Trychydts in English

V. and enrolled to a photo course focusing on studio photography. The first three lessons was about lighting. Earlier I had the opportunity to work in a studio once or twice. I never adjusted the light myself; but by assistant provided by the studio. Here we could learn everything from the basics; how to choose the key light, its direction, how to add more light sources. We also learned how to decorate the background.

Unfortunately, after these really logical and thorough explanations, we had relatively little time to put our own ideas into practice. We were divided into two groups, five or six people in each, and the group had twenty to thirty minutes to make photos of the model. This meant that usually we could rearrange the flashes only twice, and we made all our photos under the same conditions. So, after discussing what kind of lights we wanted to use, our creativity was limited to the composition and the instruction of the model(s). However, I am quite satisfied with two of my pictures. Not because I think they are terrifying shots: I am just glad that I was able to understand the point of this three courses. (Some girls, for example, obviously missed this point, and instead of focusing on the lights, they played star fashion photographers, styling the models’ hair for minutes, and putting them into ridiculous poses.)

On this photo, the key light was set up by myself. The hard light (coming through a cell grid) is coming from the left. The model is turning away from the light, putting most of her face into shadow. The hard lights emphasize the texture of her sweater. I sat her facing the back of the chair, which made the pose much more feminine — however, I cut the composition just below her waist, so (hopefully) it’s not vulgar at all. The light at the background is coming from just the opposite side as the key light, making the contrast much more definite.

On this picture we were running out of time, so I did not have the opportunity to change anything in the lighting (and for the record: they are far too soft for me). All I could do is to arrange the models. With this composition, I tried to put some stress on the differences between them. At first they kept smiling — I had a hard time convincing them to put on a bit more serious expression.