Butterfly Lighting 2

In this FotoTV film photographer Oliver Rausch, from the Cologne School of Photography in Germany gives FotoTV another helpful tutorial, this time taking a closer look at the very popular and forever timeless Butterfly Lighting" made popular in the 20's by legendary film icon Marlene Dietrich.

On hand from two fashion magazines he shows first the right and then the wrong examples of this style of Beauty photography. Then he constructs a lighting setup using various small lamps showing step by step which combination produce which results.

How do shadows created with large lamps develop, How can I with only one lamp illuminate both the model and the background are among the questions Oliver Rausch addresses here. He also gives some tips on how to best use umbrella reflectors.

Rausch concludes that plasticity is the most important element when using butterfly lighting. Rausch shows that a three-dimensional photograph of the face is clearly more pleasing than a shot produced by incorrectly placed lighting reflectors.