I planned to use this shoot as studio practice and experiment with different types of lighting and different settings on my camera, so I could decide what worked best with me and my work flow. Before planning this shoot I looked into photographers that have created some great studio work and in particular studio portraiture work. While researching I came across Annie Leibovitz, who has captured some of the most bold and iconic portraits to this day. Her portraits appear to be very intimate with stylised compositions and high-contrast palettes. Before attempting to capture a portrait as sound as Leibovitz, I have practised with different types of lighting such as butterfly, high-key and many more as well as shooting in monochrome like Leibovitz to be able to progress and come to terms with my style of set-up and what I feel most comfortable and confident with in the studio.

I started off with shooting landscape until I realised the portrait is more ideal and professional, my lighting was also over-exposed. I then started off by turning the lighting down and after the third photograph found a balanced lighting setting. I set-up by using two light stands with soft-boxes, one was positioned behind the model on the left and the other was positioned at the front positioned towards the right while angled towards the model. I then positioned the model in the centre of the backdrop while positioning her slightly right towards the front light while keeping her body facing centre to the camera. This was my beginning set-up and I then began to experiment I will discuss this below with light diagrams to show my studio set-up.

I attempted to achieve high-key lighting here. I used a flash head light with a lower brightness in the background and angled the light towards the back of the model's back profile to light the whole of the image. I then used the bigger light stand with a soft-box as the main light at the front to create the high-key effect as well as using a light reflector to reduce shadows and shine. This image uses depth of field to focus on the model seen in the centre of the image, this helps to outline her presence. 

For this image I attempted to create butterfly lighting by using flash head light on a light stand positioned in front of the model towards the left side of her. I enjoy the look this creates, however I do believe the solo light that I used could do with the brightness being just a bit high so the side of the model's face being lit was just that little more brighter. I believe this type of lighting is effective as it brings attention and outlines the side of the face being lit. Depth of field is also used here to focus and outline the model once again, which I started to understand was important if I wished to achieve bold portraits similar to Annie Leiboviz's.

For this image I attempted to achieve loop lighting with a rim light, which creates this light shadow on the right side of the model's face, which I believe adds depth to the photograph. For this look I positioned a soft-box light in front of the model positioned more to the left while using a rim light positioned behind towards the back of the model. I also used a light reflector here to help emphasize these shadows here. I enjoy the depth of field here which once again outlines the model, I also shot in monochrome here which I believe adds to the outline of the model's silhouette here. I also aimed to experiment with shooting in monochrome as some of Annie Leibotviz's best photographs were seen in black and white, I believe this adds to this mysterious look that this photograph creates.

Evaluation:

To evaluate this shoot I am now happy I have experimented and made progress with the main technical side of my project. As to make progress moving forward a key understanding of the lights set-up and the different types of lighting this creates was essential. Researching photography that has achieved sound and professional portraits helped me to understand this. Moving forward I wish to go into wider themes of identity and how people present themselves through portrait photography. I'm glad my project has evolved and as well as still looking into magazines and gender and masculinity, I believe these wider themes have now helped me to make progress moving on. Next I aim to practice portraiture practice now I am more confident with the technical aspects of capturing these studio images.