Here are some basics of lighting for photographers.  There is lots of hoopla that is all debatable, but good lighting isn’t.  Good lighting is the difference between being an excellent photographer and being ho-hum.

The examples below can be utilized with what ever lighting equipment you use – strobes, aka flashes, hot lights, cool lights, studio lights, window light, alien bees – what ever.  The method is the same regardless of the light source.

Lighting tip #1 – very most important NEVER forget EVER – Always light from above. You can also say – NEVER up-light your subject.   Want to know why – please read the Halloween reference below in the flash section of this post.  If you can’t remember anything…remember this.  Its tip numero uno.  REMEMBER IT!

Here are some photos of our model and the different types of lighting.  The examples have no post processing done to them AT ALL.  The reason is so that you can see what stuff looks like straight out of camera.

BUTTERFLY LIGHTING (aka Hollywood Lighting)

This is incredibly quick and easy lighting!  Your main light goes directly in front of, and above, your subject.  This highlights the tops of the facial planes, defines the jaw line, and creates the little “butterfly” shadow under the nose that lends it’s name to the lighting style.  Add a reflector to give the eyes some sparkle!

REMBRANDT LIGHTING

This is traditional, timeless, lighting.  Your main light is about 45 degrees of center (and above!).  The key is to have the shadow created by the nose connect with the shadow on the far side of the face – creating a triangular highlight on the subject’s cheek.

By varying the amount of fill, and the harshness of the light, you can have crazy dramatic light or classic portrait lighting.

LOOP LIGHTING

This is very similar to Rembrandt, but the light moves back towards the front of the subject.  As a result the shadow from the nose doesn’t connect with the shadow on the side of the face.

This is a favorite scheme of many wedding photogs.  With a nice soft light, it’s hard to get it wrong.

SHORT LIGHTING

Once we move to talking about short, or broad, lighting, we are talking about where the camera is in relation to the light instead of where the light is in relation to the subject.  Make sense?

In short lighting – what we have below – the camera is shooting from the side that is away from the light, leaving more of the visable face in shadow.  This is very flattering, feminine, light.

BROAD LIGHTING

Broad lighting is simply the opposite of short lighting – the camera is shooting from the same side as the light.  This is generally less slimming than short lighting, and is typically more appropriate for shooting men.

FALL OFF LIGHTING

By taking into account the fall off of light we’re able to lose unsightly backgrounds!  The fact that light falls off quickly is your your friend if you enjoy low key lighting.

Simply put, every time you double the distance between a light and the subject, you quarter the amount of light that makes it to the subject.  So, a subject that is four feet away from a light source will be lit two full stops brighter than a subject that is eight feet away from the same light source.

What this means to you, the photog, is that you don’t always need as black backdrop.  Simply move the subject closer to the light and allow the rapidly falling off light to leave the background underexposed – black.

In the shot below our model is actually about 8′-10′ in front of a gold wall.

OFF CAMERA FLASH

OK, one thing that you have to realize with any good lighting is that the flash-light-in-front-of-the-face look is only good on Halloween.  As a photographer, you should almost never use that.  (I’m saying almost never, b/c you might want to shoot some scary crap on Halloween).  So getting back to the other 364 days this year, you’ll want to use some lighting mentioned above.  Your light source for off camera flash is still above the subject.  That part didn’t change.

In the example below we have two versions of the same shot.  One was taken without flash and the other is final product taken with flash.  Final product meaning there was some PP done.  Basically the colors were intensified.

SHOT WITH OFF CAMERA FLASH

SAME IMAGE WITH OUT FLASH

If you did that to the no flash image, it would just look funky (funky in a bad way).  You could never achieve the dynamic range as with the lit photograph.  Also notice the jaw line is not well defined (making the subject look younger/ baby face) and her eyes are caves.  Can you see any light in there?

In case you are having issues seeing the detail on the face, I put the images next to each other and enlarged her face a bit so you can see.  Check out what happened to her facial features with and without flash.  When using flash, you can see her well defined cheek bones, jaw line, and her eye make up.  If she was looking up, you’d have nice sparkle in her eyes.  In the shot with no flash, her eyes appear concave, her hair is flat, in addition to the other stuff already mentioned.

Bad flash has the deer in front of the headlights feel.  Its like standing in a spot light that is directly in front of you.  When you use on camera flash, that is exactly what you are doing.  And since most people think the deer in front of the headlights look isnt all that appealing…well, this is some cool stuff.

Here is another thing you can do if you use flashes outside.  Nice cloudy day.  When you fire a flash you expose the foreground (your subject), and underexpose the background (your sky).  Ta Dah!  You have a nice blue sky, not a blown white wall that is common with not using flash.

This shot was off camera.  We so totally didn’t mess with posing today, so the pose is kinda lame, buy you get the idea.  I went a little over board with the glowers.  I know.  Anyway, its an example, not a work of art.

And thanks to those of you who came out in the wind to today’s lighting workshop.  Here is a shot of you guys hard at work, learning all the lighting hoopla.

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