This is a studio portrait of Tim Burton, taken by Nadav Kander. His style usually consists of head or ¾ shots, using coloured gel lighting, generally being of cool tones such as green and blue. In this case he has taken a half body shot, from the waist up, with a small amount of negative space above the subject’s head. The subject is central to the image, where the overall feel is very symmetrical. He has used two lighting sources to create the outcome. The lighting sources seem to be either side of the subject at a slight angle towards him and the background, with the right being stronger or closer. The light on the left seems to be projecting the cool toned filter, with the right light on his face seeming warmer and more golden, suggesting it doesn’t have a filter or gel.
In order to re-create this image, we sat the subject centrally. We used two lighting sources, which we were given to use. Both lights were LED, with one having barn doors. We decided to use the barn doors to the left as the original image shows a stronger light to the right. By closing the barn doors to let a stream of light out, we had more control over the positioning and how much light to let out. We also decided to use the filter to the left. The outcome was too strong, in contrast to the originals more subtle tones, so we used a black filter to layer it and take out some of the intense blue which improved it, but still left it too strong. The lighting on the left was positioned at the side at an angle in front of the subject. For the lighting to the right we positioned it at the right but more behind the model so that it didn’t project the central face too much.
I feel as if we did well in terms of the little accessibility to correct lighting we had, however there are many things I would change for a more accurate outcome, such as the blue tone being too strong and the background not being lit enough.
This image is of Woody Allen, taken by Irving Penn. The image is a black and white studio portrait, much like his other work. The image is a close cropped head shot of the subject sat at an angle. He is close to the subject, face on. It seems as if the image has been lit with 2 lighting sources, one in front with soft lighting (potentially a soft box) and one to the right side on, which seems to be a lot stronger, also lighting the back ground.
In order to recreate this image, we used a large soft box to the right of the subject. This allowed half of her face to bit lit quite harshly, creating the dramatic shadow on the left. Wer had to move the light quite alot in order to keep her left eye lit, without it being lost in the shadows. I feel as if we did well during this recreation, however we created more shadow towards the bottom of the image, which could have been avoided if we had a reflector, which, in this case, we didn’t have access to.
This image features The Kray twins in an iconic portrait, taken by David Bailey. The strong contrast and lighting of the image is featured in a lot of his studio work. He often uses white backgrounds as a way of making the subjects really pop in the image. He is stood central to the subjects in this image, creating a crop between 1/2 body and 3/4 length. The subjects have both been lit well, with one being in the background and not being dark, suggests a second light source has been used.
In order to recreate the image we also used two light sources. We used a large umbrella light above the subjects, to cast a wide even light, creating strong contrast on features such as the cheekbones. This also allowed the subject stood in the background to become correctly exposed. We also used a soft box to the right, lighting the background more to stop shadows being casted from the above light. I feel as if the outcome is similar to the original and we worked well with the resources avaliable.
Jodie Tovey PJD blog 