P#16: Bobbi Lane Captures a Beautiful Portrait of a Dark Haired Girl

Loop Lighting

Bobbi Lane: This shot of the beautiful dark haired girl with the beautiful blue eyes is a close head shot. Earlier we were talking about lighting patterns, and this shot is a loop light.

If you look at her, you see this on camera left, there's a shadow around her nose and shading on the face. This is nothing but a window light. She is sitting next to a window. It's about a three foot square window.

What's outside the window was also important. It was sunlight outside and the light is bouncing around on grass and the building so it was fairly bright out there.

You can see also her skin tones are really smooth. And the tilt of the head -- I love the tilt of the head. I hardly ever shoot people with their heads straight up and down.

For me, this one was really just about getting those beautiful skin tones, those fabulous eyes, and really showing off that loop lighting. (click the image for a larger version)

Audri Lanford: You've also captured the light in her eyes.

Bobbi Lane: That's always the key. The most important thing in any portrait is going to be the light in the eyes.

Sometimes we don't have light in the eyes because we're looking for something that's a little bit more dramatic or kind of spooky or mysterious.

It's always better to have good light in the eyes than it is to have a perfect lighting pattern or anything else, because if you don't have that catch light they look kind of dead or boring. You want to have that spark.

In Summary

We hear it time and time again -- lighting plays a key role in the outcome of our photographs. This portrait of the dark haired girl is a perfect example.