One of the main things that tends to separate professionals and other serious photographers from a large majority of amateurs and beginners is the use of advanced lighting techniques. While there is absolutely nothing wrong with using natural light only or a simple on camera flash, mastering a few basic advanced lighting techniques can take your own photography to the next level.
Using the term advanced techniques shouldn’t scare off anyone, either, as some of the more basic lighting configurations can be implemented in simple ways. Narrow lighting is one of those types of lighting set ups.
What Is Narrow Lighting & How To Do It
What Is Narrow Lighting?
Simply put, it you are wanting to make an image of an object or subject that is either wide or roundish, but you don’t want to emphasize those physical features, you use narrow lighting. In other words, you use light and shadow to obscure, de-emphasize, or adjust the roundness of a subject.
While this lighting technique can be used for any type of subject, portrait and beauty photography is what comes to mind first. People come in all shapes and sizes, obviously. A portrait artist generally will try to create the most pleasing final image possible.
Let’s say you are taking portraits of someone who has a roundish or wide oval face. Some people will refer to this facial shape as baby faced. Photographically, straight on or frontal lighting will tend to emphasize or enhance the roundness of the subject being imaged.
Video: How to Look Thinner in Photos by Short Lighting
It is a true representation of the subject, but it isn’t always the most flattering. Sure, we could change up the aspect ratios and contouring with an image processing program, but adjusting the lighting will allow for a final result that is both natural and flattering.
Besides, that’s essentially what a lot of those programs are doing anyways. Mimicking lighting effects for controlling facial contouring. As with almost anything post processing, if we can control it during the actual shoot instead of fixing it in post, than our images generally benefit from that.
How to setup up narrow lighting
Light direction and subject placement are the two most important aspects of a narrow lighting configuration.
Here are some useful diagrams to help get us started.
Key Light or Main Light
The key light is the main light in this set up. We place the key light on the other side of the face from camera position. So, if the model is sitting in front of us, position the light to the side and slightly behind. Then the subject turns their face towards the direction of the lamp.
This creates a shadow on the side of the face closest to the camera position. In a room with a good amount of ambient light, either from overhead fixtures or diffuse sunlight, we could accomplish this with only one photographic light.
One thing to guard against is creating too much of a severe shadow. Unless that is the effect you’re going for. If we have the key light too far behind the subject, we can make angular facial features. For some subjects, this causes a dark, low key, maybe even sinister effect. It can definitely change the overall feel or mood of a portrait, and it may or not be flattering.
So, using the face as a light placement guide, the cheek facing the camera lens is in shadow (deep or soft), and the cheek away from the camera has full light on it. Beware of nose and hair shadows making other facial features appear unnatural.
Add Fill Light
Fill light can be added for more control. If the key light is at full power or brightness, adding a fill of 1/3rd intensity will even out the shadow and highlight exposure values. Some contouring will be lost, though. Certain skin tones will benefit from adding fill light. It can also minimize any facial scarring or the natural asymmetry inherit in most faces.
The fill light can also be in the form of a reflector. Here’s where you can add or subtract warmth as well. Using a gold reflector will warm up the tone, a silver reflector will cool it. White would be neutral. Even if shooting for black and white, using color reflectors has an effect on the light.
Background and Hair Lights
Other lamps can be added to the configuration for even more control. A background light can help separate the subject from the background. Experiment with background light placement. An evenly lit background is common, but placing the background light higher or lower, or even to one side, can alter the final image subtly or dramatically.
After all of this moving lights around, sometimes there is still one small thing needed. More often than not, a hair light will add just the right amount of extra detail to a portrait.
A word of caution when adding extra lights, be careful not to introduce any other directional shadows. Subtlety is the primary focus when successfully implementing narrow lighting. Competing shadows can be distracting and introduce an unnatural contouring.
Some videos to show what we’re describing:
Video: Broad and Short Lighting in Portrait Photography
Video: Laws of Light: 5 Portrait Lighting Setups
Best uses for narrow lighting
Perhaps you have heard it said that the camera adds ten pounds to a person. That’s true, when talking about straight on, flat lighting, such as what you would have with an LED lamp on top of a camcorder. This is why TV news interviews in the field rarely show the subject in a flattering way.
Well, you could say that narrow lighting lets you remove ten pounds. The entire subject in the frame is well lit, nothing is totally obscured, but we have added in flattering angles of light and shadow. With good posing, we should be able to satisfy shy, self conscious subjects as well as other viewers.
Portraits
Portraiture has been the primary focus of our little tutorial so far. A head and shoulders portrait, seated or standing, can be quite simple to set up narrow lighting for. Other subjects can benefit from this technique as well.
Glamour and Boudoir
Glamour and boudoir photography can also be greatly enhanced by playing around with narrow lighting ideas. Glamour and boudoir are basically portraits, but more ¾ body and full body framing may be used in addition to the standard head and shoulders portraits.
When shooting full length portraits of any kind, extra care needs to be taken in regards to light placement to avoid multi-directional shadows.
Video: Boudoir Photography | Lighting A Fine Art Boudoir Scene
Fashion
Fashion photography also falls into the group of subject types that narrow lighting can benefit. All the same portrait lighting and posing tools and techniques will work. Simply adapt them to the needs of the haute couture.
Small Product / Commercial
A round or roundish object can be portrayed in a very eye catching way using narrow lighting. As a for instance, we all know what a basketball looks like. Narrow lighting can take that sphere and portray in a different light. Might be a good practice piece for learning portrait lighting, too.
Almost any subject matter can benefit from adjusting what is illuminating it. Even if it simply makes a person take a second look at the object, for commercial advertising, that second look is a score.
Video: How to do PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY at HOME
Look at each shot to get desired narrow lighting
One of the great advantages of shooting in digital is the ability to get instant views of the images. Our eye can tell us a lot when setting up the lights, but the image itself might tell us more.
Our brain, generally speaking, turns our eyes and our vision into an autofocus, autoexposure, self-processing camera. So, seeing how that scene actually appears as a photographic image is extremely helpful, especially if just starting out using advanced lighting techniques.
Chimping on our camera viewscreen is one way to do this. This also has the advantage of showing a histogram of exactly what is happening in the exposure. Personally, I don’t call it chimping, I label that step Creative Review.
The file review can also be done on a wireless device, such as a smartphone or tablet, or by means of a tethered computer or other device.
Any way you do the review, the purpose is to see what may need adjusting. Exposure, camera angle, light placement. Pay close attention to the little details, including any conflicting shadow directions.
How to best capture your subject with narrow lighting
The best way is to simply give it a try. Practice with a friend or a willing client. Take some time to review how slight changes of position can affect the final image.
The lighting itself doesn’t have to be expensive. LEDs and photofloods are two good choices. Studio strobes offer a huge variety of controls and adjustments. Some camera manufacturers even have fully automatic flash systems that could be used.
The main thing is to try it out. Natural light and on camera flash have many great uses. So do the more advanced lighting techniques. And as this short tutorial has shown, some advanced techniques are very easy to use.
Narrow lighting has many uses, one of the foremost is for creating flattering portraits.