Portrait Photography: Ten Styles with One Light

Lighting is one of the most important aspects of portraiture. Learn ten ways that you can use just one light source to take great portraits.

Introduction

• What you’ll learn in this course
• What tools will be demonstrated

1. Principles of Portrait Lighting

• Judging the quality, direction, color, and contrast of light
• Hard vs. soft
• Choosing a flattering light direction
• Conquering color problems
• Controlling contrast: All about the shadows

2. Making Soft Light

• Go with a big light
• Closer is the same as bigger
• Shine through vs. reflect for softness
• White vs. silver vs. gold reflectors
• Find big lights

3. Five Lighting Patterns

• Front light
• Loop light
• Rembrandt light
• Split light
• Rim or back light
• Combine with reflector for even more options

4. Making and Finding Directional Light

• Making directional light
• Finding directional light

5. Ten Portraits with One Light

• Lighting and posting for what the portrait should say
• Clam shell headshot
• Loop or Rembrandt
• Dark background and deep contrast
• Full length or three quarters
• Split light, skipping, and intense
• Extreme angle
• Reflector as the front light
• Reflector as the back light
• Silhouette
• Second curtain sync

Conclusion

• Next steps