Proper Studio Lighting

1:2 Lighting; 1/50 shutter speed, aperture 7.1

Camera 205 (Nikon D3100), zoom lens.

This is a simple shot with very simple lighting, but I like the way it looks anyway. It looks good because the model (Moira) is looking straight on at the camera with her body twisted slightly, which is a very flattering pose.I am proud of this shot because in it I got the light balance right, which is usually hard for me.

Strong lower right light; 1/70 shutter speed, aperture 7.1

Camera 205 (Nikon D3100), zoom lens.

I took this shot using a very strong light in the right bottom of the frame. This was to try to create interesting shadows and light patches. While since Moira's hair is very light in colour and therefore reflected a lot of light, causing part of this photo to be a bit overexposed, I was able to fix most over brightness in Photoshop. And anyway, the extremely light and more dark areas help make the contrast I was trying to create!

Strong back light; 1/50 shutter speed, aperture 7.1
Camera 205 (Nikon D3100), zoom lens.

For this picture I wanted to try to create a sort of "halo" effect around Moira's hair by placing a light directly behind her. The only other light in the photo was the light coming in from the door, making Moira's face very dark while her head is surrounded by light. This was hard to expose properly, but luckily I had Photoshop to help make up the difference of what I couldn't get quite right. I think it is cool how her hair sort of glows from behind. I like the effect this photo gives because it is very unique and unlike most portrait photographs. 

My inspiration for these shots was Richard Avedon's portraits, and the way he captures emotion by talking to his subjects and snapping pictures to capture the raw emotion on their faces. I tried to do something similar with emotion by talking to the person I was photographing. All these Photos were taken when Moria looked back at me during a conversation.I also tried to use this project to learn about different lighting and lighting techniques, so I started with simple lighting like 1:2, and then tried to improvise with the strong light under her face and behind her.