# Portrait Lighting



## DanOstergren

I've been asked a few times to make tutorials for my technique on lighting and retouching, and since I've got some extra time I figured I would write something up about what I think is most important in a portrait: lighting. Best of all, it's a simple and easy technique to understand and apply.

When you light a human face I think it's very important to consider the natural structure of the face and light it to make it look it's best. As well, I consider the lighting to be the first step in retouching. I base my portrait lighting around a makeup technique called Contouring and Highlighting. It gives shape to  the face and enhances the structure of the face using makeup. It's a makeup technique that essentially puts all highlights and shadowing in the right places and makes the face look like it's always in great lighting. Pay attention to the effect it gives, and apply it to your lighting. You can use pretty much any light source to do this, even a table lamp. Your light source should be just high enough to start giving shadow definition to the cheek bones. This is what the effect looks like:




Here are some examples of my own portraits where I placed the light in an area (or placed the model in the right spot under natural lighting) that would contour and highlight the face of the model; typically you want the light source to be at an above angle. Notice where the light falls and how it sculpts the face by putting the highlights and the shadows in just the right spot:










It compliments both men and women.​
Because you're essentially using a makeup technique to light your subject, it will also reduce the amount of time you will have to spend in post-production by doing half the work for you (Dodging and burning is important if you retouch, and this technique does a lot of it for you, but you should still use dodging and burning to soften gradients in the skin), and if you're anything like me you are too busy to be spending too much time in post. Having your light in just the right place will diminish flaws and enhance the model's beauty and bone structure. This doesn't replace the importance of makeup though; having a makeup artist contour the model's face for you will compliment and enhance this lighting technique, so if you have an MUA or are doing the makeup yourself or having the model do their makeup, always make sure you contour and highlight the face using the makeup as well.
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't try other things with portrait lighting. Get creative and experiment, just be sure you are aware of how the light is sculpting your model's face.

Anyways, I hope this made sense and is easy to follow. Some of you may already know this and already follow the principle of Contouring and Highlighting when you light a portrait, but for those of you who didn't know, I suggest you give it a try and see if you like the results. It may take some practice, so maybe give it more than one try.  

Here are a few more examples of how this technique has enhanced my portraits in a way that I believe makes them great portraits; it can be done in either a subtle or very noticeable way:


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## jovince3000

thanks a lot !


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## Forkie

Great post, Dan!


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## BrickHouse

Awesome write-up! Thanks!


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## DanOstergren

jovince3000 said:


> thanks a lot !





Forkie said:


> Great post, Dan!





BrickHouse said:


> Awesome write-up! Thanks!


I'm glad you all like it! I hope it was easy to understand and is helpful. I know it's a really simple concept, but it's really helped me improve my use of lighting quite a lot. 

I plan to make another article focused on retouching as well.


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## weepete

Very interesting Dan, I don't shoot a lot of portraits so that kind of advice is really useful


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## DanOstergren

weepete said:


> Very interesting Dan, I don't shoot a lot of portraits so that kind of advice is really useful


I'm glad you found it helpful. Portrait lighting seems really complicated at first, but really once I started following this idea with lighting it all because really simple to me.


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## FITBMX

I know you posted this some time ago, but I am just getting around to reading it.
Really great wright up, I got it and totally knew what you are saying. thanks for taking the time to wright this!


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## Rosy

just read!!! and find it very very resourceful.  your images are always eye catching.  nice to see how you capture them


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## medic2230

Thank you for sharing your technique with us Dan. Next time I'm doing a portrait I'm going to put this to use and see how it comes out.


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## DanOstergren

medic2230 said:


> Thank you for sharing your technique with us Dan. Next time I'm doing a portrait I'm going to put this to use and see how it comes out.


Awesome! I'm glad it inspired you to try it out; I'd really love to see the results. Post it here if you'd like to.


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## Big Mike

I've never looked at it from the perspective of trying to emulate a makeup style, but it does make sense.

The way I teach it to my students, is that we use lighting to create tonal variation...highlights and shadows.  Because without tonal variation, it's hard to give a two dimensional image 'depth'.

Once we understand that we need tonal variation, it's just a matter of placing the highlights and shadows on the face in a way that achieves our goals for the shot....typically by posing the subject and/or moving the lights around. 
We study some traditional portrait patterns, but a more important skill is being able to evaluate a face and light it accordingly. 

A good make up application will do many of the same things.  It gives tonal variation, creates highlights and shadows to give the subject form & depth.  It should be adapted to suit characteristics of the face with a specific goal in mind.  It's a great analogy, so thanks for that...I may have to bring it up during my next portrait class.


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## JustJazzie

Fantastic post! Thank you so much for sharing.


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## limr

I don't remember seeing this back when you first posted it. I don't do portraits and don't know if I ever will, but it's still really interesting to learn about the technique. And who knows, maybe one day the information will come in handy


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## DanOstergren

bump


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## soufiej

Butterfly


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## Dave442

Thanks for the bump. I saw a video posted to 500pix last week that talked about the dodge and burn to help sculpt the face in the same way a MUA does. I think your shots to show the effect are all excellent and like the focus on the lighting side. 

My wife is a MUA and of course I never paid attention to the highlighting and conturing aspects done with makeup, more like hurry up times-a-wasting. Now we can speak the same language.


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## DanOstergren

Dave442 said:


> Thanks for the bump. I saw a video posted to 500pix last week that talked about the dodge and burn to help sculpt the face in the same way a MUA does. I think your shots to show the effect are all excellent and like the focus on the lighting side.
> 
> My wife is a MUA and of course I never paid attention to the highlighting and conturing aspects done with makeup, more like hurry up times-a-wasting. Now we can speak the same language.


I'm glad you found it useful.


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