Garry Edwards
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Chiaroscuro (from the Italian for light and dark) is a simple but very effective lighting approach that has been used by painters for centuries. It creates the closest thing we can get to a 3-D image in a 2-D medium, and of course it can also be combined with other lighting techniques and with selective focus. Basically, it just involves lighting one side of the subject only, and lighting the opposite side of the background only, so that we have the light side of the subject against the dark side of the background, and vice versa. So, in principle, it’s as simple as this computer graphic, but it can also be as complex as we want or need it to be.
I’ve written about it before, starting here and going into a fair amount of detail https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/chiaroscuro-lighting.139/
But, for this lighting challenge, we’re going to use just one light
Is it even possible to do it with just one light? Yes it is, by taking advantage of the Inverse Square Law, which as you know causes light intensity to fall off over distance. The ISL can be both an enemy and a friend, and for this lighting challenge it’s a friend!
Why use a single light when it’s easier to use two? The answer is in the word CHALLENGE – use the ISL to do what seems to be impossible! The ISL is central to all creative lighting, it’s something that needs to be mastered as well as just understood, and it can only be mastered by usage.
I’ve just written a tutorial about the ISL here https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/the-magic-of-distance-aka-the-inverse-square-law.164/ and if you don’t understand its importance in lighting, reading through it should help you with this lighting challenge.
Before we get stuck in, a statement of the obvious – Chiaroscuro lighting is very popular as a portrait lighting technique, but it’s just as useful and effective with other subjects too, so photography whatever you have to hand.
Here’s a stepback shot, showing my most patient and reliable model
Ignore the Spitfire and the Lancaster, look at the background instead. Chroma green may not be an ideal choice, but it’s what I have.
It’s hard to show, but the background has been placed at an acute angle, so that the right-hand side is much closer to the mannequin subject than the left-hand side, better shown in this simple graphic
Take a look at this video, which shows how the angled background works
If we don’t angle the background and leave it square behind the subject, we get this, even though the background is very close to the subject, because nearly all of the light has fallen away over the distance between the subject and the background, our friend the ISL in action
But if we do angle it, we get this, because the ISL has left much more light falling on to the background on the right-hand side
These pop-up backgrounds are supposed to be flat and crease-free, but the problem that shouldn’t be there can be easily fixed in PP.
The lighting arrangement here is basically Rembrandt, and I was planning for this lighting challenge to be about Rembrandt lighting but as luck would have it we now have an interesting thread that explains Rembrandt lighting, so I didn’t need to bother. https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/creating-rembrandt-lighting-look-in-portraitiure.763231/
And finally, a couple of people have commented that these challenges are . . . challenging – that’s the whole idea But if this one is too challenging and doesn’t attract enough participation then I’ll take the hint and stop them.
I’ve written about it before, starting here and going into a fair amount of detail https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/chiaroscuro-lighting.139/
But, for this lighting challenge, we’re going to use just one light
Is it even possible to do it with just one light? Yes it is, by taking advantage of the Inverse Square Law, which as you know causes light intensity to fall off over distance. The ISL can be both an enemy and a friend, and for this lighting challenge it’s a friend!
Why use a single light when it’s easier to use two? The answer is in the word CHALLENGE – use the ISL to do what seems to be impossible! The ISL is central to all creative lighting, it’s something that needs to be mastered as well as just understood, and it can only be mastered by usage.
I’ve just written a tutorial about the ISL here https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/tutorials/the-magic-of-distance-aka-the-inverse-square-law.164/ and if you don’t understand its importance in lighting, reading through it should help you with this lighting challenge.
Before we get stuck in, a statement of the obvious – Chiaroscuro lighting is very popular as a portrait lighting technique, but it’s just as useful and effective with other subjects too, so photography whatever you have to hand.
Here’s a stepback shot, showing my most patient and reliable model
Ignore the Spitfire and the Lancaster, look at the background instead. Chroma green may not be an ideal choice, but it’s what I have.
It’s hard to show, but the background has been placed at an acute angle, so that the right-hand side is much closer to the mannequin subject than the left-hand side, better shown in this simple graphic
Take a look at this video, which shows how the angled background works
If we don’t angle the background and leave it square behind the subject, we get this, even though the background is very close to the subject, because nearly all of the light has fallen away over the distance between the subject and the background, our friend the ISL in action
But if we do angle it, we get this, because the ISL has left much more light falling on to the background on the right-hand side
These pop-up backgrounds are supposed to be flat and crease-free, but the problem that shouldn’t be there can be easily fixed in PP.
The lighting arrangement here is basically Rembrandt, and I was planning for this lighting challenge to be about Rembrandt lighting but as luck would have it we now have an interesting thread that explains Rembrandt lighting, so I didn’t need to bother. https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/creating-rembrandt-lighting-look-in-portraitiure.763231/
And finally, a couple of people have commented that these challenges are . . . challenging – that’s the whole idea But if this one is too challenging and doesn’t attract enough participation then I’ll take the hint and stop them.
