Here are a couple images from a model portfolio shoot over the weekend. Same model, similar poses, but very different looks. Let’s start with the lighting – can you describe the differences between the two of them? Hint: click on the images for the larger versions, then look at her eyes. If you look really carefully, you should be able to see the reflections of the lights I was using in her pupils. This is a standard photographer’s trick for reverse engineering lighting…

The image on the left is a standard portrait lighting. A large softbox provides the key light, coming in from the left, and a less bright softbox comes in from the right, providing the fill light. A small softbox on a boom stand shines down from above, providing a hairlight for separation from the background (which is black paper, not lit). Because her face is more towards the darker fill light, we see more of the bright side of her face, which is considered “broad lighting”. If her face were pointed more towards the key light, we would see more of her darker side, and it would be short lighting.

The second image is a standard “beauty lighting”, also called “butterfly lighting”. There is a single light shining down from above and in front. In this case a large rectangular softbox turned sideways (and I am shooting from underneath it). There are also two lights shining on the white paper to overexpose it (see my previous posts on high key lighting). In this case there is quite a bit of shadow under her chin and back towards her ears. I could have added a fill light to shoot up from near the ground, or had her hold a reflector out flat in front of her out of the frame, either of which would have filled in those shadows more.

However, what I think really makes these shots look so different from each other is not the lighting at all, but the fact that the first is shot from slightly above her face level, and the second is shot from slightly below. A slight change in your perspective can make a huge difference.

This is probably my favorite shot from the day…

The lighting is a combination of the above two – key and fill softboxes on the sides like the first image (though in this case the lighting ratio is more even, so it is not really broad or short lighting), with two lights on the background. A fifth light for the hair would not have hurt.

I am following three basic rules for posing women here:

1. Never let the shoulders be in a perfectly horizontal line.
2. Never let the spine be in a perfectly vertical line.
3. Always pay attention to where the hands are.

Of course rules are meant to be broken, but nevertheless it is worth knowing what they are so you can decide when to break them.