Butterfly lighting is when the lighting creates an even amount of light across the face. It’s a great lighting pattern when photographing a subject with strong cheekbones.

The key light is placed above the subject and points down at them. This creates a dramatic shadow under the nose and chin that appears to look like a butterfly but this can also appear as quite soft and as a flattering effect on the subject’s face. Whereas in Loop lighting: If the shadow from the nose doesn’t extend into the shadows, it is loop lighting (and if the shadow of the nose is directly below the nose, it is called butterfly lighting).

The technique is achieved by placing a light source at a 45-degree angle to the subject, above the eye level. This creates dark shadows and dimensions to the subject’s facial structures.

A butterfly lighting effect refers to the setup not the quality of the light. It can be soft or hard light depending on the effect you want.

Setting up the butterfly technique:

Setting up the loop lighting technique:

Once the key light is set up then you can experiment to fill the shadows. You can use a reflector to bounce the light back up and make the shadow softer under the chin & the one from under the nose.

My Own Response: