Advanced Photography Brief #2: Portraiture - Caravaggio
CARAVAGGIO INSPIRED LIGHTING
Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio was an Italian painter and is widely known as Caravaggio, but also as the 'Master of Light'. The Baroque painter had a cinematic vision in a time with no moving images. He created drama, crystal clear, visceral paintings. He focused heavily on creating a chiaroscuro within his works,
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| The Calling of St. Mattew |
'The Calling of St. Mattew' depicts the moment that Jesus Christ calls on St. Matthew, the tax collector to be His disciple. If you look beyond the incredible depiction of this moment and the religious subject matter behind the painting, what is really eye-catching and recognisable about this painting is the placement of lighting.
This style can also be referred to as tenebrism. Originating from the Italian 'tenebroso', meaning dark, gloomy, and mysterious. It is also called dramatic illumination, again known as 'chiaroscuro'. Where there are violent contrasts of light and darkness in a painting or image.
In the painting, the lighting is originating from the right of the canvas, where Jesus stands highlighting divine illumination and points out Matthew more forcefully than Jesus does. Due to the angle and warm oranges and yellowing of the light, we recognise this to be sunlight seeping through a window. The golden hue and low angle create fantastic contrasts of lighting. The minimal use of background detail to create a 3D effect is unnecessary as the way the lighting wraps around each character creates this dimension.
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| The taking of Christ, 1602 |
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| David with the Head of Goliath, 1607 |
We can see from both paintings above, Caravaggio uses divine lighting that shines like a spotlight on the characters almost like a light is just cast on them and nobody else. We can tell this by looking at where shadows are being cast like underarms or chins. This is further emphasised by the black background that has no detail.
Key Elements of Caravaggio Paintings:
- features an opening at the top which isn't visible on the canvas, which casts down and illuminates the subjects
- Caravaggio is characterised by direct lighting without glare.
- It also adds to the room's ambient light via the upward lighting from the pendant's top. However, the detail of the rooms or backgrounds are never relevant in his pieces.
- works using a single natural light source
- extreme lighting contrasts
- they tell a story
- they either carry tension and aggression or daintiness
William Eugine Smith
Smith was an American photojournalist and soon found that chiaroscuro marked his work from early on. He captured and revealed moments which was his technique of documentary storytelling and used the lighting to help tell these stories. The key element in his photos that relates to Caravaggio's work is the embracement of natural lighting that is present in the scene. Because he is documenting moments, there is only so much that can be planned and organised. Here we see quick and raw talent that can resurrect on the spot. He embraces each of the individual characters and what they represent, capturing their true essence. Smith evokes drama and emotion.
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| Charlie Chaplin on the set of his film "Limelight," 1952. |
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Untitled (industrial worker) |
Lee Friedlander
I would quite like to explore the use of hard light to create more depth and drama as well as stark highlights. I particularly like the American photographer, Lee Friedlander's photos and would like to use his work as a source of reflection for the Caravaggio lighting-based photo. His photos aren't to be flattering but to capture, the light, space, and lines of the worlds. In his photos, he breaks the rules of photography and allows the shadows of himself or his equipment to become visible in his photos.
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| Shadow, New York (1966) |
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| Lee Friedlander, Oregon, 1997 |
For the Caravaggio-based portrait, I plan to use natural lighting. In doing so, I want to pay attention to
- how the lighting affects the atmosphere and space around me
- how it attracts attention to the point of the image
- the space and depth created
- although I will be using natural lighting, I plan to have a go using a reflector to enhance certain features.
Hard lighting often abstracts and simplifies photos as the shadowed areas get rid of the unnecessary details, but in turn, draws our eyes to the highly lit areas. The one difficult thing with hard light is that it can become hard to work with as it is so demanding and uneven, forcing detail to be lost. However, hard light does create more depth. The shadows reveal a lot about the light; they tell us where the light is coming from and its intensity. Despite this, natural lighting will change after a photo is taken, so no moment and photo will be the same.
For the final photo, I chose to use natural light in the morning. I posed my model, Ellie near a window where I was getting clear soft sunlight. The ruffles of the curtains draw more attention to her too as they are flowing in her direction. This was the easiest shoot as i
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