Portrait Lighting Styles -Short Lighting

The penultimate in my series of portrait lighting techniques. As usual this shot is straight out of camera and it’s in black and white so you can see the light pattern more clearly.

In short lighting the face is turned towards the light source which puts more of the face in shadow than in the light. This type of lighting makes the face look slimmer so it’s more flattering for someone with, for example, a round face.

I placed one light to the left of the camera at an angle of about 45 degrees and then turned my head slightly to the right so that more of that side (the short side) was lit.

Camera settings were 200 ISO, f8 at 1/125 second with the power of the light metered to suit.

If you’d like any free advice with indoor photography (given that this is where most of us are spending most of our time at the moment) do get in touch; I’d be happy to help.

Antony