographer has control over the lighting of the composition. He can adjust direction and intensity of light. There are are several main lighting plans which are enough to describe.
Three-point lighting
One of the basic lighting plans is called three-point lighting. This plan uses three (also four) lights to fully model. This bring out details and the three-dimensionality of the subject's features. The three main lights used in this light plan are :
Three- point lighting
Key light
Other named - Main light , the Key light is usually placed to one side of the subject's face.It must be between 30 and 60 degrees off center and a bit higher than eye level. The purpose of the Key-Light is to give shape to a subject. This relies on the first principle of lighting - white comes out of a plane and black goes back into a plane. The depth of shadows created by the Main-Light can be controlled with a Fill-Light.
Fill-light
In modern photography, the Fill-light is used to control the contrast in the scene and is nearly always placed above the lens axis and is a large light source (think of the sky behind your head when taking a photograph). As the amount of light is less than the key-light (main-light), the fill acts by lifting the shadows only (particularly relevant in digital photography where the noise lives in the shadows). It is true to say that light bounces around a room and fills in the shadows but this does not mean that a fill-light should be placed opposite a key-light (main-light) and it does not soften shadows, it lifts them. The relative intensity (ratio) of the Key-light to the fill-light is most easily discussed in terms of "Stops" difference (where a Stop is a doubling or halving of the intensity of light). A 2 Stop reduction in intensity for the Fill-Light would be a typical start point to maintain dimensionality (modelling) in a portrait (head and shoulder) shot.
Fill light placement
Today in photography the Fill-light is used to control the contrast in the scene and is nearly always placed above the lens axis. It is a large light source ( the light behind your head ). As the amount of light is less than the Key-light (Main-light), the Fill acts by lifting the shadows only (important relevant in digital photography - the noise lives in the shadows). It is true to say that light bounces around a room and fills in the shadows but this doesnt mean that a Fill-light should be placed opposite a Key-light and it doesn't soften shadows, it lifts them.
Back light
Background lights arent so much a part of the portrait lighting plan. It designed to provide illumination for the background behind the subject. Back lights can pick out details in the background, provide a halo effect by illuminating a portion of a backdrop behind the subject's head, or turn the background pure white by filling it with light.
Back li
Portrait photographs have been made since the invention of the photo- camera. The relatively low cost of the daguerreotype in the middle of the 19th century and the reduced sitting time for the subject, led to a rise in the popularity of portrait photography over painted portraiture. The style of the early works reflected the technical challenges combined with long exposure times and the painterly aesthetic of the time. Subjects were seated against plain backgrounds and lit with the soft light of an overhead window. Advances in photographic equipment and techniques developed gave photographers the ability to capture images with shorter exposure times.Than came the making of portraits outside the studio.
Dr. Frederich Wolfert , German dirigible engineer
When portrait photographs are captured in a studio, the photographer has control over the lighting of the composition. He can adjust direction and intensity of light. There are are several main lighting plans which are enough to describe.
Three-point lighting
One of the basic lighting plans is called three-point lighting. This plan uses three (also four) lights to fully model. This bring out details and the three-dimensionality of the subject's features. The three main lights used in this light plan are :
Three- point lighting
Key light
Other named - Main light , the Key light is usually placed to one side of the subject's face.It must be between 30 and 60 degrees off center and a bit higher than eye level. The purpose of the Key-Light is to give shape to a subject. This relies on the first principle of lighting - white comes out of a plane and black goes back into a plane. The depth of shadows created by the Main-Light can be controlled with a Fill-Light.
Fill-light
In modern photography, the Fill-light is used to control the contrast in the scene and is nearly always placed above the lens axis and is a large light source (think of the sky behind your head when taking a photograph). As the amount of light is less than the key-light (main-light), the fill acts by lifting the shadows only (particularly relevant in digital photography where the noise lives in the shadows). It is true to say that light bounces around a room and fills in the shadows but this does not mean that a fill-light should be placed opposite a key-light (main-light) and it does not soften shadows, it lifts them. The relative intensity (ratio) of the Key-light to the fill-light is most easily discussed in terms of "Stops" difference (where a Stop is a doubling or halving of the intensity of light). A 2 Stop reduction in intensity for the Fill-Light would be a typical start point to maintain dimensionality (modelling) in a portrait (head and shoulder) shot.
Fill light placement
Today in photography the Fill-light is used to control the contrast in the scene and is nearly always placed above the lens axis. It is a large light source ( the light behind your head ). As the amount of light is less than the Key-light (Main-light), the Fill acts by lifting the shadows only (important relevant in digital photography - the noise lives in the shadows). It is true to say that light bounces around a room and fills in the shadows but this doesnt mean that a Fill-light should be placed opposite a Key-light and it doesn't soften shadows, it lifts them.
Back light
Background lights arent so much a part of the portrait lighting plan. It designed to provide illumination for the background behind the subject. Back lights can pick out details in the background, provide a halo effect by illuminating a portion of a backdrop behind the subject's head, or turn the background pure white by filling it with light.
Back li
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