Lighting for Dark Portraits

Perhaps more crucial than which lighting modifier I use is the positioning of my lights. It is the position of lighting that gives objects their shape and help sculpt the face. For this image, I knew I wanted a very defined sculpting of the face. So, I placed my main light — a gridded stripbox — to the right and 90° to the camera. I used the modeling light and tilted it until I got it in the ballpark. I shot a few frames to adjust my power settings and fine tune the stripbox.

This is a very nice image, but he disappears into the blackness. The photo is fine as-is, but I wanted to separate him from the background. So, I took a second gridded stripbox and positioned it to the left and behind the subject, giving him a nice edge and shape to his head. The power levels are about even, but I was able to reduce the intensity and harden the edge by moving the rim light further away and therefore exploiting the Inverse Square Law.

If your background isn't black enough, use Adobe CameraRAW or Lightroom's "Blacks" slider to only affect the darkest tones in your image. Your background should go totally black with just a little nudge.

This is the final image. Both lights working together, giving shape and dimension to the face. (Photo: Daniel Soñé)


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