We were practicing some lighting techniques in advance of a Studio Photoshoot the next day. Kathleen wanted to re-create a Michael Jackson like shot with our model – you probably recognize the spotlit fedora pose that became iconic. We used a black Muslin backdrop and tried many different light modifiers to get the light to mimic a spotlight. This was shot in the evening. Here we employed our workhorse Vivitar 285HV strobe which we mounted on a light stand and equipped it with a “Snoot” which directs the light to a very specific area, hence the spotlight effect. We controlled the off camera flash with radio triggers.This is also an example of a low-key lighting and off camera flash.
Low-key lighting is a style of lighting for photography, film or television. It is a necessary element in creating a chiaroscuro effect. Traditional photographic lighting, three-point lighting uses a key light, a fill light and a back light for illumination. Low-key lighting often uses only one key light, optionally controlled with a fill light or a simple reflector.
Low key light accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast. The relative strength of key-to-fill, known as the lighting ratio, can be measured using a light meter. Low key lighting has a higher lighting ratio, e.g. 8:1, than high key lighting, which can approach 1:1. Throwing the majority of the model into darkness was what we were after, similar to being on a darkened concert stage with a single focussed spotlight.