Portraiture: Process Journal

Introduction to Digital Photography 

I believe all writers have the passion to fall in love with words. We have this pride of composing a sentence or a paragraph that may not necessarily compile the pages of a thesaurus, but have the perfect composition at the perfect time to express the most imperative emotions. Because of that, I find myself challenging the pen in my hands to make a particular word work. But sometimes the word can be so incredibly awfounding that other words in our language will do it no justice.

                                                    "Chiaroscuro" 

This one particular word I came across in my high school film studies caught onto my tongue and I now slip it in at any opportunity I can. So when I found  out we were working with speedlights for our final assessment, that one word that has been pushing through my fingertips since I was 16 blurted it's way onto my keyboard as I planned the next shoot. I don't get to just use the word in a sentence, I get to actually experience it first hand.

Chiaroscuro lighting, in photography, is the effect of extreme low-key and high contrasting lighting together to create a dramatic yet simple effect.  I employed this technique while photographing my portraits as I wanted an emotional, dramatic photograph to convey an image of comparison which ties into my theme.

Nikon D5300 | 55mm-200mm | at 55mm 

ISO 100 | f 4 | 1/10 

Nikon D5300 | 55mm-200mm | at 55mm 

ISO 100 | f 4 | 1/10 

Analysis

The difficult part of achieving this technique was finding the correct placement of the camera, the speed light and the reflector. Once that was in position experimenting with different exposures tested my patience and the slightest adjustment to either ISO, Aperture or shutter speed dramatically changed the temperature of the lighting. Either that or I just wasn't doing it right. I later discovered the technique I had been using was called Rembrandt Lighting, this involves the positioning of the camera versus the flash, reflector and softbox. I used an example by Alexandria Huff posted for 500px ISO  to understand how this works. Once I had the equipment set up and test shots completed, it was all about capturing the emotion within the portrait.


The equipment used to achieve this image was a Nikon SB 800 Speedlight, reflector and off camera shoe cord. I tried to use an infra red transmitter for the speedlight however the devices wouldn't sync with each other creating poor lighting and wasting time. While attached to the off camera shoe cord the speedlight was stationed on a lighting stand pointing towards to subject's face while a reflector was hung on a reflector bracket directly opposite the subject, similar to the examples in Huff's article.

These images were shot in a dark room baring only minimal natural lighting to which the subject was positioned to take advantage of the extra light in order to achieve a chiaroscuro effect. The first image has a serious emotion, and the sweat in the crease of his eye adds something a little extra to the tone of the photograph.

The second image, still captured in the same environment holds a completely contrasted emotion as this was a test shot. I wanted to capture his eyes staring into the camera but with a warmer feel. The first image wouldn't have been able to express this correctly. This was so successful because the subject wasn't in a state of pose, or under pressure to achieve the perfect shot. He was relaxed, sitting back and bantering while I was testing the different exposures.

Both of these images share the same exposure settings of ISO 100,  f 4 and shutter speed of 1/10 as they were shot in the same lighting conditions. However it's the viewpoint that dramatically enhances each photo for different reasons. The first image, shot in black and white holds his head in the top of the image with his chest taking up over 2/3rds of this image, he is also looking away from the camera and is in a staunch upright position. This was done to assert dominance and show that he is of higher importance than anything else that could possibly happening around the frames of this image. The image was purposefully added to black and white to enhance this.

The second image, though unintentional, was left in colour to show the warm side to the subject. The contrasts between the individual images really shows his character and how he can be a strong man yet still show that playful side.

Overall I found the images somewhat successful in the approaches taken. They're not a harsh as typical chiaroscuro lighting however still met my expectations when I planned this assessment. The biggest testor was not only balancing for the correct exposure but also adding in a new factor. The Speedlight. However, I'm sure with practice maybe one day I will be able to follow on from the greats.

Exemplars  

Franços Mauriac Photographed by Yousif Karsh 

Unknown Photographed by Richard Avedon 

Bobby Fisher Photographed by Phillippe Halsman 

Inspiration 

The silhouetting in Karsh's image inspired me to experiment with harsh lighting. The photographer's use of lighting allows a viewer's eye to be drawn into the center of the subjects face by utilising the sliver of light. This is a really dynamic and intense image which I gathered much inspiration from.

Richard Avedon's image shows precise detail within his subjects face and enhances the portrait to see every strain on the mans face. I felt that this gave the image another dimension in showcasing an emotion.

Lastly, Bobby Fisher photographed by Phillippe Halsman heavily portrayed the chiaroscuro effect I was looking for.