Low Key Portraiture

Berin Loritsch — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:18:00 +0000

The portrait above exhibits some nice elements using light and shadow to make the picture more interesting. The first element is the fact that the lighting is soft. I had enough exposure to have even more detail in the background if I chose, but really what you see is the hint of a face. The shadow isn’t so dark that the head completely blends in with the background, but you have a portion in the top right that defines the boundaries so that she doesn’t look odd.

The biggest thing with low-key lighting is to provide enough light to define the picture and provide enough highlight detail to keep the viewer’s interest. Harder edge lights like incandescent lamps can provide a unique look for outlines and such. Softer edge lights provide a more even lighting. You may need to play a bit more with placement, but you don’t have to deal with hot spots that make the picture harder to print.

The only lighting is a floor lamp off to the left. I shot the picture with my Calumet Classic and Rhodenstock 26cm lens. This lens is really made for portraits. It is sharp, but at the same time not too sharp. It was made in 1935, so it has a certain look that you can’t get with either soft focus lenses or the super-sharp cost-a-million-bucks lenses of nowadays. The film is 4×5 Fomapan 200 and developed in Rodinal. The actual exposure was a little low, and the development time was a little on the long side, but it all worked out. I put the focus on the eyes without worrying too much on the plane of the face. The challenge with live models is that they move, and with portraits the only true focal point is going to be the eyes. My exposure was about 4 seconds—timed in my head so not all that accurate.

It turns out that all I had to do was make a straight print. I really didn’t need to dodge or burn. Being young, my model’s expression and skin is perfect for her. She was in the process of doing a silly, over-affected pose, but without the context of the rest of her body it doesn’t come across that way. This print was made with Oriental VC|RC II glossy paper, developed in Kodak Dektol. I use a factorial development of 5x the time of the first appearance. I exposed the print for 2 seconds with #00 contrast and 4 seconds at #5 contrast at f/11 with my Rhodenstock 150mm enlarging lens.

Just a Thought...: Low Key Portraiture

Low Key Portraiture