Butterfly Light

The “Butterfly” lighting scheme is one of the most advantageous light setups for most faces. Your goal is to create a butterfly-shaped shadow under the model’s nose. To achieve this, position the light source pointing at the model directly above her. This will create dramatic shadows under the cheeks, nose, and chin.

The “Loop” light

The name of this scheme comes from the circle of light on the model’s face. To achieve this type of lighting, set everything as for “Butterfly”, then move the light source slightly to the right or left. Move it until a nose shadow appears on the opposite side of the face.

Rembrandt Light

For this scheme, you need to create a light triangle on the model’s cheek. The Rembrandt light is a more dramatic version of the “Loop” light, in which the shadow from the nose joins the shadow on the cheek. To achieve this, move the light even more to the right or left than for the “Loop” and direct it at a sharper angle.

Split Light

Split light is the perfect way to create an air of mystery. The staging is simple – you need to place the light on the side of the model so that the other side of the face is in shadow.

Contour lighting

Contour lighting is great for separating the model from the background. For this arrangement, place the light source behind the model and tilt it so that it shines on the back of the head. This light source should be more powerful than the one that illuminates the face from the front – this will give the shot more drama.

Wide lighting

This type of light illuminates the wider part of the face (looking into the camera). The narrower part, which is farther away from the camera, is in shadow. To create this pattern, place the light source to the right or left of the model and tilt it so that the light falls on the face. Ask the model to turn her body away from the camera and her face the other way around.

Short light

Short lighting is the opposite of wide lighting. For this pattern, ask the model to turn the body toward the light so that the wide part of the face (facing the camera) is in shadow.

In these examples we used constant light for better illustration, but of course you can use strobes as well.