This shoot was taken purely to find out what type of lighting would be better when I comes to my final piece. When looking at modelling photographs that feature in magazines I find that the edges and detail are very eye catching however very soft. The model’s skin usually looks very airbrushed and soft looking. I wanted to see for myself what would work best, I could have just gone along with using a soft box without testing the outcomes. I feel it was best to find out for myself what lighting works best within a experimental shoot so that there is no last minute messing around in the final shoot. The same applies for any other technique and concepts that wanted to try before doing the final shoot.
By the end of this shoot I was able to give examples of both types of lighting. I carried out a simple lighting test by taking just over 40 photographs of each lighting source. I took photos of the same person for both lighting tests so that it was easier for me to tell the different between the two lights. I took photos from the same angles and asked for my model to do similar poses. When comparing the images side by side I see that the soft box lighting smooths out any harsh edges and gives a soft airbrushed look to my subject. Her skin looks well lit, more glowy and healthier. Where as when I look at the harsh lighting photographs I find that the models face looks a little rough and red in some places, the discolouration in her skin would need to go through a heavier photoshopping process than the softball photographs would. The edges in the photo are very harsh and sharp as there is no guard between the light bulb and model to smooth out edges like the soft box does.
In conclusion to this shoot it has been proven that the soft box lighting will work better than the harsh lighting for my shoot as it targets the model well by lighting her face up for each photo as well as slightly airbrushing her skin and giving her a glowy complexion. I like that the light hits the high points of her face and gives her face a dewy look. I have to think of the post production when it comes to chose what lighting it better to use as it will be going through a photoshop process afterwards to be acceptable to feature in a magazine spread.
Soft Box Lighting
Harsh Lighting
Below are the examples of my soft box and harsh lighting images, These are the images I chose to compare when deciding what lighting I will continue to use in my shoots:
Rachel Jacob 