Mastering Studio and Natural Lighting for Portraits
For this post I decided to showcase and talked about the skills I have acquired in studio and natural light to create amazing portraits that will blow your mind. I have heard many photographers that don’t like to shoot portraits when the light is too bright that it creates really harsh shadows. However I am a stronger believer that natural lighting can be used in every way as long as you learn how to use it and where to put your model. Here are some examples of portraits in natural lighting using the rembrandt lighting pattern technique.
As you can see is all about how you position the model in order to create a beautiful breath taking portrait with natural light. Abril was a great model and wee took this natural lighting portraits in a parking lot. When the light creates a triangle between the shadows in the face it is called rembrandt lighting. This gives the portrait a dramatic and classic look and its achieved by having the light at 45 degrees from the model. Achieving this with natural light will make your portraits have a better composition. When talking about studio light it is not all about brightening all the face of the model, it is important to play with the light to have more interesting Portraits. Here is an example of a loop lighting achieved with speed lights. Loop lighting is achieved when a loop of light opens the shadow and is a very flattering studio lighting pattern.
This last portrait with studio light was done applying the split lighting pattern, this technique lights half of the face of the model and it is achieved by having the light at 90 degrees from the model. I edited this pictures of Markehl in Adobe Photoshop to create more dramatic eyes with the sharp tool. You can look at more ideas for lighting in the Vogue Magazine www.vogue.com
