6 Portrait Lighting Patterns Every Photographer Should Know

6 Portrait Lighting Patterns Every Photographer Should Know

four common portrait lighting patterns:

• Split lighting
• Loop lighting
• Rembrandt lighting
• Butterfly lighting

Style of lighting:

• Broad lighting
• Short lighting

Lightening Backgrounds in Lightroom

Lightroom can do a quick job but won't be as good as Photoshop (and a good extraction tool such as Vertus Fluid Mask would be the best combination to use).

• Develop module
• Click Adjustment Brush
• Size Brush A so it is big enough to paint over the background
• Add a small feather : 15
• Enable Auto Mask
• Density : 100
• Click to paint over the background with the brush (when you lift the brush, you will see the Adjustment Pin.  Make sure the cross hair in the middle of the brush stays on the background and then the Auto Mask feature will ensure that the brush doesn't paint over anything but the background)

• To see the painted area, press the O key and a red overlay will appear

• For fine area, it's more "efficient" (i.e. quicker) to size the brush very large so the center can be positioned over an area of the background and the rest of it extends over the wispy fine (e.g. hair) area.  It might help to significantly decrease the density to around 30 so that you only partially select the background in the fine area.

• Return to 100% density and continue to work in the other background and making sure to avoid the fine area.

• Adjust the settings for the Adjustment Brush.  Increase the exposure and brightness until the background is white

Make sure the foreground color should be different from the background color to have the best result.

Three-Point Lighting for Portrait Photography

An overview of a classic three-point lighting setup used in portrait photography.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzvHEBm6VZs&feature=fvwrel

The back light as hair light:

The back light as aim light:

Flash Unit on Light Stand Setup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2y5JuNO1Uo&feature=channel&list=UL

the adjustment handle of the adapter will be on the right facing the umbrella.

Using a Reflector for Fill Light

Portrait Photography. Using a reflector to create fill lighting and reduce contrast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td-AvvX3xTA&feature=channel&list=UL

One Light Portrait Setup

Portrait photography: Using One Light to Create a Classic Portrait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQxF80lpIV8&feature=related

• Camera & Flash on manual Mode (starts with 1/8 power)
• ISO: 100
• Aperture: f/4.0
• Shutter Speed: 1/250
• the flash is 45 degree to one side of the subject, pointed down at 45 degree as well
• the flash is 3ft away from the subject head
• with only one light source, increase the distance between the light source and the background will make the background darker
• take test shots and looks for hot spot (which is the over-exposed area that will be difficult to repair)
• 4.0    100    1/8 (starting point)
• 4.0    100    1/16 (too bright)
• increase the distance of the light and the subject (too bright)
• 2.8    100    1/8 (too dim)
• 4.0    200    1/8 (too dim)
• 4.0    100    1/4 (too dim)

Light Seeker

constantly aware of the types of light around...

• a room lit by a single lamp, a plaza in full sun or a candle in a restaurant window 

aware of the quality and behavior of light

• its color or temperature
• how it reflects off different surfaces
• the shadows it creates
• the way it shines through glass
• the ways light affects the mood of a scene

Lighting Ratio

This lighting ratio helps determine the amount of contrast between the highlights and shadows.

ratio	f-stop difference	description
1:1	no difference	flat lighting
2:1	1 Stop	general slide film
3:1	1 stop and 1/3 ish	black & white
4:1	2 stops	shadowing/contouring
8:1	4 stops-ish	dramatic low key

1:1 - two light sources with the same power
2:1 - if subject is shot at f5.6, then the background is twice the light, i.e. f8

Flash meters and manual control (multiple lights)

When you have multiple lights set up, you can turn them on one at a time, pointing the meter toward each light (not the camera) in turn.

By measuring each light separately, you can set the ratio between them.