Here are some portraits of Svetla Tsotsorkova, the actress in the leading role in the film Portrait of a Family. Together with director Dimitar Sardzhev, we did these lighting tests in a small studio before the principal shooting. We were trying to find the best ways to photograph Svetla’s face to appear stylized, beautiful and yet realistic.
No make-up was used. Light sources were ARRI Junior 2K Fresnel and Kinoflos 4Bank 2ft.
It gives a general idea for the shape and proportions. This is a Kinoflo from the camera, right next to the lens.
Her face holds hard light well. The neck is in the shadow, thus the chin looks very thin.
I doubt that anybody lights faces with hard light these days, but I like to try it. Later it can help make the soft lighting easier.
The face looks thin because the light falls on the narrow side of it. Both cheekbones are well defined this way.
(There is little fill with a Kinoflo).
The face reacts very nice to this lighting. The bright forehead and cheekbones surround the eyes and draw attention to them.
This lighting looks very realistic and it is hard to justify in a side lit situations.
Face looks round as there are no cheekbones defined.
The soft light wraps the face in a pleasant way. Not using fill gives this deep black shadows on the nose and left side of face.
This dramatic lighting is often used in cinema and photography, but for me is was too much stylized and therefore away from reality.
The fill light brightens up a little the dark side of the face. Since it comes from above, it still leaves the ear and backside dark. Notice the nice gradient from shadow to light on the near cheekbone.
This was the guiding set-up when for our film portraits. The next shot from the film itself is pretty much the same set-up.
Key light: Kinoflo 4Bank 4ft, partially diffused with 216 gel, 90 degrees from camera. Light is cut from the background and the actress' shoulder.
Fill light: Kinoflo 4Bank 2ft with 216 diffusion, over the head.
Backlight: Soft Silver Reflector, right of the frame.
Background light: none.
The soft key light is from the side. The fill light from above leaves in darkness the right side of the face and neck. There is a very weak light coming from a reflector in the back showing slight detail in the hair on the right side of the frame.
The result is that the farthest side of the face is the brightest and the closest side is the darkest which results nice modeling and rich tonality. It is highly stylized, but at the same time stays enough real, suggesting the presence of a near window.
Dian Zagorchinov
Director of Photography
www.zagorchinov.com
