Lighting Portraits Rembrandt, Butterfly and Clamshell

In this short 3-minute video, learn how to create amazing studio portraits with 3 different lighting techniques.

Transcript from YouTube

For this light setup we’re going to be using a split lady where the main light is almost to the side of Abby our model and very much at the opposite angle of me almost 90-degree angle to the photographer and off to the subject, this creates a very dramatic side we see light on one side and very quickly we’ll fall off almost no detail on the other side let’s take a look there you go looking right here maybe kind of lean forward just a little bit there you go excellent. That’s cool very dramatic same thing I’m gonna bring in a reflector the large reflector again it could be something as cheap as a couple dollar Elmer board something like that excellent split with a reflector much different look and if i want i could even come here and i could do a harsher look move away the reflector and go to a stockless option which is going to be much harsher for my light because i’m taking off the sock i’m going to lose i’m going to make it a much more intense light so i have to turn down the light because i’m much brighter let’s turn it down about a stop and a half looking here much more harsh punchy one two and three a little more dramatic style between the different looks so variations that you can do between with a sock without the diffusion with the reflector without the reflector make a big difference on the final product for our next lighting setup we’ll look at a monster lighting i’ve taken the main light from being high and beautiful like typically on a subject and i put it nice and low pointed up at the subject this comes from a lot of horror films that use a low style of lighting that’s kind of where we’ve assumed or we have been conditioned to a monster lighting and it can be a little more spooky style sometimes maybe kind of glamorous i’m coming with the shot nice and low one two and three and create a lot of light there’s no not gonna be shadows under the neck but it’s gonna be different style of shooting.