The Main Light

The Main Light

by William Lulow

This is an article about the MAIN LIGHT used in most of my studio portraits. After studying the lighting of quite a number of photographers early in my career, I learned that a large, round light provides a beautiful, soft lighting for portrait subjects. I bought a fairly large umbrella, probably around four feet in diameter, and it was constructed with eight ribs. That made the umbrella fabric stretch a bit between each rib which produced a soft light, but notthe all-encompassing, soft, round light I was seeking. It was kind of like the one pictured below.

This is a typical umbrella of its time and you can see that its ribs actually stretch the fabric a bit. The images were good, but not as evenly lit as I wanted. I went to an umbrella store in Manhattan called “Uncle Sam’s Umbrellas” and asked if they could make one with twice the number of ribs. This made for a much shorter distance between ribs and thus the overall shape of the umbrella was much more round,

You can see here that there is very little fabric between ribs and the whole effect of the umbrella is much more round. I also asked the umbrella store if they could make a larger one. They asked me how big I wanted it and I said six feet in diameter. They were able to construct one with that measurement and I used it for many years. Finally it needed to be replaced and the one above I found made by IMPACT which makes many quality lighting modifiers. This one is 5′ 5″ in diameter. Considering the average human head my be about 8″ – 12″ high, that makes this umbrella a fairly large light. That’s what keeps its light soft and specifically suited for portraits.

The lighting principle at work with this type of main light is that “the larger the light source in relation to the subject and the closer it is, the softer the lighting effect will be.” As I said, I began to see this fairly early in my career especially when I worked for other photographers. They all seemed to have rather large lights which they used to provide basic lighting for their fashion subjects. They needed a light that would be enough to light the model from head to toe and provide enough power to allow shooting at relatively small lens apertures. Many of these photographers used large soft boxes like this one only much larger:

Other photographers like these better than umbrellas, but these produce a kind of directional light even though it is soft. The umbrella produces a very round light which tends to surround the subject with light. When used with a studio strobe unit, the light bounces off the umbrella’s soft, white fabric and really spreads out over the subject. It creates the perfect, soft effect I want:

You can see the “catchlight” in the subject’s eyes here. Notice how round it is. For this portrait of an actress, I also used a small, softbox as a fill-in light just below the face and a bit left of the camera. You can also see how the camera-left side of her face has a very light shadow which gives the portrait its depth. These are the kinds of results it took me several years of experimentation just to lock down. Now, it is my “go-to” lighting setup for just about all of my portraits and headshots. I actually call this the “Hollywood Beauty Lighting” setup. The technique here of a MAINLIGHT on top and a FILL-IN LIGHT on the bottom is sometimes referred to as a “clamshell” lighting.

Here is another example:

The main light is supposed to be the light that defines the basic lighting for the subject. All the other lights in the studio setup serve to add accents or fill in shadows. If you think of a lighting setup in this way, you will always begin with your defining light (main light) and then be able to add others as necessary. But the MAIN LIGHT is the most important one you will use.

Here is a similar shot of well-known makeup artist, Jill Harth. You can see the same MAIN LIGHT set up with the addition of the fill-in light as well as the ACCENT lights which add the light color to her blond hair. This image would have been excellent without all the extra lights, but look at how they contribute to making a striking picture. Also, look at the catchlights in her eyes. You can see how round the big, main light is.

Again, the MAIN LIGHT sets the overall tone of the photograph. The photographer then would go about adding accent lights to make the image really stand out.