Tips on | Model positioning and posing during the ​story and product shots. | Part 5

If you like to get some tips on storytelling and messages in photos please click here for the blog before.

What sort of lighting you looking to push the story or products within the shot?

What I mean by this is, what sort of light would make the photo sing.  As different types of light or when in different places or different styles.  What I will be talking about is what type of lighting and how you can make it work for you will get the images to sing the right key that you are looking for.  The section below will have different lighting styles that will help you out when choosing the lighting style for the photo.

High key

This is bright and clear photos so you can see the subject as well as the background clearly.  This can be any number of lights.

Low Key

This is Dark and mood lighting where it is done normally with a small number of lights.  It is also shot with a dark backdrop.

Gel

These are placed in front of lights so it will give a different colour or change the mood of lighting.  This can be used in any situation.

Natural

This is mainly using what light you can get from the sun.  There are different things you can use to do this the biggest is a reflector.

Constant Light

These are lights that just give out one light, which is the same brightness without it dimming or flashing.

Flash

This is a light that puts out one bright light in a very short time, but it is not as fast as strobe lighting.

Strobe

This is just another type of flash but is used when you need a fast light to catch something that moves fast other and other again.  This is normally used with liquids.  It can also be used for sports as well, to take photos of someone that is doing a movement at speed.

Reflector

This is normally used when there is a constant light like the sun or the constant light.  You can use them with flash photography just it would take a bit longer to sort out.

The one thing about this is you can mix and match to make them and work out what you need for photos as well as style.  Sometimes when I am outdoors I might use a flashlight and not a reflector as I might be under something or the sun could be hiding.  It takes time to learn this and the best way is to shoot.

You can see me mixing it up in my photos from time to time.

I hope this helps you with what sort of light that would look good for the shots you are going for.  The next section is about postproduction and how you can make a photo change in Photoshop, just with a bit of work.  I will try and keep the next section short as I could get carried away.

Joe