Portraits Light and Shadow

I always found this video of interest and demonstrates so vividly how important it is to study  light and shadow.  Have a look and see what I mean.  The first thing you will notice is the dramatic effect the shadows have on the appearance of the model.  Quite striking. Try to forget about the colour for now, but concentrate on the shadow.

If you were to play this over and over, you will realize there are  4 basic shadow patterns that keep repeating and repeating.  Photographers have come to categorize these over the years and they are

• Flat Lighting
• Butterfly Lighting ( also known as Paramount Lighting  made famous during Hollywood era and Paramount studios who used this lighting extensively to light their glamour stars )
• Loop Lighting
• Rembrandt Lighting...... which is a special case of Loop lighting
• Split Lighting

Now, I am sure many of you will say, "Hey, what about short lighting or Broad Lighting or profile lighting?".  Yes, I have not forgotten about those, but what I want to emphasize is that the above 5 patterns are created by the position of the light relative to your model.  The model can be sitting still, no head turning etc to get the shadow pattern and really that is what the list above is.  It is shadow patterns, not lighting patterns.  Think shadows.......  Photography is light and the absence of light. ( shadow ) and shadow plays an enormous part in photography and no more so than in portrait photography.

Now, just to set the record straight the final three lighting patterns I do call patterns, but rather styles.  These also produce different shadow patterns, but are controlled by the model turning their head.  We have

• Profile lighting, where the model turns their head 90 degrees to the camera and the light is 90 degrees off the camera axis
• Short Lighting, where the light is in a loop position and the model turns their head towards the light
• Broad Lighting, where the model turns their head away from the light

The way to remember these is the first 5 are positioning of the light while the last three require the model to move / turn their head.

Mastering these positions is really quite easy.  Practice is the the key and you can read all about it on the internet.  RP Photography specialty workshop in Portraits covers these shadow patterns and styles with hands on practice, live models and fully interactive big screen demonstrations.  Check out our workshops page for the next available workshop.

Also, check out this downloadable PDF that helps to explain these concepts and more!  Portrait Lighting Handout

Happy Shooting!