Shedding Light on the Importance of Lighting Analysis in Design

High key

High key photos are mostly light. One main light, the key light, provides the primary illumination. One or more lights, or reflectors, are then utilised to fill in all or most of the shadows. High key photography is all about balancing the light ratio. Unbalanced lighting will result in too much shadow. This is not integral to high key photography.

However,

Low-key lighting is a type of lighting style used in photography, film, and television that accentuates shadows, high contrast, and dark tones. The visual aesthetic of low-key lighting is usually achieved by using hard sources or key lights with minimal to no fill light. Low-key lighting is often used in thrillers, dramas, and horror films because of the mysterious, dark, and dramatic mood the style creates. 

Rembrandt lighting is a standard lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography and cinematography; it is also used in contrast with butterfly lighting It can be achieved using one light and a reflector, or two lights, and is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a minimum of equipment.

Paramount lighting is also referred to as butterfly lighting. It is a portrait illumination in which one light source is placed at an angle above the subject. The style of lighting is called butterfly because of the butterfly-shaped shadow that appears under the nose.

Split lighting is a photography lighting technique. The light source that illuminates the subject is perpendicular to the model.

This setup lights up half of the face while keeping the other half shadowed. You “split” the lighting on your subject’s face.

The strong side lighting emphasizes the texture of the skin and the details of the face. The contrast and texture in split lighting portraits often make them very intense. It gives photos a sense of power, assertiveness or conviction.

The lighting on the goat from the left side makes the bottom half of the goat’s coat look shiny because the light is set in the direction of the goat.

The way that the flowers “spew” vibrant yellow rays shows that it only takes the tiniest bit of light onto a bright colour to produce a quality colour, making it perfect to do during most days in almost every weather condition.

The overhead light that goes onto the dark coloured leaves creates a contrast of beauty and satisfaction because it makes the red that is already taking over the leaves for the season look blissful as the green tries to hold on to the leaf.