Butterfly lighting is often used when making portraits of women. To start, you can place the main light

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Figure 7-9. Side lighting.

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Figure 7-10. Butterfly lighting.

very close to the camera lens axis and about the subject's eye level. This creates a flat lighting, and facial feature characteristics can be lost. By moving the main light higher, you can create a certain amount of modeling. The light now creates a little modeling and is still very flattering and almost foolproof. This lighting is considered flattering because it does not emphasize lines or crowfeet around the eyes, wrinkles on the forehead, or shadows around the mouth. It does, however, emphasize eyes and eyelashes, especially in females.

The main light should be just high enough to cast a shadow of the nose about a third of the distance from the nose to the top edge of the upper lip (fig. 7-10). Each subject's face and nose is different, so the correct height for the main light varies slightly. When the subject has a long nose, the light should be low to shorten the shadow. When the subject has a short nose, raise the main light to lengthen the shadow. This has a secondary effect as well. It adds form below the eyebrow and accentuates any slight hollowness in the cheeks, giving a more provocative look.

When making a portrait of a person smiling, you must shorten the nose shadow because the upper lip draws up and the shadow goes over the lip. The nose

7-14 shadow should not extend over or touch the edge of the lip. When it does, the lip form is destroyed and it appears unnaturally small.

The main light-to-subject distance is again determined using the forehead highlight test.

The fill-in light is positioned directly below the main light-close to the camera lens axis and slightly above the subject's eye level. The intensity of this light should be about one f/stop less than the main light. The lighting ratio is established by moving the fill light closer to or farther away from the subject to increase or decrease its effect. Balance also can be controlled by using diffusion screens over the fill-in light.

Although not as flexible as three-quarter lighting, frontlighting does have some flexibility. The subject's head can be posed from full face to profile. However, the nose shadow must always remain under the nose. Therefore, the main light must be moved with the head; and as the head moves to the three-quarter or profile position, the hair light also must be moved. The fill light is not moved.