Lighting in Photography

Types of Light – Lighting in Photography is usually classified by the size, the strength, the amount of sources or the direction of the light.

Low Key Lighting

Low Key Lighting

Low key lighting is produced from only one source of light, rather than traditional 3 point set ups. It produces high contrast and is a fairly easily achieved.

High Key Lighting High key lighting is a technique which illuminates any sense of direction and is considered low contrast. High key lighting is a type of soft light and often produced by multiple sources.

Soft Light

Soft lighting is a type of lighting which is produced when the source is much bigger than the subject. This usually results in a low contrast. The sun of course would be a form of soft light.

Hard Light Hard light is the opposite of soft. This occurs when the source of light is much smaller than the subject

Hard light casts shadows and usually produces high contrast and areas of darkness.  

Portrait lighting techniques

Edge Lighting

Edge lighting has very bright highlights and very dark shadows, therefore the contrast is high. To create Edge light you must place the key light parallel to the subject (90 degrees) and positioned at the same height as the subjects eye. The subject must be positioned to not face the light source.

Rembrandt lighting Rembrandt lighting is similar to Edge but is characterised by an illuminated triangle under the eye of the subject, on the less illuminated side of the face. The key light source is positioned at a 45 degree point in regards to the subject and angled at a 45 degree angle pointing at the subject. The height of the light should be atleast one foot above the subjects head.

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. Notice there is no catch light in the subjects eye. 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.

Why do we need to know this? We can study images we like the look of and be able to identify their technique and mimic it in our own images, developing higher quality images for our final piece. Reflect on our own images critically and identify strengths and weaknesses and technical understanding. Insert key terminology into our written studies when analysing. This will tick the higher grade boundaries by demonstrating good or even sophisticated levels of technical understanding.