Light — Science & Magic, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 8

Making Portraits

Good lighting is one of the most important aspects of portrait making. We

can do everything else beautifully, but if our lighting is poor our picture will

suer—oen fatally. It is that simple. And with that in mind, we will look at

some of the factors that it is important to keep in mind when lighting any

portraits.

We will start by explaining the simplest of all portrait lighting: the use of

a single light source. We call the light that provides most of the illumination

for any portrait the main or key light, and we generally handle this light the

same way. is is true whether we use it alone or with additional lights.

Aside from the main light, this chapter also introduces more complex

lighting arrangements than ...