INTRO TO PORTRAIT LIGHTING

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Unflattering Portrait Lighting		Better Portrait Lighting

.INTRO TO PORTRAIT LIGHTING

Good lighting is a critical component of portraiture. It's also easily identifiable even by the casual observer. However, despite this apparent simplicity, knowing how to use light to achieve a desired look requires a much deeper understanding. This introductory tutorial discusses the most basic scenario: portraits with one light source. Subsequent tutorials will discuss setups with multiple lights, but the same principles discussed here still apply.

OVERVIEW: ONE LIGHT SOURCE

The primary source of subject illumination is usually called the main or key light. Although additional lights may be added to enhance a portrait, key lighting is usually performed independently. This is great news for those trying to learn portrait lighting, because it means one can ease into the process one light at a time. If and when you decide to include additional lights, everything learned here will still apply.

Only one trait controls the appearance of light on a subject: its distribution*. Even though some lighting may seem to have a magical quality, it's ultimately nothing more than this. However, for a given light source, we can separate this out into two more easily manageable characteristics:

1. Direction, which controls the location of shadows and highlights on the subject, and
2. Apparent Size, which controls the appearance of these shadows and highlights.

While these characteristics might seem simple and controllable, their combinations can create an amazing array of different subject appearances. Lighting can easily become unpredictable without first developing an intuition for each.

*Strictly speaking, the white balance of the light source is another trait, but for this portrait intro we're going to assume that you'll want to keep the source looking like natural light.

SIZE: HARD VS SOFT LIGHT

We'll start with apparent size, since this is perhaps the most common cause of poor portrait lighting. When photographers describe light as being "hard" or "soft," or use the term "light quality," they're actually just referring to the size of the light source:

		Harder Light	Softer Light
Light Size	→	Smaller	Larger
Shadows/Highlights	→	Abrupt	Gradual
Types of Sunlight	→	Direct	Overcast, Shade
Types of Flash	→	Direct	Bounced, Diffuse