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Jay: The five portrait lighting positions
are the key to all light on set.
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So if you don't know what they are or you
need a refresher, stick around.
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Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan.Today on Slanted
Lens, we're gonna cover the five basic portrait
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lighting positions.
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If you already know these, you're gonna wanna
stick around as a refresher course.
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If you don't know them, this becomes a foundation
for all lighting situations.
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It really, truly does.
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So I've got Keanu Barbieri [SP] over here
with me.
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You could follow her at...
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Keana: Instagram @oxsygin.
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Jay: Instagram @oxsygin.
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So, check that out.
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She's gonna be here.
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She's kind enough to sit and allow me to work
lighting positions on her in place.
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That sounds stupid, doesn't it?
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We're gonna bring this light around, got an
overhead camera that'll show us where we move
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this light.
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I'm gonna try to talk about the, really, subtleties
of each of these positions because even though
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they seem pretty simple and pretty straightforward,
there are some real subtleties on what make
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these work.
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These lighting positions are tried and true.
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They are the things that people have used
forever.
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It also gives you an idea of where to put
your light when you're beginning to light
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a room or something.
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Does not mean that your light has to stay
a certain hardness or softness.
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You can do whatever you want with it, which
gives you infinite number of possibilities
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as you apply these five positions.
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You can do so many different things with them
to make them interesting.
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So, learn these positions, learn how to apply
them.
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They're gonna become the foundation for most
of the lighting decisions that you're going
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to make.
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So let's take a look at a Rembrandt.
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Rembrandt truly liked that dark shadow, and
as he would look at light coming through a
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window or whatever light source he was using,
he started to see that the nose naturally
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makes a triangle on a person's face.
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First off, this Rembrandt here, it's way too
low.
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So this light's gotta go up, up, up, up, up.
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When I get this light in the right position,
her nose closes the loop that's underneath
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her chin here so her chin shadow, this nose
shadow, breaks into that chin shadow and creates
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a triangle.
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That's a true Rembrandt, a very pretty light.
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Now, I can take and fill this, just a little
bit of light.
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I can fill this.
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I can make this a very flat Rembrandt, you
know?
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I can pull it out and make it kind of shadowy
or we can just let it really be deep.
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It really depends on what you wanna do.
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So you have all the options in the world.
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I can fill this from underneath if I want
to favor opening up the shadow under her chin.
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I can really do whatever I want.
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If I fill it from behind, I can almost take
my Rembrandt and start to get myself a little
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bit of hair light on her.
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So it becomes an easy transition into other
different kinds of lighting, but a Rembrandt
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becomes our first one.
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The number one lighting position is our Rembrandt.
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Now, again, she's turned away from the light.
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Her shoulders are turned to the light but
her head is turned back to the camera, but
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now that gives me the opportunity to create
what's called a split light.
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A split light is simply splitting the face
right down the center.
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So I'm gonna bring this light way around.
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I'm gonna use my Rocky Mountain leg here with
my Kupo stand.
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Whoop, we're falling apart over here.
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The reason I like Octodomes versus square
boxes is very, very simple and that's just
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simply I like the round highlight in the eye.
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That's why I like them and I think they're
a great choice.
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A square box is square, a round is round,
feels more like lighting sources that we see.
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It looks right in the eye.
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So there's our split light.
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We've moved the light way around to the side
and then now the light just simply does exactly
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that.
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It splits the face, highlight, shadow.
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There's no bleed of the light around onto
the side of the cheek, we're still looking
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into the shadow side of the face.
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If she turns her face into the light now and
there comes a Rembrandt.
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Chin down a little bit, there you go.
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Now, look back and come back this way here.
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So we're going from a Rembrandt and to that
split light.
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So those two transition pretty easily.
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Split light to Rembrandt to a broad light,
very easy to kinda transition between those
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three lights.
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When you get this in the right position, they
look fabulous.
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So, again, I can open this up the side of
her face, gives me the ability to really open
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that up.
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And if we wanna flatten it out, I can really
get in there and flatten it out as well.
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Again, I can try to do something that opens
up a little bit of her hair and gives us something
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to look at there.
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So there's a split light.
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Now, if we simply take her and turn her legs
away from the light, and now she's moved her
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position, looking away from the light, she
looks back into the camera now, we've taken
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that split light and it's turned into a broad
light.
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We're basically looking at the broad lit side
of her face through the camera.
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The camera's looking at the side of the face
that's lit.
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It's a position that is used all the time.
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I don't think it's the most interesting.
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I like to look into the shadow side a little
more than I do the broad side, but it's certainly
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a position that looks very nice.
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If I fill this correctly, this broad light
can be very pretty.
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We push in with this, we get just this open
kind of lit.
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It's like really bright highlights on the
broad side of her face and then a nice open
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look on the shadow side when you push this
card way in.
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Just let it really open up and fill.
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Again, we can come up in the back, try to
get a little light on her hair or we can even
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come in underneath, if we want, which changes
the look a little bit.
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And there's a broad light.
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You see the broad light used all the time.
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It's a very, very common light but probably
not as much as a Rembrandt or a split.
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Now, we're gonna go to what's called a butterfly
or a Paramount light.
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Why is it called a butterfly or Paramount
light?
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Well, it's called a Paramount light because
back in the '20s and '30s, the light, a lot
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of the actresses wanted to have a Paramount,
which is a high light overhead that gives
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us a little kind of butterfly underneath the
nose, that's why it's called a butterfly light.
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A lot of actresses had this in their contract.
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They couldn't be photographed unless it was
with a butterfly light.
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So a butterfly light is very easy.
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I'm gonna take my light, I'm gonna move it
all the way around.
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I'm gonna slide it right next to my camera
here and I'm gonna get Keana to look right
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back into the camera.
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There's my butterfly light.
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This is a beautiful light for women especially,
because what we get is we have a high light,
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runs the nose, drops this beautiful shadow
underneath the nose and sinks the cheeks.
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We get a little bit of shadow on each side
of the cheek.
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It's a very common light to use with women.
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It just looks really pretty.
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I mean, looks great on men as well but it
looks great, especially beautiful on women
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because of the cheeks and the cheekbones.
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If I'm in a hurry, if I'm in a tight situation,
I need to light fast, I've got a group of
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people, throw the light up next to the camera,
get it up high and get in that butterfly position
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and it looks really good.
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It's a great go-to light in a hurry.
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When you start to get the light to the side,
you got a group, becomes very difficult to
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get it to be even.
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You've gotta feather it and just work with
it a little more.
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But at the camera, high, you get an easy butterfly
light with someone and it works out really
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simple.
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If I take this light now and I drop it down
lower, I can almost flatten her face right
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out because I'm right above the camera.
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It's not my favorite place.
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I don't think that works as well as it can,
but it's interesting.
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I think a butterfly light is nicer when you
get it up.
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Get it up a little higher, start to see that
shadow develop underneath her nose, and that's
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a prettier light.
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Now, I'm gonna take and just take my fill
card and the best place for this now is to
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come in from underneath.
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I'm gonna reflect that light back in.
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I'm gonna open up the shadow under her chin,
under her nose.
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That's the hardest place, is the chin shadow.
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It becomes very deep in this.
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That's why some people do what's called a
clamshell lighting.
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You got a light up in a butterfly position
and you throw a soft box below, it just opens
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up the shadows.
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You put that on a lower setting, it opens
up the shadows beneath the chin, underneath
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the nose and just kind of flattens things
out a little bit but looks very, very nice.
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You see clamshell lighting all the time.
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But this acts kind of like a clamshell light,
in that it's bouncing back in.
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Clamshell is just simply two soft boxes.
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You look in her eye, you can see that round
catch light in her eye.
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That gives a sense that she's alive and not
dead, so you want that catch light.
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So this Octodome has gotta be up a little
bit to give us that nice shadow.
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Too low is too flat, too high starts to deepen
her eyes and that nose shadow starts to drop
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way onto her chin.
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We don't want that.
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But now, let's go to the last one.
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It's called a loop light.
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It's a loop light because it doesn't close
the loop on to the chin to become a Rembrandt.
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It's a loop that just kind of dies into the
cheek.
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Don't want it straight across.
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So if I bring this around for a loop light,
I'm coming all the way around here now.
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And I can loop this from either side, it doesn't
have to be here or there, up or down, in or
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out, in a box with a fox.
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So I can do a loop light from this side but
because of this white wall, it's just killing
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it.
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You don't see it very well.
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So I'm gonna take this back around to the
loop position.
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Difference between a loop and a Rembrandt
is the loop light's gonna be a kind of in
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between the two and it's gonna be a tiny bit
lower.
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So when this light's too low, this is not
a loop light, even though I've got a shadow
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coming off and somebody will say, "Oh, well
that's a loop there," no, that's just a broad
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deep shadow along the side of her nose and
has no interest at all.
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So bring this up a little higher and around
a little bit here to the front.
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She has such a petite nose.
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We don't see a really heavy loop light on
her face.
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I'm gonna bring this up just a little bit.
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Now we see this loop's starting to develop
on the side of her nose there.
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It gives us a nice bridge line, shadow line
on her nose, a nice loop off to the side but
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doesn't close it, doesn't turn it into a Rembrandt.
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We still see a highlight in there, so that
loop just kinda starts to dive into her nose
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and into her cheek.
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So, again, very easy to fill this.
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Make it as flat as we want and open.
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It's fascinating because every single face
is different.
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You think, "Oh, that person looks great.
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I look great with this."
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It's like, they don't.
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It just, I mean, they may or they may not
but it depends on the size of their nose,
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it depends on the way their cheekbones are,
depends on how sunken in their cheeks are.
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Every single thing is gonna be a little bit
different.
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So, as you're lighting a person, look at their
face, think about the different portrait positions,
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position it, experiment a little bit, height,
just keep moving around and experimenting.
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Don't get yourself locked into, "Well, I threw
the light up in this position so it's got
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to be there."
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Move it around a little bit.
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When you start to learn where to put them,
you'll be able to predict that a lot easier.
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You'll get it in the right place, it'll come
a lot quicker and you'll be able to see it
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a lot easier.
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So, in every single one of these lighting
positions, we're only using one light, that's
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the key light and using that and putting it
in the different lighting positions and that
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becomes a very successful experience.
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It's a key light with a fill card.
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So these are really one light solutions, one
light solutions to give you the ability to
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give you a nice light and with a single light.
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You start making decisions with these positions
about the person's face and what you want
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to portray.
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If I want a person to look very good and to
be open, then I'll probably go to a butterfly
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with a fill card and really soften that out
so it looks really open and soft and pretty.
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Also, the size of the source is gonna make
a huge difference.
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This is a pretty small source.
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A larger source is going to make this Rembrandt
wrap more.
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So the light's gonna see into the Rembrandt
more and the shadow side is gonna be filled
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a little more than it is.
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So, by adding a large source, this Rembrandt
can be even...it can be opened on the shadow
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side.
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By adding a smaller source, you can make this
Rembrandt even harder.
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If I take this box off, which is really easy
to do...
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You gotta be kidding me.
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I knew how that worked.
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So there's a Rembrandt in a hard light.
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This is a hard directional light.
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You can see it much easier.
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The triangle is very easy to see there.
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This is also very easy to fill, though.
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The difference between hard and soft light
is simply the transition between shadow and
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highlight.
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When your highlight to shadow is very quick,
it's a hard light.
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If your highlight to shadow is very slow,
in that there's a gradation, slowly becomes
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from highlight into shadow, that's a softer
light.
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So, in this case, we have a very fast transition.
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We put this in here and it really flattens
out her face, gives us a nice look at that
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Rembrandt.
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You can see all these lighting positions with
that much easier because there's our Rembrandt,
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we go into a split
down to a loop light.
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See that really strong loop there?
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So there we go, we can fill that in.
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There we go and then we go to our butterfly.
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So there's our butterfly in harder light.
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A little easier to see.
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See the hard shadow dropping underneath the
nose?
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Really easy to fill in because we throw this
in, opens up her chin, opens up her nose.
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Now back for a broad light, which we forgot
about.
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There's our broad light from the side.
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You look into the broad side as she turns
away from the camera.
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So, it's interesting because look at the eyelashes
on her, you see her eyelashes are very strong
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on her nose line there, that's just because
this is such a hard light.
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You see right down the shadow of the eyelashes,
which is really interesting.
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So there you go, the five portrait positions.
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Use them as a starting, a kind of a jumping-off
point.
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When you start to set your light, gives you
an idea where to set it, how to make the face
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look good and then start to fill it and augment
it.
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Now, this is just a single light setup here.
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we could take this so much further if we start
to add a rim light and add a light on the
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background.
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There's so many things we can do, but that
gives you a basis to get out there and start
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lighting.
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So, put some images up on our Facebook group.
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Show the different positions, call them out,
show them to your friends so that we all can
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see what you're doing.
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We want to hear from you, so go over that
Facebook group, follow us on The Slanted Lens
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and keep those cameras rolling, keep on clicking.
00:14:00
It's March and we're giving away a Tamron
35 millimeter 1.8 lens.
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It's a prime lens, a great lens.
00:14:05
To win this lens, you've got to go to Tamron
and The Slanted Lens and follow us both on
00:14:09
Instagram.
00:14:10
Post your story and tag both Tamron and The
Slanted Lens and that'll get you in to enter
00:14:12
as well.
00:14:13
And last of all, tag a friend in the comments.
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So it's a lens for Instagram here.
00:14:21
It's a lens for Instagram.
00:14:22
It's an Insta-lens.
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It's a grama-lens.
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A grama-lens?
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My grandma used this lens.
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No she didn't.
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So get out there, tag and follow.
00:14:45
[00:14:31]
[music]
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[00:14:46]
00:14:49
Keana: Subscribe.
00:14:52
Jay: To The Slanted Lens.
00:14:55
I was off balance.
