Photography Information Sheet
Portrait Lighting
Direct your Main Light toward your subject's face at an angle of approximately 45 degrees. You can use 45 degree light from the broad side, or the short side and to light either a full face or profile portrait. The Main Light should be placed higher than the subject's head and is directed down and at an angle of about 45 degrees. One characteristic of 45 degree lighting is the triangle of light from the Main Light that is on the shadow side of the subject's face. 45 degree lighting is also known as Rembrandt lighting because it is the style of lighting that is seen in many of his paintings.
Split lighting divides the face along its center. Split Lighting is probably the least used style of portrait lighting, but it can be very effective. The easiest way to create split lighting is to place your Main Light just as you would for 45° lighting. While watching the patch of light on the shadow side of your subject's face, lower the Main Light and move it to the side until the shadow-side highlight disappears. If you want to add an accent of light to the shadow, move it back just a little until a very small touch of light reappears on the shadow side of the face.
(also referred to as Front Light)
To create a broad light, pose your subject to show a 2/3 or 3/4 view of the face and direct your main light toward the side of the face that is closest to the camera. A broad light can be used to add weight to a face that is too thin. Years ago, teachers of photography told us that broad lighting was the feminine style of lighting. This is the sort of rulebook thinking we need to put behind us.
Backlight or Rim Light
Any light coming from behind the subject.
A typical example is a photo of a person taken with the camera facing towards the sun. Backlighting is particularly difficult for automatic exposure systems in cameras to deal with, since the range of light tends to be so extreme and lenses tend to flare.
Backlighting can also be a deliberate technique for dramatic effect (a backlit subject with no lighting from the front becomes a silhouette) or to separate the subject from the background.
Glamour or
Butterfly Lighting
The term, "Butterfly Lighting," comes from a characteristic
butterfly shaped shadow beneath the subject's nose. If you want to use
butterfly lighting you should line your Main Light up along your
subject's nose axis and then raise the light until you see the
characteristic shadow. This style of lighting is also known as glamour
lighting because it was used extensively by the great Hollywood portrait
photographers of the '20s, '30s and '40s. Although light placement is
identical for butterfly and glamour lighting, photographers such as
George Hurrell gave it a special look by using a spotlight as the Main
Light rather than a softer light source. If you move your Main Light a
little to the left or right, you will change your lighting style into a
modified butterfly pattern.
