Lighting Workshop

During our last Media Studies lesson of the year, we were asked to carry out an experiment to test the two most common methods of lighting used by two artists, Caravaggio and Tim Walker. The two methods of lighting are to be used for different lighting scenarios when shooting a film. Caravaggio's lighting is very low-key and is meant to combine realistic observations of the humans state, as well as their true emotions. This method of lighting can be particularly useful when it comes to shooting very low key lighting scenes. This technique was the one which Alex and I had used for our AS film last year.    

Below is an example of Caravaggio's lighting technique he used when painting:

The photos below are some example shots of the Caravaggio technique. We shot our photos in a dark room with the light source we used was a candlestick to help create the low-key effect we wanted. This effect was useful in highlighting the shapes of the model's faces. 

The next lighting technique we played around with was Tim Walker's lighting technique. Tim Walker uses lanterns to create a natural lighting effect on his models when he shoots his photographs. His technique helps to illuminate his settings better with high-key lighting as the lantern lighting creates a softer effect than the industry standard photography lights. 

This here is an example of how Tim Walker uses his lighting in his photographs:

Below are some example shots I took using Tim Walker's technique. 

After experimenting  with these lighting techniques, it has now given me a perspective as well as inspiration for how I we can create lighting for our short film sequences. One aspect of lighting Alex and I wish to improve on was the use of low-key lighting as I believe this technique was overused in our short film at AS. So this is something to keep in mind when we shoot our short film.