Hey guys it's Dave here from Creative Path Films and in today's video
we're talking about butterfly lighting
butterfly lighting which is also known as paramount lighting or glamour lighting
gets its name from the small butterfly shaped shadow that is created under your subject's nose
it got its alternate name paramount lighting because it was the go-to lighting technique for
lighting hollywood superstars the likes of audrey hepburn it continues to be a popular technique
to this very day and is often used for portrait photography and glamour lighting this is because
it suits a wide variety of faces and it makes the face appear slimmer and longer highlighting
the cheekbones in a very appealing way but this technique is not just reserved for photography
it works wonderfully in film and video as well now before we get into the setup i've also created a
downloadable breakdown of this lighting technique to go alongside this video so if
you'd like to grab a copy of that links down in the description alright let's get into the setup
first position your subject within your scene facing the direction that you want one of the more
common positions for butterfly lighting is looking directly down the barrel of the camera but this
also works wonderfully with your subject looking off camera as well next grab your key light and
position it directly in front of your subject so that their nose is pointed directly at the light
next you're going to raise it up above head height so it's angling down at approximately 30 degrees
you want to move your light up and down until you see a nice little butterfly shadow appear just
underneath the nose if you position the light too high then the resulting shadow will be too long
and if you position it too low then there won't be any shadow at all and you'll completely flatten
out the face when positioned correctly you'll also observe some lovely shadowing and shaping under
the cheekbones as well as under the chin if you'd like a less contrasty look then you can position
a bounce board just underneath your shot to bounce some of that key light back into the face and fill
in those shadows a little bit now let's have a look at the same setup but this time our subject
is looking off camera instead and now we're going to add in our bounce board to fill in those
shadows this is the end result butterfly lighting is one of those techniques that looks fantastic
with either a hard or a soft light source so far we've been showing you just the hard light version
now let's have a look at a couple of ways that we can apply soft lighting techniques to this look
the first way is to add a layer of diffusion between your light and your subject you can do
this using a silk net a piece of diffusion paper or a soft box i prefer to use a soft box with a
grid attachment because that helps control the light spill the second way is to bounce your
light off a bounce board today we're using an inexpensive piece of white corflute which we've
mounted onto a light stand simply position your bounce board in the same position as your light
then bounce your light up into the board so it's reflected onto your subject's face
just remember when positioning your light and your board that the angle of incidence equals
the angle of reflection now let's have a look at the version with our subject looking off camera
but with a soft light source as you can see with the softer version we're still getting that lovely
definition under the cheekbones and under the chin but the shadows are a lot softer this time
using the soft version of this technique can sometimes be more flattering on certain faces
and it also has the added benefit of hiding blemishes that you might see on the skin we've
used this technique not just for stationary shots but it also works wonders in moving shots as well
in this shot you can see our actress was walking down a long hallway so we used a china ball which
was boomed over the top of our camera by our gaffer who was walking back in tandem
with our camera operator this allowed us to keep the lighting consistent on our actress
Amy throughout the shot well there you have it guys that is how you create a butterfly
lighting setup if you have any questions or requests for a particular lighting technique
let me know down in the comments below and if you'd like to don't forget to grab that breakdown
down in the description well i hope you learned something today and if you did make sure to let me
know by giving this video a thumbs up thanks for watching guys and we'll see you in the next one