All language subtitles for 6. Theory of Lighting Patterns

So if you ever read a book about

photography, you would have heard about lighting patterns,

and most commonly there are five lighting patterns.

People have been popularizing this for many, many

years.

I actually believe there are a lot more,

and if you really break it down, there

are countless.

I'm gonna show you many of those right

now.

More important, guys, than understanding, well, this is

called Rembrandt lighting, or this is called short

lighting, or whatever it may be, guys, I

don't really care much about the naming of

it all.

I care more about the feeling and what

it does for the subject and what we're

trying to actually say about that subject.

I think it's important to maybe mention, but

remember, more important than the words is what

it does.

So let's first talk about loop lighting.

Okay, what is loop lighting?

You've probably heard of this thing, what's loop?

What loop are we talking about?

Well, we're gonna call this loop, open loop,

and I'll discuss that in a moment, and

that refers to the loop-type shadow to

the side of the nose, which does not

touch the shadow of the cheek, and it's

usually considered front-on.

And what does this do for us?

It adds depth, dimension, and shape among many

things.

So let me show you what that loop

is.

That loop is right here, okay?

So we've got the light coming from about

45-degree angle.

You can actually see the catch lights in

her eyes up on an angle like this,

and we basically have a shadow of the

nose.

Now, you see how the shadow of the

nose does not actually touch that shadow of

the cheek?

Therefore, it's an open loop, okay?

So we called loop is usually front-on,

and it's an open loop.

Again, think about what this more does for

the face than what we're trying to do,

rather than the naming of it all.

Do whatever you need to do to remember

it, but ultimately, you just have to know

what it does.

Let's show you some more examples of that.

So you see that loop shadow right here?

There's a shadow, a loop shadow right over

this way, and as you can see that

the lighting that's in a bit of an

angle or her body in proportion to the

light is where that both eye sockets are

completely lit.

So what I would have done is I

would have turned her face this way and

then turned her face towards the light until

her complete eye socket is lit, and then

of course, naturally, we get a shadow.

Now, depending, guys, on the actual person's face,

and it could be ethnicity or anything like

that, you could have a longer nose, shorter

nose, wider nose, whatever it may be, that

shadow is gonna increase in size or length

or depth depending, again, on that face or

ethnicity and so on.

Let's show you some other examples here.

Again, we've got that loop shadow.

It does not touch the shadow of the

cheek.

It's front on, it's called open loop, and

remember, this is gonna be a very, very

flattering way of shooting someone.

We've got beautiful highlight, we've got beautiful shadow,

we've got beautiful shape, and that works really,

really well.

So let's now talk about short lighting.

Short lighting, often people refer to it as

loop lighting, and it's sort of similar to,

it's basically the same thing, but it's more

referred to shooting on a bit of an

angle.

So shooting on the shadow side of the

face, same as open loop, but the face

is turned towards the light and not the

camera.

This is very, very common.

This is, in fact, my favorite quality of

light or my favorite lighting pattern that you'll

see me do over and over again.

It's most common, it's very flattering.

There's obviously depth and there's dimension and it

slims the face.

That's why I love it.

Let's show you my favorite bride that I've

ever photographed and that is my gorgeous wife,

Melissa.

So she's turning her face towards the light.

I'm not shooting on a front perspective, which

we called sort of loop.

In this now, we actually have got the

loop still, but we're shooting on a bit

of an angle and that's been popularized over

the last several decades as short lighting, you

may have heard that.

Same with the guy, we've got that loop

shadow, but we are shooting on a bit

of an angle.

It doesn't touch the actual cheek, that particular

shadow of the nose there as well.

This is my nephew, Zane, and it works

really well.

Be careful too, that you don't raise the

angle of the light too high, that that

shadow of the nose touches the lips because

then you make the nose look very, very

pronounced.

The lips don't look quite distinguished and it

looks a little bit weird.

But remember, try to at least illuminate the

eye or not, either have it completely lit

or not.

Sometimes, especially for the male form, you can

have half shadows underneath the eyes and it

looks quite good.

For a woman, not so great.

And again, it depends on what you're trying

to say about the subject and what mood

you're trying to create.

So let's go to this girl.

Again, we're shooting on the shadow side of

the face.

We call that the short side, the narrow

side, the sexy side.

We do have that loop shadow, which means

the light's coming from this direction.

And it's very flattering and it's, like I

said, it's very, very common.

This one, of course, we've got, the light

source is very close to the subject.

It's quite intense, as you would see.

And the highlight and shadow transition is quite

great.

But again, we're shooting on the shadow side

of the face.

That shadow does not actually touch the shadow

of his cheek.

And it's a very, very common way of

photographing.

So remember, short lighting, it will save you

a lot when you're photographing.

Now, let's talk about broad lighting.

So broad lighting, basically, you would arguably say

is pretty much the same as short lighting.

All we're doing now is we're just leaving

the subject there, but we're shooting on the

other side.

So basically it's the face turned away from

the light, shooting on the light side of

the face.

Now this can widen the face.

We've got less detail and it's usually better

for the male face, the male form.

So you can see now what I'm talking

about.

If I shot her on the shadow side

of the face on this side, that would

be short lighting.

If I'm shooting her on this side, it's

broad.

Now she has a very, very narrow face.

She's very skinny.

Broad lighting can make someone look arguably bigger,

but because she's got a very skinny face,

it actually works for her.

So it works really well.

In fact, in this photograph, we see two

ways of shooting.

We've got the broad side.

We're shooting her on the broad side, the

light side of her face, and we're shooting

the groom on the short side.

So now she's very, actually they're both very

slim, but we actually make him look a

little bit slimmer and her looking a little

bit broader, but because she's got such a

slim face and beautiful cheekbones and jawline, then

life is good, no problem whatsoever.

What about when we're photographing, let's say a

mature age face, and then we're photographing someone

a little bit slimmer.

So let's look at the same bride now.

Now, this was, I directed a few shots

before, but this is a beautiful moment where

the grooms or the bride's father was just

wiping some tears and mom's soaking in that

moment.

But you see how we've got mom turning

her face towards the light.

So we're shooting her on the short side

and then transition from light to shadow is

not so abrupt.

So it's a softer, quite flattering light, and

it's a big light source being a big

window.

And she just naturally turned her face towards

her mother, which makes it basically we're shooting

on the broad side.

Now, again, short side, broad side, what does

all this mean?

Remember, just know that what is actually doing

for the person that you're photographing.

It can make a slimmer face look a

bit bigger and broader.

It can make it look a little bit

softer depending on what you're doing.

It all depends on the look that you're

trying to go for.

So again, let's look at the difference.

We're looking at the short side here.

We are talking about broad.

The short side on this side, but then

when I simply just turn around and shoot

him on the broad side, it looks very

different.

I actually prefer him on the broad side.

I think a lot of guys actually look

better on the broad side.

I just think it's a masculine thing.

It's sort of hard to explain.

It just works.

Like, yes, this narrows his face.

Yes, it gives him a more defined shape

in the slimmer face.

But if I shoot him on the light

side, then now it's quite broad, but it

somehow works for his face.

So it's not like you can simply go

and photograph lighting pattern 23 with bride number

47, because that might just not work for

them.

So you can't be so premeditated with your

lighting that it just never changes because that's

just not right.

It needs to be what would suit this

person with this quality of light, this intensity

of light, with this subject, and what am

I trying to say?

That's very, very important.

You may have heard about Rembrandt lighting.

And Rembrandt lighting, of course, is lighting that's

been popularized by Rembrandt, because often that he

would use window light that was very small

and quite up high, and the lighting was

quite dramatic.

And in which ways is Rembrandt lighting different

to shot lighting or loop lighting?

Well, here's the difference.

So we're calling it, it's basically another way

of calling Rembrandt lighting is closed loop.

The triangle of light in the face when

one eye or both eyes are in shadow,

basically when the shadow of the loop of

the nose, so the, sorry, let's start again.

The shadow of the nose touches the shadow

on the cheek and it joins to cause

a little triangular piece of light on that

face.

And what is this for?

It's dramatic, it's moody, it slims the face,

it's depth, it gives us dimension, it's very

masculine.

So you can see now where that shadow

of the nose meets that cheek.

And again, usually it's where the one eye

or both eyes are in shadow.

I think people mistake Rembrandt lighting for shot

lighting.

That's not the way it is.

And again, same guy, different clothing here, but

we've got that triangular piece of light on

the face.

And it doesn't always have to be a

window.

This could be sunlight, for example.

So we're looking, this is a couple here.

She's tilting her face and chin is up.

The sun's coming down and we've got the

shadow of the nose joining that cheek there

as well.

And again, guys, more important than, well, I'm

gonna do a Rembrandt lighting today.

You just need to know that it's gonna

be strong, it's gonna be very dramatic, it's

gonna be very moody, it's gonna be very

masculine.

That's what you need to know.

Yes, how to do it and how do

you do it?

All this lighting, and I'm explaining this two

dimensionally as in I'm there on your, you're

watching me on a screen right now and

I'm not even doing this with models, but

all you'd have to do is hold a

light source to this subject and move the

light around until you get the desired effect.

So if you don't really know about lighting

and thinking, well, where do I begin?

It's simply, well, what will make someone look

more flattering?

What's less descriptive?

What's gonna be more dramatic?

And once you start looking at these lighting

patterns, then you will match the mood that

you're trying to convey with the particular person

and then you move the light accordingly.

As you can see the shadows, the sun

is way above here.

I had to give her a pose that

would tilt and her chin would be up

so that I can get that quality of

light on there as well.

This again, this is a bit more subtle,

but you do see that little highlight on

his face where and also the triangle, that

little loop shadow of his nose is joining

the actual shadow of the cheek there as

well.

This one here, we've got the light directly

above her.

This is basically a very small light source.

It is coming right down.

I need to give her an excuse to

get that light in her face.

So I tilt her face and chin up,

but the light is directly above her.

But again, the shadow of the nose meets

that cheek.

And you sort of see that I'm actually

showing you a lot of girls with Rembrandt

lighting.

I said it was very masculine.

I'm not saying to you that you can

never do Rembrandt lighting on a girl.

No, I'm saying, well, it's just usually a

bit more masculine.

So in other words, if let's say, for

example, you are photographing someone, maybe with a

female with masculine features, and then you use

masculine quality of light, then perhaps you're going

to make that face look less attractive as

in less feminine.

Does that make sense?

So we have to actually be careful of

that.

This one here, again, we've got broadside for

him, but then we've got that Rembrandt lighting

on her face, still using the sunlight.

So remember, Rembrandt lighting will be amazing if

you want to create mood and drama.

And if you want to learn from the

best, learn from the man himself.

Google Rembrandt, go to an art gallery, have

a look around and have a look at

the mood that is created with one light

source, way better than we will ever do

in photography with beautiful paint on a canvas.

Let's now talk about flat lighting.

Light from the front with little to no

shadow.

It's less descriptive, but it's also very flattering.

So what am I trying to say?

I'm saying the light is flooding the person.

We're basically flooding the person right from the

front.

And yes, there's a bit of shadow here

and there, but that's because this is being

cut away from other things in this particular

environment.

This was my open garage, and I'm actually

illuminating her from the front, and it's very

soft, it's beautiful, it's flattering.

When I say less descriptive, I'm not saying,

well, I don't, yes, I can see her

eyebrows, her eyes and her nose and her

lips and things like that.

I can see all those things.

But ultimately, I see less detail in the

skin.

So this might be a great way to

photograph maybe parents or grandparents or anyone with

maybe some challenging skin or acne or anything

like that.

Some could be just some, you know, happy

lines, you know, when you smile and all

those lines that you have and people call

them crow's feet.

I'm like, that's not really a nice way

of saying it.

Just call them happy lines or whatever.

This girl here, we've got beautiful light flooding

her from the front, and it's less descriptive.

We've got, her skin is already quite beautiful,

but we're actually making it sort of less

obvious.

If I brought the light from here and

I create texture, let's say she had one

pimple.

Now, I often think of lighting like, or

a face like the Grand Canyon, okay?

Peaks and valleys.

So in other words, where you've got those

smiling lines, where you've got creases on your

face and things like that, where you've got

all those different things, that's like a mountainous

range.

If you're shooting or photographing, let's say the

mountain from above or light from above, as

we've discussed that lighting is like water, we're

filling in all those nooks and crannies, as

we say in Australia, all those peaks and

valleys.

It's all even, it's flat.

Now, the minute we have one little peak

and we have light coming from the side

or water coming from the side, then now

we get a shadow of that pimple or

that blemish on the skin that's gonna be

a problem.

So remember that light is like water and

if you want less description, light from the

front, if you want more description, light coming

from the side, because that will increase texture,

depth, dimension and form.

This is the same thing, light's very, very

much bouncing in front of her.

Yes, there's light from behind her, but the

light's right in front, it's very flat and

it's very flattering.

Same with this girl, this was shot with

a 1.4 lens, a 105 and it's

flooding her, it looks beautiful, it's soft and

it's very glamorous.

Same thing here, this is just opening up

the garage door and allowing light to filter

through and it's just very front on.

If I wanna create more shadow on different

parts of her body, although the light's coming

from this way, remember, light travels in straight

lines and it's just sort of basically flooding

her from the front.

If I decide to actually put maybe a

black card or a gobo or a flag,

whatever it is that you wanna call it,

but basically a piece of black card on

either side, I'm cutting away light, which even

though the light's coming from the actual front,

giving us flattering light, that these shadows on

the side of her body are actually created

by cutting away that light on either side.

This one here, light flooding her completely in

the front, we're filling up all the crevices

so to speak and bang, it's basically all

there and same with this girl.

So remember, if you're photographing someone that's maybe

aging skin, a challenging skin, or simply you

just wanna make someone look pretty, flat lighting

will be the way to go.

Let's now talk about what's been popularized over

the years and what we call paramount lighting

or butterfly lighting and that has been popularized

over the years because this was often used

for Hollywood stylists back in the bygone era

where you'd have these Hollywood beautiful stars and

one light will be from a constant, continuous

light from the top and would illuminate her

and we'd get a bit of a shadow

underneath the nose that someone said that looked

like a butterfly and it's just stuck.

I personally don't think it looks like a

butterfly, I'll let you be the judge in

the next photograph, but it's one light from

above, very much usually centered to the subject,

emphasizes cheekbones and jawline, it's flattering, it's very

glamorous.

So this particular photograph, as you can see,

we've got the light directly above and in

the center and it's creating a shadow underneath

her nose.

Be careful that that shadow on the nose

does not cross the lip, otherwise it reduces

the size of the lips and that illusion

and it is quite distracting.

So make sure there's a gap between the

shadow of the nose and the upper lip.

So that's supposed to look like a pterodactyl,

I think it looks sort of like a

hawk flying, but perhaps hawk lighting didn't stick

because it didn't sound as pretty.

This one here, we've got the shadow underneath

the nose and lighting up above.

Now I've deliberately actually kept her eyes in

shadow because I wanted to make her look

a little bit sexy, but sinister.

So I don't have that catch lights in

the eyes with this respect.

So again, lighting is all about what you're

basically trying to say.

This is probably more in tune with what

we talked about with Hollywood lighting or Paramount

lighting, butterfly lighting, light from above, this was

an actual video light and we've got that

bit of a shadow underneath the nose there

as well.

And it's very glamorous, it's very pretty.

But this can be done in the sunlight

as well.

Again, we've got that similar shadow and of

course that shadow underneath the nose will be

different based upon the length, the size, the

width, the depth of the nose, the shadow

will be a little bit different depending on

who you're photographing.

So if you want something typically glamorous and

beautiful and all that kind of stuff, then

this is gonna be a good choice for

you.

So let's talk about split front because you

may be thinking, well, Gerry, I think you've

covered all the lighting patterns that I've read

and seen and heard before, but is there

another way?

Well, split lighting is one of those lighting

patterns that's been popularized, but I'm gonna show

you some variations to all of these in

a moment.

Excuse me.

So split front, what does that mean?

Well, basically we're illuminating only one side of

the face.

It's dramatic and it's moody and it's considered

very masculine.

So in this respect, we are shooting the

bride on the light side of the face,

but in this case with the guy, with

the groom, we are shooting him on one

side of the face and the other side,

which of course is being covered by the

bride's face as well on the veil, is

not lit.

That's considered split lighting.

Now let's ignore the edge light here, the

room light that's on his face, but the

main light's coming from one side, giving him

a shadow on this basic side.

It is very masculine.

It is a very cool way of shooting.

Now I wanna talk to you about now

the difference between say pretty light and not

so pretty light and liken it to being

sweet and sour.

Let me explain.

Like a dish, you've got sweet and sour.

If you have too much sweet, it's just

too much.

If you like, or it's too rich, you

need something, for example, if you have something

very, very rich, you might need something acidic

to just break up the richness of a

particular part of a dish.

So this analogy, guys, is more, and this

is not meant to, I'm taking the emotion

away and my feeling that I believe everyone

is beautiful in their own way, so please

don't judge me for what I'm about to

basically say, and that is this.

If you have, let's say, and let's consider

an attractive face, as in what society deems

as attractive and pretty and symmetrical and all

that kind of stuff.

So if you have, let's say, a pretty

face over here, and then you have, let's

say, pretty light, well, great, we're bringing out

the best in that person, pretty light, pretty

face, pretty light, pretty, great.

If you have, say, a challenging face, challenging

features, let's say, let's consider the analogy of

a sweet face to a sour face, as

in sweet is pretty, say feminine, let's say,

and then sour is masculine.

So if you, let's say, for example, you

had a girl with a masculine, say, face

and features, you would say that that would

be sour.

So let's say they're sour here.

Then if we have masculine light, sour light

with a sour face, too much.

So we need to basically counteract that a

little bit, the same way with cooking.

So I'm not saying that a girl can't

get away with split lighting because Jerry said

in a course in a bundle that this

was basically considered a bit more masculine.

No, if you have a pretty face, so

in this case, my beautiful wife, Melissa, she's

got split lighting.

It's considered more masculine, but you would say

that she gets away with it.

It actually really looks good with her.

So it just depends on what you're trying

to say.

This girl has a pretty face and it's

split lit, but she looks amazing in it

still.

So again, it all depends on what you're

trying to say.

But going back to it, guys, that we

are, this kind of lighting will usually suit

the masculine face, the masculine form, and it's

considered quite dramatic.

So again, don't go out there, I wanna

photograph split lighting today.

No, you should basically say, you know what,

I wanna create some really beautiful, dark, moody,

dramatic pictures of this guy because that's what,

he just rigs that.

Great.

What do we do?

We just put the light on one side

of the face.

It does not illuminate the other side.

And again, depending on different faces and shapes

of nose and things like that, sometimes the

light has to come a little bit further

back to not have a shadow on the

other side of the face because some people's

noses are a bit bigger and smaller and

flatter and things like that, the nature of

who we are.

Again, this girl, split lighting, one side lit,

the other side not, pretty face, sour light,

masculine light, she gets away with it.

And sometimes you can do split lighting and

depending on the person's face, you might get

a little tickle of light on the eye

depending on the bridge of the nose.

And that can be really cool too when

hardly any light or little or no light

is touching on this side and a little

tickle of light is actually illuminating there as

well.

So really, really cool thing to understand the

difference between these lighting patterns.

Let's talk about split short.

So this is where we start to get

a little bit tricky.

As in, I do believe there's a lot

more than the five lighting patterns that have

been popularized over the last several decades because

I believe that the lighting patterns and I'll

be honest, I'm not too sure who popularized

these names and these sayings, but it was

no different to the Jerry Gionis of decades

ago and also no different to the artists

who didn't even have to coin that kind

of lighting.

Like Rembrandt didn't say, well, today I'm gonna

do Rembrandt lighting.

Well, I'm Rembrandt, I'm painting, that's gonna be

a Rembrandt lighting, it's painting.

Like that's what it is.

Rembrandt would do lighting based upon what he

wanted to say about the subject.

If he wanted dark, dramatic, moody or shooting

in the basement of a house with the

window light being tall, that was just circumstantial.

The lighting was already there and that's the

nature of the light and that's what we

did.

And then you'll get someone like Renoir who

paints above ground, so to speak, or in

the open air and things a bit light

and fluffy.

And it depends on what you're trying to

say about the person, about who you are,

what you're trying to say about the event,

whatever it may be.

I'm gonna get a bit more deeper now

with these lighting patterns and start to separate

them a little bit.

Let me explain.

Here we've got split short.

We're illuminating only one side of the face

but I'm shooting on the short side.

So not only am I using one light

on one side of the face, I'm actually

biased now to the shadow side.

So let me explain this.

So you see, rather than looking straight into

the camera, we're illuminating her on the other

side but I'm shooting her on the shadow

side.

Therefore, we have an extra lighting pattern.

Let's ignore the rim on his jawline on

the back of his shoulder there, his neck.

I'm actually got the light on one side

and not the other, but I'm shooting him

on the shadow side of the face.

Same here, same here, ignore the edge light.

We'll talk about that shortly.

So it can actually be really cool, very

dramatic.

It's got a very cool vibe about this

quality of light.

See again, in this case, we've got lighting

on one side.

We've got some residual light in the front

there as well.

You can see, of course, some detail there

but it can be very, very cool.

And of course this girl, again, let's call

it sweet face, very pretty light, but sorry,

sweet face, masculine, sour light per se, but

she gets away with it.

Again, depending on the person.

That's the thing is that when you're photographing

a wedding, guys, you normally wanna flatter someone.

Now you can be walking on the streets

of Columbia or where it may be, or

India, and you want to get wrinkles in

the face and you want to get the

texture and all that kind of stuff.

Well, for a bride, she might not want

that.

She might not want all that character.

She might wanna look really pretty, but also

see character.

So you gotta combine these different looks and

based upon who you're photographing.

Let's now talk about split broad.

So what we're basically doing now is we're

using, we're illuminating one side of the face

with light, but we are shooting on the

light side of the face.

So dramatic moody is also very masculine.

So if we look at this, we've got

the groom sort of bias to camera right

or his left, and we're shooting him on

the other side.

Again, he's one side of the face, but

I'm shooting him more on this broad side.

Now you might say, well, what game plan

do you have when you're photographing?

What do you do?

Where do you even start?

Well, sometimes I will look at a face

and my first instinct is normally do short

lighting as in let me turn the face

into the light.

Let me shoot on the shadow side of

the face.

And then now I've got that shadow of

the nose, the loop shadow, not touching the

shadow of the cheek.

And that's maybe a good foundation place to

start.

Well, what I sometimes do, if I have

just one light there, I'll just get them

to just bring their chin up, look at

them directly right in the face and say,

all right, let's just turn this way.

Turn, turn, turn.

So sometimes it's more instinct.

Like your gut's telling you that, your mind

is telling you, well, I will just do

short lighting on this person or this person

has a wide face.

Therefore, I should just shoot slim.

I should shoot on the short side.

But then I'm like, well, wait a second.

If I just get him to turn a

little bit, now I've reduced the size of

his face because we've got a shadow on

the other side, but I've broadly lit him.

Arguably, if I illuminated him with short lighting

and shot from this perspective, arguably his face

will be widened.

So it's almost like an oxymoron.

You've got to work out whose face will

work with what kind of lighting and how

do you learn this?

It comes with practice, guys.

I, to this day, I will look at

a face and say, well, I think it's

going to be this, but wait a second.

Putting him in that light, something's telling me

that doesn't work for them.

Trust your gut, turn the face, turn the

light or both, and then life is good.

And again, turning the face a little bit

off to the side, shooting him on the

broad side of the face, and that looks

really cool.

So a couple more examples there.

Again, my wife, Melissa, split lighting on the

broad side.

She gets away with it.

And then sometimes I can just chop into

the light as well with shadow, and it

looks very moody and dramatic.

Sweet face, masculine light, sour light, sweet and

sour.

No problem, still tastes good, so to speak.

What about, this is now getting a little

bit tricky now.

We're going to be doing another lighting pattern,

profile, short, open loop.

So illuminating a small part of the face,

it's dramatic, moody and cinematic.

So we've got that loop shadow, it's open

loop.

So we've got an open light between there

and there, but I'm shooting the profile.

This can look really cool, very dramatic.

And of course, you get the right subject,

the right expression.

It can look really, really, really amazing.

So I love this kind of stuff.

You might say, well, how do I do

this?

Well, all you've got to do, guys, is

wherever your light source is, just turn them

right away from the light source.

And then simply just, like you're standing here,

you just turn the light, turn the face

towards the light, or the light away from

the face, depending on which way you're doing

it.

And as soon as that light tickles this

eye, you know there's gonna be a strong

shadow on this side of the face.

And it can work really, really beautifully.

I love this kind of lighting.

You may see this actually on both photographs

that are flanking me.

So if you look at this photograph and

that photograph, you're actually seeing that exact kind

of lighting setup where we're turning the face

into the light until this eye socket is

completely lit.

I do not see the other side of

the face.

I'm shooting a profile.

This particular photograph, I've got light hitting her,

but also hitting a reflector back on her.

And that's the way you get that beautiful

detail there as well.

Now you probably would have heard about clamshell

lighting.

Clamshell, what is a clamshell?

Right, it's a shell.

The sea opens up like this, or it

can open up like that in photography terms.

It's basically one light here and one light

there.

What is the golden rule when you're photographing

clamshell?

Before we discuss that, of course, it illuminates

both sides of the face evenly.

It's flat, less descriptive, it's very flattering.

Now, when I say evenly, here's the thing.

Of course, you see two ice lights here.

We've got one light on top, one light

in the bottom.

It's flooding her.

So for example, if we liken light to

water in this particular discussion here as well,

we've got light coming on here this way,

but it might not wet her, so to

speak, on different parts of the face.

So where it's not wetting her, it's gonna

wet her here, as in where it's not

illuminating her on this side, it's illuminating her

on that side.

So we get this beautiful, even look.

It's really, really important, guys, to know that

when you're doing clamshell lighting, the value of

your light sources and the intensity of the

light between both either have to be the

same, if not this one be a little

bit brighter.

If this one is brighter, as in this

one becomes your main light and this one

becomes your fill, well, then you're gonna get

some ugly shadows on the upper cheekbones, and

that's not cool, especially for the female form

when she's not gonna like that.

So one light on top, one light on

the bottom, and it could be anything.

It could be two flashes, it could be

two reflectors, it could be whatever you're doing.

Just don't have that bottom light less of

value, less intensity than the other one.

And of course, that's the shot that we

get.

This one was actually done, two photographs, actually,

in fact, this was of, but basically, this

is her in real life.

That's the reflection.

I did one looking at the camera, one

looking down, and then I flipped it, and

that's how we actually get that particular look.

But you can see how it's very, very

flattering, very, very beautiful.

The light floods on her face, top and

bottom, very evenly, and it works really well.

One light that you probably haven't seen a

lot of is called badger.

If you actually Google the animal badger, it's

quite weird.

There's a bit of a, the pattern of

fur and the different kind of contrast of

fur on their faces, it's almost like a

shadow.

It's actually quite weird.

An actual badger, the animal, has a shadow

basically, well, shadow, a marking on the fur

here and here that's contrasty.

So in some ways, it's not actually linguistically

correct, for want of a better word, but

we often refer to badger or clamshore from

behind or doubleback, it's been popularized over the

last several years and decades, that's basically creating

a shadow in the middle of the face.

So we call this moody, dramatic, and sinister.

You would very, very rarely do this on

someone, but you can sort of see, depending

on what you're trying to say, that can

be very, very effective.

So just be careful and use that kind

of lighting with caution.

You can use doubleback in a sense where

you don't create a shadow on the face,

but you just get a little bit of

an edge light, which we're gonna talk about

right now.

So you may have heard of rim light,

edge light, backlight, hair light.

What does that basically mean?

Well, they all pretty much mean the same

thing because I could separate them, but ultimately

they're the same thing.

Illuminates the subject from behind, that's pretty much

it.

Separates the subject from the background, it gives

a step to mention it's quite moody.

So what am I basically alluding to here?

Well, this little rim light, the edge light,

that's actually separating her from the background.

I'm not saying that was a must or

that had to happen, but that gives us

a bit of a sliver and it defines

some shape, it looks really cool.

This one here, of course, we've got the

sunlight as the hair light.

And of course, we've got a flood of

light coming in there as well, but we've

got this beautiful light sort of tickling them

on the edge.

So this would be an edge light, this

will be a hair light or a rim

light.

Again, don't be caught up on the verbiage,

get caught up on what mood you're trying

to create for the particular person that you're

photographing for the desired result that you want.

This one here was basically using off-camera

flash, that was from behind.

Of course, I've got quite a chaotic background,

but I needed some light and I've specifically

placed them so that the blue sky is

right there and I needed a bit of

a highlight to contrast with the background and

that works really well.

This is one of the shots that was

a homage to the movie Sin City.

It's got a very film noir look, of

course, this is basically split lighting and then

we've got that little edge light as well

on the side of the face and it

does give us that very beautiful film noir

look that we've often seen popularized in movies

to this very day.

I mean, this is a very popular thing

to do and we'll see this all the

time.

This as well, we've got split lighting and

then we've got a bit of light from

the side.

Now you might say, Gerry, this isn't perfect

lighting, what are you doing showing us this

light for?

This light from the side shouldn't be touching

his nose.

Well, guys, you have to remember that lighting

is not just about flattery, it's also about

what you're trying to say.

I'm deliberately trying to make this light look

a bit raw and sexy and not too

perfect because in real life, like if you

watch movies, not every subject or not every

actor or actress or whatever is gonna be

in complete perfect lighting because lighting in everyday

life is not perfect, so to speak, so

we have to understand that.

This one here, we've got light coming from

the side, we've got open loop as in

we've got short lighting here because his face

is on a bit of an angle but

now we've got that little edge light that

gives us a little bit of definition on

his jaw line in the back and it

separates him.

How did we do this?

This was a window on one side and

a window on the other.

He was close to the light source, therefore

making the background darker as we've mentioned in

previous segments and then we've got that little

hint of highlight tickling his jaw.

So it's amazing how we can use the

environment to look like a studio.

This one here, we've got the main light

in the front and then we've got that

little bit of a hair light in the

background, again, separating the hair from the background,

not as important for her because she's got

blonde hair and then we've got a dark

background but again, depends on what you want.

This one here, we've got backlight that was

using one flash, off-camera flash and it's

illuminating them from behind, bouncing between them, there's

a little bit of ambience in the front

and of course, it's giving us a bit

of a rim, not so much a hair

light in this case but a little bit

of a rim light and then working that

as well.

So this could be really, really cool, a

great way of working.

This could be, for example, you could be

in the middle of a park and you've

got trees all around, a little shaft of

light that's basically a break in the trees

where light's coming through, you might position your

couple right there, that's the hair light, backlight,

rim light, edge light, whatever you wanna call

it, then you actually create light from the

front or it could just be the existing

ambient open shade that's coming right through.

It depends on what you want.

So, let's now talk about edge light combined

with front light.

Now, I could show you many examples of

this, I think this next photograph, I'm only

showing you one, it just gives you an

idea of what you see in Hollywood movies,

what you see on Hollywood posters, it's been

popularized and in fact almost every sports photograph

that's in a studio would do this.

So, what we've got is we've got light

from either side and then we've got light

from the front.

So, if I basically took away that light

from either side, it would just be practical

butterfly lighting, I guess, because it's slightly up

above, it's illuminating it quite nicely, but the

light from either side has to be brighter

than the light from the front, otherwise you

just wouldn't see in the evidence of that

light source.

So, that highlight from the back, that highlight

from the back gives us a bit of

contouring, beautiful light from the front and as

you can see, it actually is very, very

beautiful and very flattering.

What other kind of lighting do we have?

Well, there's under light as I call it,

under light, ghoul lighting, it's a ghoul, it's

just devilish almost, it illuminates the face from

underneath, sinister, it's very unflattering.

Would I ever photograph a girl under this

circumstance?

I don't think I ever have or at

least done deliberately.

Do I photograph guys like this?

Well, let me show you a perfect example

of light like this.

This is basically using about 30 odd candles

to illuminate these guys, it's very masculine, it's

got a very much like a Godfather, Mafia

sort of style feel to it, therefore the

lighting should not be flattering, it should just

be what I'm trying to actually execute and

trying to say about these guys.

I do wanna make this deliberately look dramatic,

so therefore the light's coming from behind.

This guy Finesse is a singer, a bit

of a rapper and I thought that light

coming from below gives him that sort of

larger than life sort of look.

As you can see, we do have those

unflattering shadows on the upper cheekbones, but he

gets away with it, he's a cool guy,

he's a tough guy.

If you get the girl in that sort

of look and feel, again, that's gonna be

a bit of an issue.

Let's now talk about no light because often

we don't hear about a silhouette or no

light being one of the lighting patterns because

it's almost like it's an oxymoron.

Like a silhouette, there is zero light, it's

not a lighting pattern, it's a no light

pattern.

Well, this can be very effective.

There's no light on the subject, but on

the background or from the background.

So in this case, yes, there's a bit

of detail in there in the foreground, but

ultimately we've got the sunlight hitting a wall

and there's no sun hitting them.

So they're in the shade, the sunlight hitting

the wall and then I outline them like

this.

Great example on a wedding day, we've got

the sun behind this little ridge, it hits

the back of them, there's got a little

hint of rim there as well, but there's

pretty much next to no light on them

at all.

But this creates a beautiful effect.

It's important that when you're photographing a silhouette

and a pose like this, that your pose

is more pronounced to give you more emotion

that the actual expression is not because you

can't see the expression.

How about this one?

Similar idea to before, we've got light on

a wall and then I bring these guys

in shadow and then I expose for the

light from behind as in I just get

the value of light that I want on

the wall, therefore making the actual couple almost

pitch black.

Love that little silhouette of that beautiful eyelash

on the other side and it gives us

a great effect.

This one here, we've got a translucent material

on the front of this entryway and what

I'm basically doing is I'm exposing, I'm getting

this sort of the graduated sort of feel

of the light through this translucent piece of

glass, but I deliberately silhouette her and her

body shape in amongst all of those, what

would you call it?

Fence or bars or whatever you call it.

But again, it's important because we're not really

seeing much expression, but we're getting the expression

from the pose.

So sometimes no light on the subject can

just say as much about that subject as

you would illuminate that particular person.

In this case, we're photographing a Game of

Thrones style of a wedding.

This was basically photographed in a cellar in

a mansion of sorts and there was a

spotlight on the actual wall and I got

the exposure that I wanted for it, put

them in the shadow in the foreground, therefore

created a beautiful outline and then captured the

ambience around.

So guys, I really hope I haven't confused

you with all of that.

You are going to see in the case

studies of the weddings, the real weddings that

I've actually included in this bundle, you will

see all these examples of different lighting situations

in there.

There's gonna be everything from that loop, that

open loop, the split lighting, split front broad,

butterfly lighting, you name it.

Remember, guys, it's not important that we remember

the names and we try to sound really

intelligent in front of other photographers.

What you need to do is just understand

what light source is gonna achieve the desired

result with that person, with that hair, with

that skin type in that situation with this

light source.

That's the more important that you need to

know.

Once we do this, it becomes liberating to

free yourself of how to create that kind

of a look.

What we wanna do is have a complete

lighting arsenal in our minds, in our gear,

and we need to know how to execute

it.

So take your time, practise all these things.

And remember, if you know nothing else, you

hold the light to someone's face and you

move it around until the light and shadow

says what you wanna say about that subject.

So practise, practise, practise.