
178 MAKING PORTRAITS
Where to Put the Main Light
Placing the main light is, of course, our rst decision. Look at the abstract
ball in Figure 8.6. It is the simplest thing we could draw to convincingly
represent a ball; without the highlight and shadow, it could just as well be a
ring, a hole, or a at disk.
Notice also that the placement of the highlight simply feels more “right”
than if we had centered it, say, or put it near the bottom of the sphere.
e most common placement of the portrait main light is about where
we have it in the sphere illustration. Faces, however, are more complex than
abstract balls. ey have noses, eye sockets, ...