The importance of lighting direction for tone

Lighting is really what makes a photograph. And as a subset of lighting in general is directional lighting. The direction your light source comes from makes a big difference, especially in the tone of a photo. So here for you I have a multi-directional example of how light can look. I also did a couple from further and further behind the head to see how the light wraps around to the face.

These are shot with a single strobe in a variety of directions, but a consistent distance from the face. There is also a Canon 580EX II Flash on camera pointed to the side with the catchlight panel pulled out, just to add some sparkle in the reflection of the eyes. And yes, that’s me making faces for the camera. I removed the color just to put more emphasis on how the light itself is working. Below I will go into a little more detail.

Here are the images again, only larger with a diagram of where the light source is located in relation to the face. I will leave it to you to determine the mood you can get out of a certain light direction.

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Tags: chiaroscuro, darkness, direction, flash, lighting, shadow, strobe, tone
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