Low key lighting workshop

What is low key lighting?

It is a lighting effect that uses a hard light source to enhance shadows in your scene. Unlike high key lighting (in which shadows are minimized), low key lighting is about shadows and contrast.

In these photographs a Gobo has been used and i was the model. A Gobo is placed between the light source and the subject of the image, this then will create a shadow of what has been used as in some of the shots we used a netting and in the images you can the individual holes in it.

In these images we used the Gobo and a red coloured gel. The gels are transparent sheets that change the colour of the light source. It was hard to get the gobo over the red gel as the light wasn't bright enough to see the shadow on so half of the image we used a gobo and the other half was the coloured gel.

In these images we used a battery powered tea light candle and then used a starburst lense on the camera. the lense had a grid faintly engraved on it and created this effect . the light shining off of the candle followed the grid and created this star effect.

This final task was on light painting. To do this we got the camera set on manual and put it on a tripod to keep the camera steady. Then you reduce the shutter speed so it takes longer to capture all of the movement, once you have done that you need to get a light source to paint a scene. Once the capture button is pressed you move the light source around continuously like the shutter closes. To get the best results you have to create large movement so then the light will pain the scene more clearly.