Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

Split lighting
Split or hatchet lighting involves
lighting from the side of the
subject only. In the photo below,
we did the same lighting setup
as we did for the Sikh in profile
in Chapter 1, using just our little
silver reflector to bounce the light
from our in-camera flash to our
large white board. The difference
here is that the subject is facing
the camera directly. We wanted
as little light to hit the shadow
side as possible. If we are shooting
in a really large room or
a room with black walls, it will
be easier to keep the shadow
side dark. In this case, we hung
black velvet very close to the
subject on the opposite side of
the board to limit the light being
bounced back from elsewhere
in the room. If shooting in a
smaller room with light walls,
we’ll get automatic fill from those
walls and we might have to do
So, Where Do We Put This Light for Portraits? 109