Top Tip!

Ever wondered how a portrait was lit?

Zoom in on the catch lights in the eyes. They'll tell you all you need to know. Intensity, how high or low, how far to the side or how straight on.

Top Left: 2 snoots. one lighting the face, the other the background. If you go large you may even see me reflected in the pupil peering down into my Hasselblad taking the shot.

Top right: Lit from underneath by flash unit being bounced off a reflective surface - the faint shadow under the nose comes from the much fainter trigger flash unit.

Bottom left: Two umbrella flash units, balanced left and right, one silvered reflective blanket on the table. (very soft non directional light)

Middle right: single snoot, left, above mid point, no fill (harsh shadows).

Bottom right: Large square flash unit, no fill. Still heavy shadows but because of the size a softer light than the one above.

If you knew all this I apologise for wasting your time, if you didn't - get a magnifying glass and buy a copy of Vogue (or Hello magazine, but I'd probably go for Vogue as Hello just use very flat light using huge fish fryers (name given to big soft light boxes for some reason).