Portrait lighting

Firstly, Butterfly lighting is another common lighting plan and has been very popular over the past decade or so. In this case, only two lights are commonly used. Normally the Key light is placed directly in front of the subject, often above the camera or slightly to one side, and a bit higher than is common for a three-point lighting plan which is often used. Now, the second light is a rim light lamp. A reflector is placed below the subject's face to provide fill light and soften shadows around the model.

The use of this lighting can be recognised by the strong light falling on the forehead, the bridge of the nose and the upper cheeks, and by the distinct shadow below the nose which often looks rather like a butterfly and thus provides the name for this lighting. The use of Butterfly lighting was a favourite of Hollywood portraitist George Hurrell which is why this style of lighting is often called Paramount lighting, after the movie studio. Lights can be added to basic lighting plans to provide additional highlights or add background definition highlights.

The kicker is a small light, often made directional through the use of a snoot, umbrella, or softbox lamp. A kicker is designed to add highlights to the off-side of the subject's face, usually just enough to establish the jaw line or edge of an ear or nose. A kicker should be a bit brighter than the fill light, but not so bright it over fills the off side of the head. Photographers choose not to use a kicker and settle for the three main lights of the standard lighting.

Background lights are not so much a part of the portrait lighting plan, but rather designed to provide illumination for the background behind the subject. Background lights can pick out details in the background, provide a halo effect by illuminating a portion of a backdrop behind the subject's head, or turn the background pure white.

Most lights used in modern photography are a flash of some sort or other. Lighting for portraiture is typically diffused by bouncing it from the inside of an umbrella, or by using a soft box arrangement. Soft boxes are a fabric box, encasing a photo strobe head, one side of which is made of translucent fabric material. Soft boxes provide a softer lighting for portrait work and is often considered more appealing than the harsh light often cast by open strobe lights.

Most hair and background lights are usually not diffused at all. Normally it's more important to control light spillage to other areas of the subject matter. Use snoots, barn doors and flags or gobos help focus the lights exactly where the photographer wants them to be. Some background lights are sometimes used with colour gels placed in front of the light to create coloured background effects.