Good Lighting

Good Lighting

by William Lulow

This blog is roughly six years old. I began it back in 2018 with an article called “Creating Good Lighting”? In the last article, I spoke about HARD lighting versus SOFT lighting. Each has it’s place when making good portraits. My idea is to create an image that will stand out in some way. Maybe it’s a great expression caught in mid conversation. Or may be it can be at the peak of some action. Whatever makes it visually appealing, the light has a great deal to do with it, so I am always looking for different ways to show my subjects but the lighting has to be in keeping with the overall intent and mood of the portrait.

This image of bassist Ron Carter (shot back in 1975) was basically made while we were talking. I knew I wanted to make a picture that had some great detail of Mr. Carter with the instrument he plays and I also knew I wanted to shoot him against a white background. The way to ensure the background will reproduce as white is to light it. So my setup was two lights with umbrellas on each side of the background and only one mainlight bounced into my big, portrait umbrella. Everything was set up and ready when he came to the studio.

This is the lighting diagram for this image:

I was asked to make an image of a graphic designer who had just opened a new office and was celebrating. I took the words “graphic” and “design” and incorporated them into the photograph. I knew it had to be a Black&White image and graphically went from black to white and back again:

So a light was placed behind and to the left of the subject and aimed at the background. It was aimed so that here would be some “fall off” in its intensity from left to right. I then placed a SIDE LIGHT to the right of the subject and was careful to make sure that none of it spilled over to the background. It was carefully shielded by use of a large, black GOBO or shade placed right next to the light and directed it only to the subject, thereby producing the white-black-white-black graphic quality of the picture.

On a short trip to visit a friend in France in October of 2023, I knew I wanted to make a picture of him but didn’t want to bring my entire lighting kit. So, I brought two lights. One was set up with an umbrella and placed in a kind of REMBRANDT LIGHTING position. The other light I wanted to provide an accent to give some depth to the portrait rather than just a snapshot. So I placed it in an EDGE LIGHT position behind and to camera-left of the subject:

He is a photographer and was having a retrospective of some of his work at a large gallery just outside Paris. It was the perfect kind of image for him. It turned out to be a very strong portrait because the light added to the sincerity of his expression, the place in which it was made, and the interaction between the two of us that was captured. Notice how the EDGE LIGHT is brighter than the light on the subject’s face. That is because the main light was bounced into an umbrella and the edge or accent light was used direct, thereby keeping it about one f/stop brighter.

Good lighting can sometimes be “found” if you know where and how to look. The “where” can be anyplace because light is all around us. The “how” to look can come from some lessons in classical studio lighting. There are about a dozen or so, basic studio lighting setups and once you know them, you will never be able to look at a photograph or a scene again, without noticing the lighting. You will walk around saying things like, “there’s a side light,” or “there’s an edge light.” It is kind of like being able to “ooh” and “ahh” about a special lighting effect when you see it, like noticing a particularly brilliant sunset:

Here is a fairly spectacular sunset with two pelicans. And here is a kind of HALO LIGHTING produced by positioning the camera just in the right spot:

And yet another “found lighting” image produced on location, but with the knowledge of what to look for:

Here, the stage lights themselves created just about a perfect backlight on the subject as he was in the midst of silently asking me to stop taking pictures.

So GOOD LIGHTING makes a point. It is consistent with what the photographer wants the image to convey but really shouldn’t be the sole intent of what the images means to say. It should add to the statement in order to create a kind of synthesis and thereby make a strong photograph.