The Wedding Photography Tips: Lighting

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Photo Tip - Use Rembrandt Lighting In Your Portrait Photography For More Drama!

Our portrait photography photo tip for today is about "Rembrandt Lighting." This is a great lighting pattern to use if you are going for a dramatic mood in your portrait. Not every face is ideal for Rembrandt lighting but it is a powerful addition to your portrait photography lighting arsenal!

First, what is "Rembrandt Lighting"?

Rembrandt lighting is a portrait lighting pattern that shows one side of the face in highlight and the other in shadow - but on the shadowed side, the cheek has a triangle of light.

It is called Rembrandt lighting because the Dutch artist Rembrandt frequently used it in his portraits.

By the way... These photo tips are about ART, not just photography. They work for painters too! Art is art, it doesn't matter what format it is in.

Towards the end of the article there is a link to a Rembrandt self-portrait using this lighting pattern. Check it out.
Notice the triangle of light on his far cheek? That is the defining characteristic of this lighting pattern.

Many budding photographers shy away from using these advanced lighting techniques because they don't have any studio lights - so they think they can't do them! Let this be a motivator for you. Rembrandt didn't have studio lights either! (He didn't even have electricity.)

This - and all of the other lighting patterns - can be used with any light source, not just studio lights. Windows, the sun, reflectors... it just doesn't matter. It's the shadows that matter, not the source of the light creating them.

While the portrait shows the pattern being used with a broad lighting pattern. It can also be used on top of a short lighting pattern.

Remember, broad lighting is when the side of the face furthest from the camera is in shadow. Short lighting is when the side of the face closest to the camera is in shadow.

Since shadow areas tend to visually recede, broad lighting makes the face look wider - more broad. That's where the pattern's name came from!

Since most of us want to look thinner, you will most likely be using the Rembrandt lighting pattern with a short light base in most of your portrait photography. But, not always, so learn and practice creating it both ways.

How to create the Rembrandt lighting pattern?

It is easy. Position your subject so the light source is to the side and higher than their head. Then have them turn slightly away from the light source. (Or move the light source if it is mobile.)

One problem you may encounter is that if you are using light from a window or a large reflector, some of the light may be coming from too low of an angle and mess up your pattern.

Just cover up the bottom part of the light source and block off the extraneous light. Problem solved.

In a previous article on loop lighting, we discussed not letting the shadow from the nose touch the shadow on the cheek. In Rembrandt lighting they do intersect. That is what creates the triangle.

Caution: Be sure that the shadowed eye has a catch light or it will look dead, dull, lifeless and any other nasty name you can think of.

Some subjects will have facial and/or nose shapes that don't easily lend themselves to this pattern. In this case - make sure you are doing it right, and if it isn't working - do something else. Another lighting pattern will be more suited to their face.

The Rembrandt lighting pattern is a good one for adding drama to your portrait photography. It is also one of the classic photo lighting patterns and every photographer should be comfortable in using it.
Here is a link that shows a self-portrait of Rembrandt using the "Rembrandt Lighting" pattern.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt:_Self_Portrait_%28Altman%29

Today's photo tip / assignment is to learn the Rembrandt lighting pattern and USE IT in your portrait photography! It can definitely separate you from the crowd!

To learn more and enroll in a FREE "photo tips" course, go to: http://ontargetphototraining.com/

Bonus... You will also get YOUR free copy of " 7 Secrets To Stunning Photos! " AND you'll get a FREE daily photo tips newsletter! Check it out right now while you are thinking about it!

Dan Eitreim has been a professional photographer in Southern California for over 20 years - his data base exceeds 6000 past clients, and he says that learning photography is easy, if you know a few tried and true strategies.

View the original article here

Friday, August 17, 2012

Photo Tip - Master The "Loop Lighting" Pattern For Portrait Photography

In previous articles, we began our study of lighting patterns for portrait photography with broad lighting, short lighting and split lighting. Now for today's photo tip, let's move into "loop lighting!" In portrait photography, this one tends to be one of the most popular. It is easy to do and is flattering to most of our subject's facial types.

Remember that it is shadow that defines form in a photograph. This is such a key concept, we even name all of the various lighting patterns by the shadows they create!

While we always have to think about the light in photography - never forget the shadows!

In a "loop lighting" pattern, we adjust our light so that the shadow of the nose shows up on - and forms a little loop upon - the subject's cheek, traveling down as far as the corner of the subject's mouth.

In our previous studies of lighting patterns, we've been discussing the lights and shadows as if the light source was even with the face, the eyes to be more specific. This creates a shadow with no upward or downward slope.

In loop lighting, we want a slightly downward angled shadow (not too much) so we raise the light slightly above eye level. We want the end of the nose to cast a rounded - looped - shadow down from the nose to around the corner of the mouth. Or even a bit shorter.

The shadow goes off to the side; it is not directly under the nose. The area between the upper lip and the nose (the philtrum) remains unshadowed.

Of course, shadows are cast directly opposite to the light, so to get a shadow going to the side and down, we need a light positioned on the opposite side and up.

Start with the light is off to the side at approximately 45 degrees from the camera. Then tweak and adjust from there. Depending on the subject's face, the best angle may be a bit more or less than 45 degrees.

Pose your model - set your light a bit above eye level, move it to about 45 degrees to the camera and see where the shadow from the nose is!

If needed, move the light up and down and side to side until you get the desired shadow shape. Depending on the shape of your model's face - and nose - this adjustment could go from 45 degrees to as little as 30 degrees. Or in some cases it could even go past 45 degrees.

Keep in mind that you want to keep this shadow small. The light should travel down the nose (with the opposing shadow between the nose and cheek) and continue from the bottom of the nose creating a loop shaped shadow running towards the corner of the mouth.

This lighting pattern is good for people with average, oval shaped faces. Because of the downward sloping angle of the "loop" it will visually lengthen the face a bit. And, to a lesser extent can give the appearance of slightly higher cheekbones.

Grab a flashlight and your favorite subject. Have them sitting on a chair and start experimenting with light and shadow. Figure out how they have to angle their face for short and broad lighting...

Determine where the light has to be for split lighting, and then adjust it to create loop lighting.

Which do you think is better for their face? Why?

The concept of "loop lighting" may seem so basic and easy to understand that you will most likely want to skip the exercise, but don't. Get comfortable with not only understanding these portrait photography photo tips, but actually doing them! That's when the learning starts!