or diamond-shaped highlight on the check of the
shadow side of the face, just beneath the eye and
next to the nose. This highlight will be surrounded
by darker tones or shadows, which is where the con-
cept of chiaroscuro (the intermixing of lights and
darks in an image to help create the illusion of
depth) comes along. This effect also helps add an
allure to your subject’s eyes—and in glamour pho-
tography, this means greater sex appeal and added
impact. This technique is my favorite in most of my
glamour and portrait photography, and my clients
seem to love it.
As luck would have it, Rembrandt lighting is
simple to create—even with just one light. I like to
work with medium and large softboxes, like the
3x4- or 4x6-foot Chimera Super Pro Plus banks,
placed a few feet away from my subject. I have my
subject gradually turn her face away from the light
source until I see the proper highlight underneath
the shadow-side eye. (Note:If you’re shooting with
a continuous light source, this will be no problem.
If you’re shooting with studio flash, you’ll need to
use a unit with a modeling light so that you can see
the effect as the model turns her head.)
While Rembrandt lighting is easy to create with
a softbox, you can also produce it using natural
light. Simply place your subject near a window where light filters in, then turn
the subject’s face gradually away from the window until you see the right pat-
tern. You can also reflect sunlight onto your subject with a California Sun-
bounce reflector to create a Rembrandt effect.
Find, See, and Feel the Light.
New photographers tend to take light for granted, and their images suffer as
a result. Still others don’t get the results they are after because they start out
with cheap lights, only to learn later on in the game that all they needed to get
off to a great start was one great light.
Becoming a good photographer takes time. Part of the formula for achiev-
ing success lies in recognizing good light. A good photographer will see the
light that others ignore.
58 LIGHTING FOR GLAMOUR PHOTOGRAPHY
FACING PAGE—Black on black shots can be tricky—especially
when the model has black hair, like Candice. Here, I used two
Hensel Integra 500 Pro Plus monolights fitted with Chimera
Super Pro Plus medium strip boxes and Lighttools 40-degree
grids. One light was aimed at the front of the model, the other
at the back. I also used a 22-inch beauty dish, placed low next
to the main light and I placed my camera between the lights.
This beauty dish, one-third stop lower in power than the main
strip, helped keep the model’s skin smooth. (CAMERA:Canon
EOS 5D Mark II fitted with a Canon 70–200mm f/2.8L IS USM
lens. SETTINGS:70mm effective focal length,^1 / 200 second shutter
speed, f/5.6, white balance at 6000K, ISO 100)