Butterfly lighting is a technique where the light source is placed directly above and slightly in front of the subject’s face, creating a small butterfly-shaped shadow under the nose. This happens because the lighting in the shot comes from above the models head. The technique is achieved by placing a light source at a 45-degree angle to the subject, slightly above eye level.

Butterfly lighting is primarily used in a studio setting. Butterfly lighting is mostly used for portraits, as it is flattering on everybody. It can either be a very harsh light or soft depending on the type of photo you want to achieve.

Here are some examples:

My photoshoot:

For my photos the Chiaroscuro photos are coloured yellow, the Rembrandt photos are red and the butterfly photos are coloured green

For this photo I didn’t edit it that much because the original photo perfectly displaced the butterfly lighting technique already so all I did was change the colour of the photo to a bit darker to match the dark backdrop.

For this photo I changed it to black and white to display the butterfly shadow under her nose and really show it off. Black and white was the better option for this photo as the model has dark hair and had a grey jumper on so by changing it to black and white demonstrates the darker features more effectively in this photo.

For this photo I edited the highlights and saturation of the photo as it looks like a happy photo as she is smiling so I turned up the whites, clarity and the saturation of the photo because I wanted to make the photo look more colourful to make it look vibrant and happy.