Lighting For Black And White Portrait Photography

With a simple setup using strobe lights or constant sources in a studio or even on location photographers can create beautiful low-key black-and-white portraits that prove minimal lighting can deliver a maximum effect.

Lighting for black and white portrait photography. Using Hard Light for Powerful Black and White Portraits. Mid tones are missing from this style of portrait so the shape of your model becomes more pronounced. The shadows are more clearly defined with harder edges than when you use a diffused light.

If you like high-contrast images with hard gradations in tone then choose a harder source of light. 11 lighting ratio on the left 21 lighting ratio on the right. Steve Bedell Feb 1 2001.

Use the rule of thirds. The Black And White Thing. Fine art photographer Joel Tjintjelaar explains very well separation and the grey scale tonal contrast separation and presence and depth.

You can also try dodging and burning while editing. If your key flash or strobe is at ½ power and your fill flash or strobe is at ¼ power then you have your 21 ratio. For another series of portraits Elson mixes hard light with soft light.

He uses a hard light source in the form of a small light with a 20 degree grid that fires straight onto the side of the models face. Sure it was shot in RAW so all the color is in the file. Depending on what kind of lighting youre using you can capture a flat image or silhouette a dark image with textured portions of the foreground showing through the shadows or a crisp image in which you get a clear portrait of the subject with all of the rich texture and dimensionality.

Dark shadow areas and black backgrounds accentuate the shape of a face and body. Next The Fill Light. Whether youre shooting black and white or color images use the rule of thirds to steer your viewers eye to the important elements of the photo.