Five Common Lighting Techniques

In Advanced TV Production/Editing we are learning the proper way of setting up the five common lighting techniques and understand the proper use for them.

1. Flat Frontal Lighting- Flat lighting faces directly into the subject from the angle of the lens. Flat lighting is the least dramatic lighting pattern because it casts the least amount of shadows on the subject’s face. 
Procedures: Place your key in front of the subject in the same direction where you will be shooting. Angle the light so it lays “flat” on the face. This makes it a very flattering light for portraits because it decreases wrinkles and imperfections. Also, when using flat light, remember to light from slightly above the subject’s face. Lighting from below will create an unnatural and unflattering look.

2. 90 Degree or Split lighting- occurs when the key light illuminates only half the face. It is an ideal slimming light. It can be used to narrow a wide face or nose. It can also be used with a weak fill to hide facial irregularities. For a highly dramatic effect, split lighting can be used with no fill. 

Procedures: In split lighting, the key light is moved farther to the side of the subject and lower than in other setups. In some cases, the key light is actually slightly behind the subject, depending on how far the subject is turned from the camera.The fill light, hair light, and background light are used normally for split lighting.

3. Butterfly Lighting (or Paramount Lighting)- comes directly in front and above the subject’s face. This creates shadows that are directly below the subject’s facial features. The most notable shadow, and where this lighting pattern gets its name, is a butterfly shaped shadow just under the nose. It is also called “Paramount Lighting” because this lighting pattern was used heavily in the Paramount movie studio of old Hollywood. 
Procedures: Start the key light in the flat light pattern, then raise the light up until you see the “butterfly” shaped shadow under your subject’s nose. Angle the face of your light so it points at your subject. The only difference between flat lighting and butterfly lighting is the height and angle of the Key Light. This creates the same flattering features as flat lighting but includes shadows underneath the nose and chin.

4. Rembrandt lighting- Rembrandt is a stronger angle than loop lighting, making it look more dramatic. The more shadow we add to our subject and the more we turn our light away from flat lighting the more dramatic our lighting becomes. It is used heavily in all types of portrait photography including athletes.

Procedures: move your key light around the subject until the shadow of the nose is touching the shadow of the face. This primarily leaves one side of the face in shadow but keeps a triangle of light on the cheekbone and eye.

5. Scary Face Lighting- This creates mystery, tension, and suspense, because though you can see some of what's on screen, you can't see all of it. Your eye is trying to fill in the gaps of what it's missing and usually what you fill them in with is much scarier than what's actually there.

Procedures: Placing the key light under the subjects chin and nose creating a shadow on the subjects face 

To read more on the lighting terms you can visit this website SLR LOUNGE.com Or watch and instruction video witch is on YouTube 5 Common Key Light Patterns | Lighting 101