Presented by Luc Letendre Photography in cooperation with the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario & St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School

Working in a studio should offer you full control over subject, camera position, lights and background, and is without a doubt the best place to learn the basics of lighting and composition. A studio allows you time to experiment, especially with portraits or still-life shots. Your ‘studio’ may simply be an empty spare bedroom, or better still a garage, outhouse or barn. It should be blacked out so that all lighting is under your control. Ideally, walls and ceiling are matt white and the floor gray, to avoid reflecting colour onto every subject. White surfaces are also important for ‘bouncing’ light when required. Windows can be practical when daylight is required but for use with strobes, it may be best to cover the window. To start, you don’t need a lot of lighting units. A couple of basic photographic lamps are perfectly suitable. These come in two main kinds – spotlights and floodlights. They need to be mounted on height- adjustable floor stands and have tilting heads. As an alternative, many top-of-cameras flash units can now also be used off the camera. Two such flashguns, using either sync cords or wireless links, can be employed instead of the photographic lamps for most studio work. As well as lighting equipment, it will be useful to acquire a stool and one or two reflector boards and diffusers. These can be made from white card and tracing paper stretched over a simple frame. A table to support small still-life subjects at a convenient height may also be of practicality. You may also require sticky tape, string, blocks of wood to prop things up with, modeling clay, clamps, wire and drawing pins.

A. Portrait Lighting in the Studio It could easily be argued that portraits are important to the human race as a whole, not just to the subject or recipient. A portrait not only represents a person at a given moment in time but, like a time capsule, freezes attitude, clothing, and personal style for later interpretation by historians, psychologists – even clothing designers. A good portrait is more than a mere record of a face. In fact, a successful portrait is not only a representation of a human being but a statement of who that being was on the day he or she sat before you. Sometimes inventive and always flattering, correct light can help your subject make that very important statement.

B. Basic Portrait Lighting and Techniques SHORT LIGHTING Short lighting and broad lighting (discussed next) are two different sides of the same coin. Together, they are sometimes referred to as "three-quarter lighting," because in both cases the face is turned to one side so that three quarters of the face is turned toward the camera, and one quarter of the face is turned away from the camera. Short lighting, also called narrow lighting, is produced when the main light illuminates the side of the face turned away from the camera, as shown in the bird's eye view in Figure below. Because three-quarters of the face is in some degree of shadow and only the "short" portion is illuminated, this type of lighting tends to emphasize facial contours. It's an excellent technique for highlighting those with "interesting" faces. It also tends to make faces look narrower, because the "fat" side of the face is shadowed, so those with plump or round faces will look better with short lighting. Use a weak fill light for men to create a masculine look. This is a very common lighting technique that can be used with men and women, as well as children. With short lighting, the main light source comes from the side of the face directed away from the camera. In the figure above, our subject is facing over the photographer's right shoulder. The main light is at the right side of the setup, and the fill light is at the photographer's left. Because the fill light is about twice as far from the subject as the main light, if both lights are of the same power, the fill light will automatically be only one quarter as intense as the main light (thanks to the inverse-square law). If the shadows are too dark, move the fill light closer, or move the main light back slightly.

B1. Basic Portrait Lighting and Techniques BROAD LIGHTING In many ways, broad lighting, the other three-quarter lighting technique, is the opposite of short lighting. The main light illuminates the side of the face turned toward the camera. Because most of the face is flooded with soft light (assuming you're using an umbrella or other diffuse light source, as you should), it deemphasizes facial textures (teenagers may love this effect) and widens narrow or thin faces. The lighting diagram below was used to produce the image shown in at right, which pictures the same subject as above, but with broad lighting instead. Broad lighting may not be the best setup for this teenager, because she has a broad face, but styling her hair so it covers both sides of her face reduces the effect. That let me use broad lighting and its feature-flattering soft light. This diagram shows how the lights are arranged for a typical broad lighting setup. Remember, you can also use a mirror image of this arrangement. A portrait made using broad lighting tends to de-emphasizes facial textures.

B2. Basic Portrait Lighting and Techniques BUTTERFLY LIGHTING Butterfly lighting was one of the original "glamour" lighting effects. The main light is placed directly in front of the face above eye-level and casts a shadow underneath the nose. This is a great lighting technique to use for women, because it accentuates the eyes and eyelashes, and emphasizes any hollowness in the cheeks, sometimes giving your model attractive cheekbones where none exist. Butterfly lighting de-emphasizes lines around the eyes, any wrinkles in the forehead, and unflattering shadows around the mouth. Women love this technique, for obvious reasons. Butterfly lighting also tends to emphasize the ears, making it a bad choice for men and women whose hairstyle features pulling the hair back and behind the ears. Butterfly lighting is easy to achieve. Just place the main light at the camera position, and raise it high enough above eye-level to produce a shadow under the nose of the subject. Don't raise the light so high the shadow extends down to his or her mouth. The exact position will vary from person to person. If a subject has a short nose, raise the light to lengthen the shadow and increase the apparent length of the nose. If your victim has a long nose, or is smiling broadly (which reduces the distance between the bottom of the nose and the upper lip), lower the light to shorten the shadow. You can use a fill light if you want, also placed close to the camera, but lower than the main light, and set at a much lower intensity, to reduce the inkiness of the shadows. The figure to the bottom right is the diagram for applying butterfly lighting (without a fill light), while the figure to the top right shows the final result. Because this models has dark hair, I've ensured That I made use of the hair light so that he does not blend into the background. This diagram shows the basic arrangement for butterfly lighting. Butterfly lighting is a great glamour lighting setup.

B3. Basic Portrait Lighting and Techniques REMBRANDT LIGHTING Rembrandt lighting is another flattering lighting technique that is better for men. It's a combination of short lighting (which you'll recall is good for men) and butterfly lighting (which you'll recall is glamorous). The main light is placed high and favoring the side of the face turned away from the camera, as shown in the photo to the right. The side of the face turned towards the camera will be partially in shadow, typically with a roughly triangular patch of light under the eye on the side of the face that is closest to the camera. For Rembrandt lighting, place the light facing the side of the face turned away from the camera, just as you did with short lighting, but move the light up above eye-level. If you do this, the side of the face closest to the camera will be in shadow. Move the light a little more towards the camera to reduce the amount of shadow, and produce a more blended, subtle triangle effect, as shown in the photo to the right. Eliminate or reduce the strength of the fill light for a dramatic effect, or soften the shadows further with fill light. Arrange your main light high when working with a Rembrandt lighting effect. Rembrandt lighting lends an Old Masters' touch to portraiture.

B4. Basic Portrait Lighting and Techniques SIDE LIGHTING Side lighting is illumination that comes primarily directly from one side, and is good for profile photos. Side lighting comes primarily directly from one side of the camera. You can use it for profiles or for "half-face" effects like the Fab Four on the much copied/parodied cover of Meet the Beatles/With the Beatles. The amount of fill light determines how dramatic this effect is. You can place the main light slightly behind the subject to minimize the amount of light that spills over onto the side of the face that's toward the camera. The diagram below shows you how to set up lights for side lighting, and the photo at right shows the results. Note that a subject with long hair that covers the cheeks may have most of their face obscured when sidelit in this way. Side lighting is applied with most of the light coming from one side. Side lighting can create dramatic profile photos

B5. Basic Portrait Lighting and Techniques BACK LIGHTING With a backlit photo, most of the illumination comes from behind the subject and doesn't really light the subject as much as it defines its edges. Use additional fill light to provide for detail in the subject's front. You can use the background light for backlighting, and put your main and fill lights to work in a subordinate roll by reducing their intensity. Or, you can use the main light as the backlight, as shown in the diagram below (place it below or above the camera's field of view), and fill in the shadows with your fill light. The photo at right shows the final results. Use your main light or background light to backlight your subject. Backlighting helps define the edges of a portrait subject.

C. Steps in Preparing your Studio Photo Session 1.Decide on general effect visualize; determine type/direction/angle of light 2. Add the key light(s) - create dominant set of highlight & shadows 3. Place the fill lights - Adjust light ratio to obtain desired effect 4. Separate subject from background - Add background light - Add kicker light (optional) - Subject should not be close to background (min 5 feet) - Lights should not add to any secondary highlight or shadows 5. Make final adjustments - take sample shot, analyze and readjust - look out for unwanted highlights/shadows, catchlights Lighting Considerations

C1. Steps in Preparing your Studio Photo Session Camera Considerations 1.Shutter Speed a)Consider the effects you are trying to achieve (do you want blur or not). If not consider starting at 1/125sec. b)Do not set your shutter speed faster than 1/200sec as your camera and flash may not sync properly 2.ISO a)Consider setting your ISO to the lowest possible setting to achieve crisp and clear results (especially when photographing people) 3.White Balance a)Your White Balance setting should be on “Flash” 4.Control Mode a)You may wish to consider setting your camera to “Manual” after properly testing your lighting.