Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt lighting is a lighting technique used for portrait photography. It is named after Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, the great Dutch painter and refers to a way of lighting a face so that an upside-down light triangle appears under the eyes of the subject.

In Hollywood in the early 20th century they used Rembrandt lighting and it became widely used in promotional photographs of film stars showing them in a dramatic and eye-catching way.

By using Rembrandt lighting you instantly create shadows and contrast which adds an element of drama and psychological depth to the character of your sitter. It’s effective, not just because it gives an individual ‘look’ to your portrait, but also because it acts as a photographic device to draw the eye. You can do this in so many ways in photography such as; leading lines, depth of field and negative space. These are all methods of drawing the viewer’s eye to the focal point/subject of the image. In portraiture, the eyes of your subject are nearly always the main point of focus. The triangle of light, placed just below the eye on the shadow side of the face, will increase the emphasis and the viewer really will be ‘drawn in’ to your image.

In order to create Rembrandt lighting you must focus on:

Light: Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.

Lens: Use a 35mm or 50mm if space is at a premium, or if you’re looking at including more of the subject than just the head and shoulders.

Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly lighting is a type of portrait lighting technique used primarily in a studio setting. Its name comes from the butterfly-shaped shadow that forms under the nose because the light comes from above the camera. You may also hear it called ‘paramount lighting’ or ‘glamour lighting’.

It is used for portraits and is a light pattern that flatters almost everybody, making it one of the most common lighting setups. It was used to photograph some of the most famous stars from classic Hollywood, and that’s why it’s also called Paramount lighting. With it, you can highlight cheekbones and create shadows under them as well as under the neck – which makes the model look thinner. 

In order to create butterfly lighting you must focus on:

Lighting: Butterfly lighting requires a key light that can be a flash unit or continuous. If continuous, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speed lights, LEDs or even the sun. A butterfly lighting effect refers to the setup and not to the quality of light, it can be soft or hard light depending on the effect you want. If you want to create a soft light, you’ll need to use modifiers. Alternatively, you can use grid spots to direct it and create different effects.

Experimentation: Once you have the key light set up, you need to fill the shadows. You can use a reflector to bounce the light back up and soften the shadow under the chin and the one from under the nose. To do so, position the reflector under the subject’s face. Start at waist level and see how it looks. If the shadows are still strong, move it closer to the face and so on. Experiment with different positions to achieve different effects. You can also change the colour of the reflector. A white one will give you a neutral tone, while a golden one gives a warming overcast. The subject’s face needs to be towards the light in order to have the butterfly shadow under the nose.

Chiaruscuro

Chiaroscuro is defined as a bold contrast between light and dark. A certain amount of chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in painting where 3-dimensional volume is suggested by highlights and shadows. It first appeared in 15th century painting in Italy and Flanders (Holland), but true chiaroscuro developed during the 16th century, in Mannerism and in Baroque art. Dark subjects were dramatically lighted by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source was a compositional device seen in the paintings of old masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt.

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood’s classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.

In order to create Chiaruscuro lighting you must focus on:

Using Flash: An example of “bouncing” the flash to soften the effects and create a larger “fill” can be tried wherever there are white walls/ ceilings. Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios such as: flash “bouncing”, fill-in flash, TTL / speedlight flash, remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting), fast + slow synch flash, light painting c/w slow shutter speeds.