Producing effective lighting for photoshoots is a key ingredient to success for any photographer. While it can be a challenging skill to learn, it’s incredibly effective and equally crucial if you want to produce good photography. Portraits rely heavily on proper lighting skills in order to meet the desired outcome. Here are some tips for reading the light for portrait photos.
Determine Key Light
The first step in the processing of lighting your portrait shoot is being able to determine what will be your key light, which is the brightest light you’ll use during your shoot. In order to do this effectively, you will need to consider the position. Use your model’s nose as a director to determine a positioning that will not cast shadows across your models face. The eyes will also work as a reflector of your light source, helping to brighten your model’s eyes. In order to identify where your key light is placed, you will likely need to adjust the positioning of your light a few times before you find the perfect spot.
Another factor of determining your keep light is by looking at your shadow transitions. Hard transitions between the shadows and the highlight of your light source are known as hard light sources. Adjusting those transitions to be more gradual will result in a lighter light source for your portraits.
Determine Fill Light
After you have determined the positioning and brightness of your key light and its shadow transitions, you need to determine your fill light. Only using one light source usually results in shadows being cast around your model and the photoshoot set. To offset these shadows, you need to use fill lights. While it can be more challenging to identify than your key light, it is equally as important. The main difference is that these lights tend to be very soft unless the photographer is going for a more dramatic effect and chooses to keep the shadows.
The best part about determining your fill light is that it gives you the freedom to explore what look and mood you are looking for while on set. Remember, these lights will always translate differently through a photograph, so be sure to take a few practice photos before finalizing your lighting set-up.