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What about the Light? - seeing is Believing - part 3 of 1 2 3 4

Published 01/02/2010

In image No 1, my subject is almost square to the plane of the camera, which creates a virtual split-lighting pattern that has the right side of her face in relative shadow. The softened light allows us to see ample detail and holds the catch-lights in her eyes. A closer look also shows we have a nice butterfly pattern below her nose.

This lighting pattern could be duplicated in the studio using a doublediffused medium-sized soft-box positioned at approximately 35 degrees off both camera and subject.

In image No 2, we have her head tilted toward the light and very slightly away from it. The angle of her head has increased the ratio as it has slightly blocked the path of the light. It is the same as having slightly raised the softbox or feathering it slightly toward the camera. The most significant effect of this head position is that it has eliminated the catch-lights in the eyes and creates an entirely different mood and the ratio has gone from a 3:1 to almost 4:1.

Feathering is a technique in which we change the angle of the light to the subject without actually changing the light position in the lighting set. We can feather in toward the subject or feather it out and away from the subject. Both methods will dramatically change the lighting pattern.

In image No 3, we have her head turned in the opposite direction, which opens up her face to the light, creating a 3:1 ratio that creates a wider view of her face because of more even illumination and also creates those important catch-lights. Also note that there is a nice butterfly pattern below her nose. A butterfly pattern is created when there is a shadow that fills the space between the laugh line and the centre of the nose just above the centre of the mouth.

This pattern is the same effect we would get if we repositioned the studio soft-box to 45 degrees from both camera and subject.

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• By Norman Phillips
  
  What about the Light? - seeing is Believing page 1
  
• What about the Light? - seeing is Believing page 2
  
• What about the Light? - seeing is Believing page 3
  
• What about the Light? - seeing is Believing page 4
  

1st Published 01/02/2010
last update 09/12/2022 15:00:19

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