Silhouette photography

Photography studio: setups, good and bad photo outcomes - 
Using the photography studio with the 3 light key setup, I have taken photographs for the 'fellowship' and 'culture' themes within my book.


Lower aperture - more light
Higher aperture - less light

Beginning silhouette photography, the setup included a chair and a light box, set to the highest setting of 6 as I did not want any details of the model to be visible, only the outline. The camera settings included a high ISO and low aperture, and vivid colour. The results are as shown.



Initially, I found that the models face was still visible and the whole photograph held bright exposure, though a desired white background. Photographing this, I realised the camera settings must be adjusted to monochrome. At this current moment I did not change the ISO or aperture, and photographed again.










As this result was not successful, I proceeded to change the aperture to a higher amount allowing less light through the lens, along with the shutter speed around 1/8  and an ISO of 100. I also found that the model was too close to the light box and had to be moved forward. The results include more of the models outline without the features in a darker, silhouette manner though a blurry, dragged out exposure, I found this was due to the low ISO and shutter speed.



Further developing and attempting to get my desired images, I increased the ISO to 250+ (under 500) and increased the shutter speed by 2-3 fractions.  Certain details of the model are more visible than the previous picture, such as the reflection on the glasses. The aperture remained low, this being a possible reason for the pictures slight blurriness. Though the case, I found these settings most suitable for the silhouette and continued to photograph with the same settings.











The low aperture, f6 and below, allowed shallow depth of field in the photograph of the glasses, giving the desired result of glasses in clarity, however, I had some issues with wanting a bigger background. Reflecting back, I realise I could have used two light boxes to create the wider backdrop.





On location with silhouette, I had photographed for the fellowship theme whilst practising heavily with white balance -









Direct sunlight - golden, sunny colour
Photographing mostly with a direct sunlight white balance due to the outdoor environment, I found that the golden sunlight reflected well, and fully portrays the time of day that the photograph was taken. It provides a sense of warm feeling, like a summers evening.


Incandescent - blue, sky colour
After photographing with the sunlight white balance, I felt that the vibrance may be too high and wanted to view the difference if changed settings. The blue, more grey type vibe from selecting incandescent contrasts with the sunset and meaning behind the photograph, this being a female figure holding a rose representing emotions associated with fellowship and love. Incandescent WB may be used in settings suited more to a capturing blue sky environment at midday, or create a vibe in contrast to meanings I have behind these taken photographs.

Whilst experimenting more with the lighting, for the meanings behind my theme further props and symbolisation's were photographed - the glasses, rose, hands, etc.  Photographing in vivid with the direct sunlight white balance filtration provided the light-box to be an yellow, vintage paper colour. Intentions of this included integument as to how the backdrop colour could be changed in Photoshop.


Finalising adjustments of the studio lights and camera settings, there has been successful results following silhouette photography. Shooting on manual throughout, for experimental purposes I changed settings to auto flash, however this did not work and was too bright, therefore continuation of shooting on manual and manual focus. Concluding, I feel I still require help understanding shutter speeds affect with ISO, however my knowledge of ISO and aperture, with depth of field and some white balance filtration has improved in comparison to the beginning of the year and the first time photographing, both in the studio and understanding filtration (WB) on location.