Studio Lighting Techniques

-Rembrandt-Butterfly-Edge

Of course whilst shooting these techniques you must consider what Aperture, Shutter Speed and I.S.O to use to gain the correct exposure. It should look as it looks to your eye.

This is the last of the 3 technical inductions

1.Relatioship of Aperture, Shutter speed and I.S.O2.Night Photography3.Studio Lighting techniques

Portrait lighting techniquesPortrait lighting techniques can hugely influence the connotations of an image.It is all dependent on what degree angle the light is positioned, the height of the light in regards to the subject and the degree angle the light is pointed upon the subject.

Portrait Lighting Key Words

Key light

Hard/Soft Light

Degree angle of light

Fill lightHeight of the light

Contrast

Degree angle of the position of light

Highlights, lowlights

Rembrandt lighting

Rembrandt lighting is a lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography. It can be achieved using one light and one light and a reflector (fill light) and is popular because it can create images with considered lighting by using a minimum of equipment. Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle under the eye of the subject, on the less illuminated side of the face. It is named after the Dutch painter Rembrandt, who often used this type of lighting.

Rembrandt lighting set up

Subject

Umbrella key light source is positioned at a 45 degree point in regards to the subject and angledat a 45 degree angle pointing at the subject.

Camera

Note the subject is not looking or body pointing into the camera

The single light source is sometimes counter balanced with a reflector (Fill light) placed approximately 45 degrees offset to the shadowed side of the face. This reduces contrast and begins to light the image softly rather than hard.

ReflectorThe height is around a foot and a half above the subjects head

Rembrandt lighting Rembrandt lighting (also called 45-degree lighting) is characterized by a small, triangular highlight on the shadowed cheek of the subject. The lighting takes its name from the famous Dutch painter who used skylights to illuminate his subjects. This type of lighting is dramatic. It is most often used with male subjects, and is commonly paired with a weak fill light to accentuate the shadow-side highlight.

One soft box

One soft box and reflector

One soft box, reflector and

background light

Allegro Haynes is a talented violinist who plays with the Virginia Symphony and the Harbor String Quartet. She is frequently featured as a solo violinist. Bill McIntosh wanted this portrait to look as if could be a movie set in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. He used a 31-inch umbrella as the key light and a weak umbrella fill set at about three stops less than the key. Two small kickers from the right and left rear of the subject lit her hair, and a small background light illuminated the painted background. The lighting pattern falls between the Rembrandt and loop lighting patterns.

Butterfly Lighting

This technique takes the key light up much higher than the subject and is shooting down onto them to cast a butterfly type shadow on their face. It is thought to project more glamorous and complimentary connotations than other techniques. As you can see it was often used on 1950s film stars.

Butterfly Lighting technique

The subject looks and the body is positioned straight Into the lens, the camera is directly in front of them

The light is positioned directly in front of them, but obviously not in the way of the camera. The key light is about 2/3 foot higher than the subjects head and angled at a 70/80 degree angle, so the light beams down onto the subject.

Edge Lighting

Edge (or split) lighting is slightly more dramatic than Rembrandt and hugely more so than Butterfly. It defines and separates one side of the face from the other more obviously. The highlights are lighter and the low lights darker, therefore the contrast is higher. The first two images below show the technique can fall into the low key lighting family if the key light used is from a small source and your studio is pitch black. Image 3 is Edge lighting used from a soft light in a studio with natural light present.

Edge Lighting Set up

The key light is parallel to the subject (90 degrees) and positioned at the same height as the subjects eye

Direct the subject to look the specific direction (25 degrees)So the light source will only capture half of the face

Again you can add fill light in the form of a reflector.Where you place the reflector will dictate the strength of the contrast.

Induction Task 3 - Your task1)In groups of 4, capture perfectly lit and exposed (correct use of aperture/ISO/shutter speed settings) portrait images via the:

5 FINAL IMAGES of the following:•Rembrandt technique with and without fill•Butterfly technique without any fill•Edge technique with and without fill

2)Demonstrate and reflect upon your studio set up for each image via a establishing shot and multiple stills images, if you wish, in combination with a written element.

3)Show any technical errors via a print out image and discuss why and how they are flawed and how you put this right.

Tip: Print your 5 perfectly lit images via a Kiosk or Photo printer, and the error images within your reflection can be printed on college/regular printers