Rembrandt lighting

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Rembrandt lighting in photography is a lighting technique that is sometimes used in studio portraiture.

The key in Rembrandt lighting is creating the triangle or diamond shape of light underneath the eye. One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric form on the face.

The triangle should be no longer than the nose and no wider than the eye. Rembrandt lighting is a combination of short and butterfly lighting-- and as such it is actually the eye closest to the camera (on the broad side of the face) that should have the triangle of light. The narrow side is illuminated. This technique may be achieved subtly or very dramatically by altering the distance between subject and lights and relative strengths of main and fill lights. It is a common photography technique.

[edit] Examples

Self Portrait by Rembrandt

An Old Man in Red by Rembrandt

The Knitting Woman by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

[edit] Origin of photographic term

Pioneering movie director Cecil B. DeMille is credited with the first use of the term:

DeMille explained in his autobiography that while shooting THE WARRENS OF VIRGINIA (1915), he borrowed some portable spotlights from the Mason Opera House in downtown Los Angeles and “began to make shadows where shadows would appear in nature.” When business partner Sam Goldwyn saw the film with only half an actor’s face illuminated, he feared the exhibitors would pay only half the price for the picture. After DeMille told him it was Rembrandt lighting, “Sam’s reply was jubilant with relief: for Rembrandt lighting the exhibitors would pay double!”