Broad Lighting can be defined as having a broad light source that faces the subject. It gives you a soft hair light look and it is ideal for most portraits.
However, there are times when you don’t want to have that look. The Broad Lighting is also known as Belly Lighting or Short Lighting.
It’s used when photographing subjects facing the light source. It’s typically used on younger subjects or children because it focuses on their facial features, but not on their bodies.
In addition to all of these benefits, broad lighting photography also has some disadvantages.
For one thing, it’s not always as flattering on people as some other types of lighting are, particularly when they’re trying to look their best for an important occasion like a wedding or when they want a glamour shot taken during a photoshoot.
This is especially true if you have uneven skin tones or discoloration in your face or if your face has shadows under the eyes or other imperfections that are brought out by broad lighting.
broad lighting photography
What Is broad lighting photography?
Broad lighting is a photography technique in which the main light source illuminates the side of the subject’s face that is turned toward the camera.
This is likely to be the left side in most cases, because most photographers are right-handed and will choose to stand on their subject’s left side for easy access to the camera controls.
This is a great technique when you want to make your subject look wider or rounder.
It can also be used to make someone look slimmer, but it should only be used if they have a very strong jawline and chin.
Broad lighting works well with men who have wide shoulders and a small waistline or women who have broad shoulders and hips but a small waistline (i.e., hourglass figure).
What Is Broad Lighting In Photography?
This type of lighting works well for people with an athletic build as it brings attention to their chest and face area.
The main purpose of this type of lighting is to give focus to the subject’s face and hide their body from view.
As you can see, the broad lighting technique involves placing your subject directly under the main light source or above it, depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
If you use this technique while taking a portrait of someone facing the camera, they’ll have shadows under their eyes and under their chin, which gives them a very intense look.
There are times when this effect works for your model and there are other times when it doesn’t work at all. It all depends on how you want your model to look.
Broad Lighting gives you a soft hair-light look and it is ideal for most portraits.
However, there are times when you don’t want to have that look. Broad Lighting is also known as Belly Lighting or Short Lighting.
It’s used when photographing subjects facing the light source. Broad Lighting is also typically used on younger subjects, like children, because it focuses on their facial features and not their bodies.
Broad lighting photography also has some disadvantages.
For example, it’s not always as flattering on people trying to look their best for an important occasion like a wedding or a glamour shot.
This is especially true if the subject has uneven skin tones or discoloration in their face, if their face has shadows under the eyes or other imperfections.
What Is Broad Lighting In Photography?
This type of lighting works well for people with an athletic build as it brings attention to their chest and face area while hiding their body from view.
The broad lighting technique involves placing your subject directly under or above the main light source, depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
If you use this technique while taking a portrait of someone facing the camera, they’ll have shadows under their eyes and under their chin, which gives them a very intense look.
However, this effect doesn’t work all the time.. It depends on how you want your model to look.
What Is Broad Lighting Used For?
You may have heard the term “broad lighting” used in photography, but what does it mean?
Broad lighting is a technique that has been used for years and is often referred to as “the Hollywood look.”, Iit is most commonly used to light porcelain skin and features.
Technique
Broad lighting works best with a hard light source. This type of light source creates shadows that are large and soft to the eye, which is why it looks so flattering on porcelain skin.
The shadows create noticeable and attractive shapes around the face, which can be accentuated by carefully positioning your subject’s hair.
If you don’t have access to a professional photographer or pro equipment, there are plenty of ways to get similar results in your own photographs.
Lighting and Equipment
You will need to use a flash for this method of lighting. If you don’t know much about using manual settings on your camera, you might want to read up on them before attempting any kind of lighting.
Manual settings allow you more flexibility and control over how your photos turn out. You will also want a white background in order to keep the focus on your subject’s face.
A white wall or seamless background paper works well.
How To Capture Beautiful Broad Lighting Photography
Some people ask me how to do beautiful broad lighting photography and I tell them that I’ve seen a lot of bad examples.
It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason so many people have trouble with broad lighting photography, but I’ll try my best in this article to help you get started.
Tutorials on how to do broad lighting photography can be found all over the internet, but they usually leave out the most important steps.
Broad lighting photography (or any light really) is a 3 step process.
These are the 2 steps:
Step 1
The rough setup – You want to set your camera up and get the basic exposure right.
Take note of what settings you used here because you need to use them again in the next two steps.
Once you move onto the next two steps, you’ll need to adjust your exposure accordingly.
Step 2
Focusing – In this step you are going to focus on the eyes. This step is more for people who shoot with manual focus lenses only.
In this step, because we are focusing on just one area of the image (the eyes), we will want our depth of field as shallow as possible.
Posing Workshop Lighting For Portraiture
In the art of posing a model, there are several key elements to consider. The most important element is the model herself, her body language and her facial expression.
The next element is light. Without light, nothing will be seen. So it goes without saying that any photographer worth his/her salt will know how to use light in their favor.
But what exactly can you do with lighting? The answer is simple – quite a bit!
Lighting can be one of the most powerful tools in your photographic arsenal, yet one of the easiest to mess up.
The wrong kind of light can ruin an otherwise perfect portrait.
Conversely, the right kind of lighting can bring out your subject’s best assets and make an average photograph great.
When you look at a person’s face, you can see all sorts of details like wrinkles, blemishes, pores, and so on.
In order to make those details pop out, we need to use directional lighting.
Directional lighting is just as it sounds – light that comes from one source only, usually directly overhead (the worst possible place for this).
This type of lighting flattens the subject out and minimizes shadows by casting almost uniform shadows.
Setting Up A Broad Lighting Portrait
Lighting is the most important aspect of photography. It can make or break a photo.
Broad lighting, when combined with a few other simple rules, is a staple of many portrait photographers.
Description: This is an easy lighting setup to perfect for both beginners and pros alike.
It’s useful for headshots and group shots where you need to control the light and get great results quickly.
Props: A model who’s willing to take some direction and some space around them so you can get creative with your backgrounds.
Alright, let’s get started!
1. Get your models pose down, and make sure they are comfortable in their stance.
This will be the pose you use for your background.
For this example, I have my model facing straight into the camera as she would if she were looking at someone directly (not breaking eye contact).
2. Now we need to set up our lights for each side of her face.
Make sure you have a white reflector on hand, this will be used to block out any harsh shadows.
3. Move your main light all the way to the right of your subject, in this case I moved it into my shot.
When Should You Use Broad Lighting?
Many people think that broad lighting is the best way to light a subject, but that’s not always true.
So when should you use broad lighting? Here are some guidelines:
When the subject has a simple background
Broad lighting works well with subjects with a simple background, because it creates strong shadows and dark areas.
Shadows give your subject definition and make it stand out from the background. This is helpful if you have a plain wall behind your subject.
When you’re emphasizing shape, color and pattern
Broad lighting can be used to emphasize the shape of your subject, as well as the lines and colors in the piece.
It can also help you emphasize patterns in clothing or other accessories.
You may want to use this type of lighting for macro shots or close-ups of jewelry, fabric or flowers.
When you want to create an illustrative effect
Sometimes you want your photo to create an illustrative effect that shows depth and perspective.
For example, you might want to show how certain elements recede into the background or how one element leads into another (such as showing how one person’s face is reflected in another person’s glasses).
Using broad lighting can make it easier to see where things are in relation to each other.
Setting Up A Short Lighting Portrait
Here are the steps to creating a short lighting portrait in Adobe
Open your image in
TIP: To make things easier later on, hit “Ctrl + L” to turn on the rulers.
Make sure that “Layer 1” is selected, then go to the Edit menu and choose Transform > Warp.
A new box will appear around your image. Click and drag the corners of this box toward the center until it is shaped like a rectangle.
There is no need to make it perfectly proportioned because we will be using layer styles to add a drop shadow effect later.
If you look at your rulers, you will notice that there are several small boxes scattered around them. These boxes represent actual pixels within your photo.
You can use these as a guide for setting up some key points of your portrait later.
When Should You Use Short Lighting?
Short lighting is what you use when you want to slim down a subject and make them look thinner. It’s also useful for bringing out texture in things like hair, so that it doesn’t blend together into a big blob.
Short lighting is good for bringing out the shape of someone’s nose. A lot of photographers love to use short lighting because it’s extremely flattering and it can hide a lot of different imperfections.
If you’re trying to take photos of someone with acne – or a teenager with pimples – short lighting can actually help you to get rid of those blemishes.
If you use short lighting on a person who has a very round face, they’ll end up looking more slender.
If they have a very long face, they will also look more slender. The same thing applies if they have a large nose, or there are wrinkles all over their face.
You can minimize any of those things with short lighting.
Many people aren’t able to recognize short lighting at first because they usually don’t think about the direction the light is coming from.
They just know how it makes them feel when they see an image with this kind of light applied to it.
Types Of Lighting In Photography
There are many different types of lighting in photography. Each one gives a different look to your pictures.
Here are just a few examples:
Natural light.
Using windows and the sun is an easy way to get natural light into your photographs.
On a nice day, you should be able to get good results by setting up your subject near a window and or outside in the shade.
The light will come from all around you but will be diffused, which can give it a flat, even appearance. If you’re looking for more drama or contrast in your image, try adding flash.
Flash.
Flash is another way to add light to your photograph. You can either use the built-in flash on your camera or an external flash unit.
Either way, a little practice will help you learn how far away you need to be in order to create the best angle for your subject’s face. You’ll also need to master the settings on your camera to get the right amount of flash for each shot.
Fluorescent.
Fluorescent lighting gives off a cool blue or green tint that can be tough to work with if you aren’t prepared for it.
It can make skin tones appear unhealthy, so consider using some type of warming filter or gel on your lens.
Broad And Short Lighting – Wrapping Up
Let’s wrap things up.
Here’s a summary of the two main types of lighting:
Broad lighting is great for showing products from different angles and getting lots of detail into your shots.
It’s also good for most people, because it highlights good skin tone and minimizes shadows and wrinkles.
Tall lighting gives a more dramatic look with strong shadows and light and dark areas.
It can be good for products that don’t need to be shown from every angle, but it’s harder to use on people because it makes them look older than they really are.
When taking product shots, you’ll want to check the results in a photo-editing program like
You can get rid of glare on shiny surfaces, correct color balance, and crop photos so they’re as close to square as possible.
This gives you room to add, copy, or to run them on an eCommerce website without having to enlarge them too much.
For photos of people, you can use broad lighting for everyone except children. It makes their skin look great but tends to bring out every tiny wrinkle.
For kids, go with tall lighting instead.
