Seeing Rembrandt lighting and then creating it

Nikon D750, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 2200, ƒ/4, 1/500

This morning while eating breakfast at Ken's House of Pancakes in Hilo, Hawaii I noticed what appeared to be a mother and daughter together. Now analyzing the photograph I know that the reason they caught my eye was the lighting on the mother's face.

It is what we call Rembrandt lighting, which is named after the famous painter known for using this lighting technique in many of his paintings.

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There is a little triangle of light on the dark side of the face when a light is 45º to the side of the subject as well as 45º above the subject.

Tomorrow the students in the class will learn how to create the triangle on a person's cheek to create Rembrandt lighting. This is my first lesson in lighting, which I think is a great place to start.

Nikon D4, AF NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4D, , ISO 200, ƒ/8, 1/200–four Alienbees

To get this triangle the students will use a similar setup to this shot. For this shot I used four lights. the students will only use one.

They will use just the one light with a spot grid on it.

Here is there assignment they will get tomorrow. How about you try it yourself.

Rembrandt Lighting Assignment

I gave the class an assignment on making a Rembrandt light portrait using just one light with a 10º or 20º spot grid.

Most everyone in the class has never even turned on a studio strobe before.

Here is the assignment:

Description:
Rembrandt portrait using one grid light

Items:

Subject
Please get the best possible expression.  You need to see a triangle on their cheek.  Be sure the triangle includes lighting their eye.

Monobloc with 10 or 20 degree grid
You may use any power setting you choose.  Be sure skin tone is properly exposed and correct white balance.

Camera
Choose the lowest ISO setting for your camera.  Use a portrait lens 85mm - 100mm or if you don't have full frame then 50mm will be OK.

Backdrop
You may use a black background as well.  No other lights to be used in this assignment.

Here one of the students shot from the past:

Photo by: Lauren R. Tercero

Student's 1:3 Lighting Ratio results

© 2015 Stephanie Leilani

These are the results from the students assignment where they were to create a 1:3 lighting ratio on the subjects. They could add background color or just white. They could also have fun, but they had to demonstrate the 1:3 lighting setup.

Assignment Description:
1:3 lighting ratio.  This photo is classic lighting.

Items:

Softbox
This light is your main light. Get a light reading with just this first. The light should be 45 degrees off the axis of the camera and 45 degrees above the subjects eyes.

Subject
Your subject should have the main light lighting only part of the face and the shadows should be just a little to show the 1:3 ratio.

White backdrop
Keep the subject a few feet from the background and do not use more lights to light it.

(D)SLR
Choose the lowest ISO.  Use a portrait lens 50mm if you don't have full frame camera can work.  No more than 100mm.

Octobox
This is your fill light and get just a reading of this 2nd.  Be sure it is 1/2 the power (1 f/stop less) than the main light. After this is done get a 3rd light reading of both lights which will be the setting for the camera. It can be level with the eyes, but you may have to move up with glasses to avoid glare.

© 2015 Benjamin Marsden

To see all the photos just look at this slide show.

Before you use the studio strobes–See the light first

Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 5000, ƒ/1.8, 1/250

Today was the first class of lighting I was teaching to the School of Photography at the University of Nations located in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. I asked one of the students to be my model.

Bethany is helping me as the model for the first assignment on Rembrandt lighting using just one light with a 10º grid on the Alienbees studio strobe.

The top photo here is the first photo I took showing what the fluorescent room light looked like before we used lights.

Nikon D4, 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 12800, ƒ/1.8, 1/250

The first thing I did was turn all the lights off in the room except for the modeling light that is on the Alienbees with a 10º grid on it. Rather than jumping into shooting with the strobes I showed the class you can see what you are going to get with the strobes using the modeling light.

Here you can see the triangle on the cheek which is the classic Rembrandt lighting with a little twist of me not shooting her looking straight on but slightly behind her.

To see the rest of the assignment you can go to an older post that walks you through the Rembrandt light exercise. here is that link

You need to see what you are trying to create first before using flash.

Student's work from the YWAM School of Photography 1 2014

Photo by Clara Kwon

These are examples of the students work from this past week on lighting that I taught in the School of Photography 1 which is part of Youth With A Mission's University of the Nations campus in Kona, Hawaii.

This was the first time for most everyone in the class to use studio strobes.

Without flash -- Photo by Andrea Klaussner

With flash -- Photo by Andrea Klaussner

They learned how to use off camera flash on location. The assignment required them to hand in one photo without a flash and one with it. Some of the students photos looked better without a flash and sometimes there are times you don't need a flash they found out.

 Without flash -- Photo by Lizz Busby

With flash -- Photo by Lizz Busby

The bread and butter assignment for a photographer is the environmental portrait. Being able to take a poor lighting situation and improving it was the purpose of the assignment as well as to know how to make it.

The students took a baseline photo without a flash and below the sync speed for their camera. Then they made a flash reading setting the strobe to be one stop greater than the aperture reading without the flash. They then only changed the aperture to the one stop great aperture that the flash is set. They were also encouraged to see if more power from the flash was better for the photo.

1:3 Lighting Ratio Assignment

You can see the assignment the students were given here in an earlier blog post. Basically they needed to have the main light [key] at 45º from the camera, with the model looking straight into the camera. We did this to help them see the shadow across the nose. They then had a fill light one stop less than the main light.

They could use different backgrounds from White, Gray or color.

Photo by Debbie Smit

Photo by Erik Wuesthoff

Photo by Keziah Khoo

Photo by Lizz Busby

Photo by Oo Shinoda

Photo by Melissa Kelsey

I think the students all did a great job and in less than a week each person had a potential of a couple of photos to add to their portfolios.

Photography Workshop is the best way to learn photography

Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/60

I am really enjoying teaching here in Hawaii.  So you don't feel sorry for me soaking up all the beaches and warm weather, we are inside much of the day in class. Here the students are working on their assignment for 1:3 lighting ratio.

If you want to see their assignment here it is in an earlier blog post.

You will need to come back next week where I hope to post some of their photos.

Fuji X-E2, XF 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/140

No matter how much I told the students it wasn't until they started shooting did they come to see if they really understood the concepts.

The cool thing is I don't jump in and help them. I let them work in small groups and teach each other. You see when they teach something they just learned they are now synthesizing the information.

If you just listen to someone you are probably only getting about 5% of the content. If you read about it then 10%, but when you start practicing you are now in the Kinesthetic level of learning and the average recall of the content after 24 hours is 50% or better.

You see based on research you will retain what your learned when you have hands on learning and get to practice. You will retain 75% of the content.

For those students who helped their classmate understand a concept that they just grasped then they will recall 90% of that concept the following day.

Give me a call. I do personal one-on-one workshops or you can have me come and lead your camera club in a hands on workshop.