Short and broad lights are two popular forms of lighting patterns for portrait photography. While shooting portraits, you should never ask your subject to stand straight in front of the camera. Rather, always have your subject’s head tuned to about three-quarter towards the camera. Shooting them straight will make your subject look fat, whereas shooting from an angle will give you dramatic three dimensional images. Adopt this technique while lighting your subject as well. Never light them directly from front; rather use your continuous lighting equipment to light them from the sides. In this case, you have two options, either lighting the part of the face that is closer to the camera i.e. broad lighting or lighting the one that is away from the camera i.e. broad lighting. Portrait photographers find it difficult to choose between broad and short lighting. Here is a brief analysis of both of them.
Short lighting
Short lighting
- This lighting pattern works best for giving a longer and slender look to your subject’s face.
- For models that have a wide and round face, short lighting using studio lighting equipment and accessories will be the best choice.
- Also, if you are photographing an overweight model or someone who has a heavy face, this technique will help you make them look slimmer in the images.
- Women with long slim faces are considered to be more attractive than the ones who have round faces. Therefore, use this lighting pattern to please your models who want to look slimmer and beautiful images.
- If you are photographing a model who is very thin, avoid using short lighting or else you would make her face look eve slimmer and maybe unhealthy. Broad lighting will be the best option for such cases. You will be able to give a voluminous look to her face thereby enhancing her looks.
- In case your subject has any defect on her face, you can keep that part away from camera so that the drawbacks get covered naturally. For example, if your subject has a scar on one side of her face, keep that face away from the camera and in shadow so that you only portray the beautiful part of it.