Today we will shoot a classic portrait with an imitation of the style of the old master painters. Moreover, we will not use expensive equipment that we have in abundance in the studio.

We will use an ordinary 200-watt light bulb, which we place in our case behind the milky plastic, but you can use, for example, tracing paper. And we form a spot of light on the face by simply raising-lowering and/or moving-moving the lamp away from the plastic.

In our shooting, the light spot is located above and to the side of the level of the model's face, i.e. we get classical lighting like a Rembrandt portrait. The right side of the model's face is fully highlighted, and the opposite side is partially highlighted: the classic triangle under the eye is highlighted, and the shadow from the nose falls on the nasolabial fold.

As a background, we use a black background, we have it velvet and, therefore, completely absorbs light. With another black screen, we covered the camera lens from the beam of light from the lamp so as not to catch glare.

In the camera settings, set obviously great importance ISO - as much as 51200 - so that noises appear, but in our case these are artistic noises, imitating the structure of old painting. Set the aperture to F11. The shutter speed at our ISO value is 1/200 s. The white balance is deliberately knocked down to warm.

The right side of the model's face is highlighted, and the left side is in the hole. We take a simple foil reflector (from fish slices) and mount it on a stand to the left of the face to form volume, slightly highlighting the head from above and from the side.
You can shoot both with a serious camera and, for example, with a smartphone.

The goal we wanted to convey with this shoot is don't be afraid to experiment in the studio. For a good and extraordinary result, professional and serious equipment is not necessary. Of course, it is much more convenient and comfortable to work with it, but you can start small, take a powerful light bulb, thin plastic / tracing paper / fabric, black fabric and you are quite ready to shoot a classic and even exquisite portrait.

The Dutch painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is known for his dark and dreary portraits, characterized by a single source of light passing through an object in front of a dark background. This is an interesting, catchy style that is easy enough to reproduce in modern photography.

There are two steps to creating a Rembrandt-style portrait. The first step involves proper lighting and composition. The second is using Lightroom to bring out the dullness created by the lighting.

Rembrandt style lighting is easy to achieve with natural light. It is important that the light is directional. Take a look at these portraits to see how it works.

Portrait #1

This portrait was taken with the model standing under an arch that is part of the building. We took the photo on an overcast day, so the light was quite soft and even, perfect for a portrait.

The light came from the model's left, through the archway, casting a shadow across his face. The right side of his face is dark, as there is no light from that side. The background is also dark as less light falls on it.

The photo looks like it was taken in a studio, but the light is shaped by an arch, not a softbox.

Portrait №2

I took this portrait in the forest. The light came through the trees from above. The day was overcast, but the narrow gaps between the trees made the light directional. I asked my model to turn her face up towards the light so as not to create shadows under her eyes.

I chose these portraits because they are interesting in terms of post-processing. One of them is easy to process, while the other has more work to do. Can you guess which one is which?

Treatment portrait №1

The first portrait was the easiest to process. Here is the Raw file directly from the camera.

Almost all of the work on this portrait was done in Lightroom's Adjustments module. Here are the main settings:

• Exposure +0.20. Slight slider movement to brighten up the photo.
• Shadows -27. This enhances the dark tones of the photo without affecting the light tones.
• Clarity + 41. This is a general setting to improve texture and detail, as well as to add roughness to the male portrait (more delicate settings are needed for the female portrait).

You'll notice that I didn't use the Contrast slider to darken the background. The reason is that Contrast affects both dark tones and light tones. Therefore, it is better to use Lights and Shadows to control these areas separately.

Controlling dark areas with the Shadows slider gives you a choice when it comes to the tonal values ​​of an image. You can also move the Black slider to the left, although this can block out some of the darker areas.

Remember that your goal is to create a Rembrandt-style portrait, so it's up to you how dark the shadows are. Here's a comparison where you can see what happened to the portrait when I set Shadows to -100 and Blacks to -22.

Local settings

By moving the Shadows and Highlights to the left, you can also darken areas that you would like to leave as they are. In this portrait, the model's hair got too dark, so I used the Adjustment Brush to lighten it up. This screenshot shows the red mask created by the Adjustment Brush. I set Shadows to +71 to lighten the hair.

Treatment portrait №2

The next portrait needed more work in Lightroom. You'll see why when you take a look at the original image below.

Although the light came from above, it was not as directional as in the processed version. An image like this requires a bit more work in Lightroom to achieve the dark background that Rembrandt's style lends itself to.

I made light adjustments with the following values:

• Exposure down to -1.10
• Shadows up to -70
• Light +65
• Clarity up to +23

Moving the Shadow and Exposure sliders to the left will make the image darker overall, and the background will look closer to what I want. Move the Lights up to +65 to make the highlights (in other words, the model's skin) lighter. Again, this increased the contrast, but in a more controlled way than using the Contrast slider.

And here is the result.

Local settings

Once you've done your best with the general settings, you should move on to the local settings. Lightroom has three local adjustment tools - Gradient Filter, Radial Filter and Adjustment Brush. Which of these tools (or combination) to choose depends on you and your tasks.

For this portrait, I applied five Gradient Filters and moved the Exposure slider to the left (to darken) for each one. The screenshot shows where I applied the Gradient Filter in this image.

It is best to make local adjustments by eye. Don't be afraid to experiment with settings and options until you get the photo you want.

This comparison shows the difference in how Gradient Filters affected the image.

Conclusion

The key to recreating Rembrandt's style in Lightroom lies in analyzing the type of lighting used to create the portrait and thinking about how you can replicate it with Lightroom's tools. Keep in mind that light is just as important as Lightroom techniques. Get the right lighting and the rest will follow easily.

The most common lighting scheme is called "Rembrandt light". She received it in honor of the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, who in most of his portraits used light, creating chiaroscuro on a person's face in the form of a triangular corner under the eye on the dark side of the face.

The strong contrast between dark and light areas creates volume. And since the artist is deservedly considered a master of light and shadow, his technique began to be used in portrait photography and, of course, became a classic.

How to Create Rembrandt Lighting

This kind of lighting can be created using one . It must be positioned at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, one and a half meters above the head of the model and about two meters in front of the camera.

Why about? Because partly depends on the light source used and the structure of the person's face. It is no secret that the eyes can be bulging or deep set.

To create the pictures used in this photography lesson, was taken studio flash with standard reflector, with the help of which rather hard (sharp) shadows were obtained. But it is quite possible to try to recreate the classic lighting model with a different light modifier. A reflector was also used, placed at a 45 degree angle to the flash, to highlight the shadows and not lose image detail in the shadows. In addition, a flag was used so that the light from the monoblock did not fall directly on the background.

The main mistake of portrait photographers when mastering the Rembrandt lighting scheme is that the eye from the side of the key light is completely illuminated. This indicates that the main light source was placed too low above the model.

Mistaken Rembrandt lighting

Therefore, through trial and error, try to move the light source higher, while maintaining the same position. studio rack .

If corrected correctly, you get a great Rembrandt scheme when light, touches the eyelids, forms a light triangle, but not wider than the eye and not longer than the nose. This triangle is called Rembrandt triangle.

The correct effect of the Rembrandt triangle

The intensity of the light source did not change, only the height and angle of incidence of the light were changed, but it is clearly seen that changing just one parameter affects the final result. To verify this, you must try to install the light yourself! More practice friends! Any theory is useful only if it is fixed by practice.

Effect

Although only one light source (perhaps with a reflector) is needed to create Rembrandt lighting, the scheme is effective in its simplicity and efficiency. The correct recreation of this scheme guarantees a beautiful and high-quality portrait. The scheme is especially good for photographing full or round faces. Due to the transition of light into shadow and hiding part of the face in the shadow, the face becomes visually elongated and a certain weight loss effect is obtained. That is why it is better not to use Rembrandt light for narrow faces, unless, of course, the task is to convey strong negative emotions that the model “experiences”, because the face will look haggard.

Some photographers believe that Rembrandt lighting is a template light for a male portrait, so it should not be used in female portrait photography. But every rule of photography must be taken with a grain of salt and must be thoroughly tested. Rembrandt lighting is no exception! After all, even Rembrandt van Rijn himself used such light for female portraits.

Try also to increase the contrast effect of light and shadow by using additional lighting to make a spot of light in the background - to emphasize the dark side of the face, thus creating a sense of darkness and mystery.

As an example of an atypical use of classic lighting, we can cite this photo, where you can see that a gray light background was taken for work, the light source was used with a softbox, and the fill light was obtained using a reflector. The result is a wonderful light portrait of a child with the right classic Rembrandt lighting.

You should have a good understanding of how this effect works in order to start applying it with ease in everyday portrait shots, as in the example above, and also try to reproduce this lighting in various poses of the model.

In the following photography tutorials, we will look at other ways of lighting when portraits. Anyone who is just learning the skills of a studio portrait photography, you will need to familiarize yourself with them to improve your skills.

Rembrandt lighting

Rembrandt lighting- lighting which is named after the great painter, who often uses it in his works - portraits. The essence of this method is that on the shaded cheek of your model you need to create an inverted triangle of light. This lighting greatly beautifies the face, and is necessary if the model has high cheekbones. This method was often used in the creation of Hollywood portraits. In this case, you need to ensure that glare appears in both eyes.

Rembrandt light is good for portraits of people with a full or round face, but is considered an inappropriate choice for narrow faces of models. Many "old school" photographers believe that Rembrandt lighting is only suitable for photographing male faces, while declaring that it cannot be applied to women's faces. But it is known that Rembrandt himself painted portraits of women using this lighting, so such statements should be regarded as a recommendation, not a rule.

This type of light is one of the 5 main lighting schemes that are used in the studio when portrait photography. The other four patterns are: wide light, split light, narrow light, and "butterfly". Rembrandt lighting is made up of two components: lighting one half of the face and creating a triangle of light on the other side of the model's face. The shadow created by the triangle should be no wider than the eye and longer than the nose. From the "short light" scheme, the "short light" scheme rembrandt light” differs only in the presence of this triangle. It's called the Rembrandt Triangle.

Lighting installation procedure:

In its initial variation, the scheme will look like this: one light source needs to be placed at an angle of 45 degrees with respect to the model, slightly higher than eye level, in order to illuminate the side of the face that is more distant from the camera. The drawing (main) light is supplemented with either a reflector or a second light source. It is also placed at an angle of 45 degrees, but to the side of the face that will be in the shade. The second source is set half as weak from the main light. This is necessary to lift the shadow on the darkened side of the face.

Rembrandt light - effective and simple circuit lighting. Easy to use, this scheme is well suited for shooting many types of human faces. To try this method, you need to have a diffused flash and a reflector, you can make it yourself.

The most common lighting scheme is called "Rembrandt light". She received it in honor of the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, who used in most of his portraits, creating chiaroscuro on a person's face in the form of a triangular corner under the eye on the dark side of the face.

The strong contrast between dark and light areas creates volume. And since the artist is deservedly considered a master of light and shadow, his technique began to be used in portrait photography and, of course, became a classic.

How to Create Rembrandt Lighting

This kind of lighting can be created using one . It must be positioned at an angle of approximately 45 degrees, one and a half meters above the head of the model and about two meters in front of the camera.

Why about? Because partly depends on the light source used and the structure of the person's face. It is no secret that the eyes can be bulging or deep set.

To create the shots used in this one, it was taken with a standard one, with which rather hard (sharp) shadows were obtained. But it is quite possible to try to recreate the classic lighting model with another. Also used, placed at a 45 degree angle to the flash, to highlight the shadows and not lose image detail in the shadows. In addition, a flag was used so that the light from the monoblock did not fall directly on the background.

The main mistake of portrait photographers when mastering the Rembrandt lighting scheme is that the eye from the side of the key light is completely illuminated. This indicates that the main light source was placed too low above the model.

Mistaken Rembrandt lighting

Therefore, through trial and error, try to move the light source higher, while maintaining the position in place.

If corrected correctly, you get a great Rembrandt scheme when light, touches the eyelids, forms a light triangle, but not wider than the eye and not longer than the nose. This triangle is called Rembrandt triangle.

The correct effect of the Rembrandt triangle

The intensity of the light source did not change, only the height and angle of incidence of the light were changed, but it is clearly seen that changing just one parameter affects the final result. To verify this, you must try to install the light yourself! More practice friends! Any theory is useful only if it is fixed by practice.

Effect

Although only one light source (perhaps with a reflector) is needed to create Rembrandt lighting, the scheme is effective in its simplicity and efficiency. The correct recreation of this scheme guarantees a beautiful and high-quality portrait. The scheme is especially good for photographing full or round faces. Due to the transition of light into shadow and hiding part of the face in the shadow, the face becomes visually elongated and a certain weight loss effect is obtained. That is why it is better not to use Rembrandt light for narrow faces, unless, of course, the task is to convey strong negative emotions that the model “experiences”, because the face will look haggard.

Some photographers believe that Rembrandt lighting is a template light for a male portrait and should therefore not be used in female portraits. But every rule of photography must be taken with a grain of salt and must be thoroughly tested. Rembrandt lighting is no exception! After all, even Rembrandt van Rijn himself used such light for female portraits.

Try also to increase the contrast effect of light and shadow by using additional lighting to make a spot of light in the background - to emphasize the dark side of the face, thus creating a sense of darkness and mystery.

As an example of an atypical use of classic lighting, we can cite this photo, where you can see that a gray light background was taken for work, the light source was used with a softbox, and the fill light was obtained using a reflector. The result is a wonderful light portrait of a child with the right classic Rembrandt lighting.

You should have a good understanding of how this effect works in order to start applying it with ease in everyday portrait shots, as in the example above, and also try to reproduce this lighting in various poses of the model.

In the following photography tutorials, we will look at other ways of lighting when portraits. Anyone who is just learning studio skills will need to familiarize themselves with them to improve their skills.