In this video I'll cover Rembrandt
lighting, what it is, how to set it up, and
why occasionally failing isn't such a
bad thing.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey and
you're watching AdoramaTV,
brought to you by Adorama,
the camera store that's got
everything for us photographers.
Now when it comes to studio lighting,
there are no absolute rules,
but what there are are
building blocks, and one of the most
fundamental is the Rembrandt lighting
pattern, now this is all about the shadow
that's cast by your models nose,
and it extends down in Rembrandt
lighting and meets the shadow on their
cheek, this forms an inverted triangle of
light on
your models face, and that's Rembrandt
lighting now many photographers say they
use Rembrandt lighting,
but when you look
at the results occasionally it's not
actually Rembrandt lighting.
So in this video,
I'll show you exactly how to set
it up, and at the end of the video, I'll
show you why getting it wrong really
doesn't matter, but for now let's get
some lights set, let's get a model in,
let's get a heater on,
because it's really cold in here, and let's get
shooting.
So to help me out today I've
got the amazing Beth.
Beth is going to be the model for this
shoot, but before I
take any pictures, I'm going to go
through the technical aspects of what
Rembrandt lighting is.
Now to make this a lot easier to see.
I've done a couple of things,
the first one is I've got a hard
light source, remember this is all about
shadows cast by the nose.
So a hard light source will make that
shadow much easier to see,
and the other thing that will
help is... that this flash has a modeling
light, and that is definitely going to
help, but it really helps if we turn the
room lights off.
So we'll turn the video
lights out, so you can see what's going
on a lot clearer now.
At the moment I've
got the lights set to split lighting so
half of Beth's face is lit, and half of
her face is in shadow.
That's fine, but that's not Rembrandt
lighting, to see that, all I have to do is take my light
and move it towards the camera position.
Now as I pick it up and move it towards
the camera position, you'll start to see
a small amount of light just cross over
and we end up with that perfect
Rembrandt triangle on cheek.
Now the position is absolutely
vital, because if I keep moving the light
towards the camera position, eventually
we end up somewhere like that, and that
isn't Rembrandt lighting, that is loop
lighting, where the shadow doesn't reach
the cheek.
Move it back away from the
camera, and that will extend across until
the nose shadow and the cheek shadow
join up, and make the classic Rembrandt
position.
The height of the light is
going to make a difference as well.
If I elevate the light up, then the triangle
becomes much deeper, and now it goes
too far down.
That's not what we're looking for.
If I bring the light down, then I'll make
the shadow much shallower,
and eventually we lose the entire effect completely.
So getting this just right, is absolutely
critical, and somewhere around about
there looks pretty good.
Okay I'm going to take a test shot and
see how this comes out with the flash.
So, this looks great, we've got that
Rembrandt triangle, and I
could put a separation light in, or a
reflector, but in fact what I'm gonna do
is add a second light as a background.
So I'm gonna have a nice white
background, because this sort of
Rembrandt lighting is very dramatic,
especially if you're
going to use hard lighting to create it.
So I think maybe a contrasting black and
white shot could work really well.
Let's try a few pictures, okay,
Beth are you ready?
Okay here we go,
let's take test shots, and then,
it's worth saying there isn't a formula
for Rembrandt lighting, because the exact
position and height of the light varies
from person to person, because we've all
got different facial characteristics.
So that worked well, but there is a bit
of a problem, if you happen to be the
model because you actually get very
little room to move before you lose the
entire Rembrandt effect, let me
demonstrate.
So best if you can lean in towards my camera.
Now when Beth does that I have a
little bit of light on her cheek, but
it's not really that Rembrandt triangle
anymore, and it's even worse when she
moves backwards.
If you want to go back the other way,
now we have loop lighting,
where the shadows don't connect at all.
So although there is a bit of
flexibility, and if you use soft lighting
it's a little bit more flexible, we'll
get to that in a bit.
It's not that flexible,
and it gets even worse.
If I ask Beth to look towards the light,
so when she brings herself around
that's not Rembrandt lighting at all.
so if I want to do a profile picture with
Rembrandt lighting, and it does look
great when you do it,
all I have to do is move the light as
Beth moves, so if I move my light around,
there we go, I'm back to Rembrandt
lighting once again.
Okay we do a quick
little test shot like that, here we go,
now what you'll see in this picture is,
that it works really well, we have that
Rembrandt triangle in a profile picture,
but the unlit side of Beth is really dark.
Now I could live with that, or I
could get a second light or a reflector
and actually just fill in the shadows
with a little bit of a reflector, and
that's what I'm going to do, just to put
a little bit of separation on that side
of Beth's head.
Okay let's test this one,
and that works really well, okay let's do
a few shots like this.
The modeling light is incredibly useful
for helping me guide Beth's look in the
right direction, but it's worth
remembering the modeling light and the
flash aren't exactly the same thing, and
the results can vary ever so slightly.
Not everybody looks as amazing as Beth
in the hard light, for most of us soft
light is the way to go, and you can do
Rembrandt lighting with a soft light
source, it's a little bit more tricky to
see but the basic principle remains
exactly the same.
so the first thing I'm going to do is,
start with the light here,
where it's in split light on Beth.
I'll turn the room lights off so we can see
sort of what's going on a little bit
clearer, and once again I'm going to move
the lights to the side, so Beth you keep
looking at the lens for me.
I'm looking at the little bright spot arriving on
Beth's cheek, it is a little harder to
see because now we have a much softer
shadow, but the same thing applies if I
go too far.
I'm going to end up with Luke
lighting I go back a little bit, and I'll
get back into Rembrandt lighting.
Now obviously, the other side is still in
deep deep shadow, so I'm gonna add a
reflector to fill that side.
Soften the light effect, but keep that
Rembrandt triangle.
Now I could use a silver
reflector, but if I do that it is quite a
strong effect, so instead I'm going to
use a white reflector, and get it in nice
and close.
So the effect is still there,
it's just much much less obvious.
So that looks nice, I can still see the
Rembrandt triangle, but it is much more
subtle with this setup, but it's still there.
Okay, so let's take a few shots
like this and see what we get.
So Beth are you ready, okay here we go.
For these shots, I've gone for a softer look.
We've got Beth in a lighter color top,
I've lit the background with a second
flash, everything is high-speed sync flash
because I'm shooting with a wide
aperture for a shallow depth of field.
I've been doing photography for what,
quite a number of years, and over that
time the definition of what is Rembrandt
lighting has definitely loosened up
quite a lot, and I expect that will be
reflected in the comments below, but even
if you're aiming for Rembrandt lighting,
and you don't get that Rembrandt
triangle, it doesn't matter, what matters
is you've started somewhere you may have
failed, but you're going to go down a
different path, and it's that sort of
thing that makes you more creative as a
photographer.
Try, fail, do something better,
now if you've enjoyed this video or
you've got any questions, leave me a
comment below.
Click on the bell icon for
regular notifications of all the brand
new videos right here on Adorama TV, and
of course click on that subscribe button
I'm Gavin Hoey thanks for watching.