What is Chiaroscuro Lighting?

Chiaroscuro Lighting is an Italian lighting technique that stands for Light Dark, it is a high contrast lighting technique that that uses a low key lighting set up, it uses a single light source to create a dark background with lit subjects.

Why should you use it?

Chiaroscuro Lighting should be used as it provides an abstract contrast that helps to draw attention to the subject and to create a dark shadowy background, doing this can add a more unique look to the images that you take to boost the atmosphere and can help to create an almost three dimensional look to the image.

Who created it?

Chiaroscuro lighting was developed by Leonardo Davinci, Caravaggio, Vermeer, and Rembrandt and was developed by multiple people, it was mainly created in the Renaissance era and is still used today in low key photography.

How to create a Chiaroscuro Lighting set up –

Chiaroscuro in photography: Chiaroscuro using one key light and a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.

flash “bouncing”, fill-in flash, TTL / speedlight flash, remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting), fast + slow synch flash and light painting c/w slow shutter speeds