Work Diary - Shoot 7: Gel Lighting Portraiture

Evaluation 

In this shoot I decided I wanted to practice with gel lighting, so therefore had to use 2 honeycomb-dish lights, pointing at the back of my subject, as well as a beauty dish and a soft box pointing towards the front of the subject. I then had to use 'gels' which I clipped onto the honeycomb dishes, in order to create coloured lighting. I used colours such as red, blue, yellow and pink to signify anger, sadness, happiness and relaxation. I wanted to experiment using colours to depict the mood of my subject, so I reflected the coloured lighting on to a model, and asked the model to create an expression which suited the colour; for instance, look sad with the blue lighting. My camera was set to F11, shutter speed of 1/125 and an ISO 100. Here is a lighting diagram of the studio that I set up: 

In this image you can see where the honeycomb dish lights were positioned, as well as the soft box and the beauty dish. 

This shoot was very successful and I enjoyed experimenting with the different lighting technique. I also furthered the emotion side of portraiture into my next shoot, but this time without the gels.

In this shot, I asked my model to look directly into the camera with straight face, and I used a pink gel over the right honeycomb dish. In order to catch the pink lighting in the background as well as reflecting off of the models hair, I positioned my camera so that the lens slightly caught the light in the frame, making the colour dispose between the background and the model. I liked this technique because it made the lighting look like a spotlight, and also made the colour more defined. I liked using pink with a female model as it presents a calming emotion, due to the lighting being very soft and gentle which also relates to femininity. 

I also shot a few 'happy' photos using the colour pink and yellow lighting. However, I do not think these came out as good as the black backdrop images did, as I think the colours reflect better with a black background, as they stand out more. Despite this, I do believe that this image depicts happiness as the yellow light is shining along her face, towards her smile, which connotes radiance and shine. I also think the pink lighting adds a feminine touch once again. 

Progression 

For my next shoot, I plan to use the same concept, but without the gel lighting. This is because I want to experiment with High Key Lighting and dark, shadowy lighting, which will represent happiness and sadness. This again will be in the studio, and I plan to use this shoot as a stepping-stone that will make the next one even better.