What is a butterfly lighting pattern, and how can you harness this type of arrangement in your work? Read on to learn how to ramp up the drama with a butterfly lighting setup: lights, camera, action.
Butterfly Lighting: Definition and Technique
What is butterfly lighting, exactly? What makes it unique?
Butterfly lighting, by definition, rushes the face from directly above, often a single key supplemented with reflectors or bounce cards. It’s usually a dramatic, low-key type of arrangement meant to keep our eyes on the model.
Unlike Rembrandt-style portraits, both sides of the face receive the same treatment and enjoy the same illumination intensity. The idea is to emphasize symmetry, beauty, and the purity of the face.
This light source can vary greatly, anywhere from extremely diffused broad sources to extremely intense, direct sunlight. The quality of the light matters less than the way it is molded above the model, lighting up their entire visage.
As you can see, a butterfly lighting pattern calls attention to the forehead, the apples of the cheeks, the hollows of every contour, the mouth, and the chin, all while minimizing everything underneath—the camera doesn’t always need to add ten pounds, and this approach is living proof.
Butterfly portrait lighting is also famous for one other extremely desirable perk: catchlight, also known as an eye light.
Catchlight is a term used to describe big, beautiful, reflected highlights in the subject’s eyes. Due to the placement of a butterfly light relative to where the photographer usually stands, butterfly lighting is one technique that naturally results in lots of eye light.
There are many theories about how the name came about—some suggest it’s due to the butterfly “shape” this type of setup creates on the face, but those claims are dubious at best. For now, let’s focus on what really matters: how to use butterfly lighting to create an incredible portrait.
How to Shoot With Butterfly Lighting: A Tutorial and Best Practices
To shoot a butterfly-style portrait, you’ll need a couple of things:
A camera A dark room or any enclosed “studio” area A bright key light; a flash, the sun, or anything else that you have on-hand A safe and secure way to hold the light in place—a light stand, a C-stand, or a work stand are all solid choices A face to photograph
Yes, it’s a short list, which partly makes butterfly lighting such a versatile style of portraiture. Once you’ve gathered up the pieces for this puzzle, you’re ready to start working it.
How to Create a Butterfly Lighting Setup
First and foremost: ask your model to stand or sit in place. It’s much easier to mold the light when you’ve got your source of reference right in front of you.
Place your stand right in front of your model or slightly to the side if you’re using a stand with a gobo arm or some other way of offsetting the head.
If you’re using an extremely powerful light, we recommend diffusing it with a softbox, especially if you’re just starting out. In lieu of a softbox, you can also simply diffuse the source directly, as long as you’re not using a light that generates a lot of heat.
At this point, you’ll need to use your instincts to assess what you’ve got in front of you. It’s a simple setup; as with any minimal lighting style, tailoring it to a perfect fit is the best way to capitalize on the individual flavor of beauty that your subject brings to the table.
Some faces are soft and warm; others are angular and sharp. In the former case, you might go with a diffused key light, slightly lower than average. The latter might call for the opposite, something more akin to the old-school films and portraits that made butterfly lighting such a sensation in the first place. It’s all about recognizing what makes your subject shine and using the key to highlight all of their best qualities.
Take a look through the viewfinder, grab a couple of light meter readings, and readjust where necessary. If the look is too bold for your taste, you can use a bounce card, a reflector, or even an ordinary mirror to help fill in any distracting dark spots.
Butterfly Lighting Photography: Tips for Incredible, Studio-Style Portraits
Butterfly lighting, in principle, can appear to be deceptively simple. The magic really is in the execution, and the more you practice, the more butterfly lighting ideas you’re likely to come up with.
We’re going to wrap things up with a few miscellaneous tips, tricks, and reminders for the butterfly photographer on a mission:
Golden hour is the prime time for natural butterfly lighting. It’s low in the sky, the perfect angle for a butterfly portrait without equipment anywhere in town. This fact stands for both indoor and outdoor butterfly photography. Time it out, do it at home, take it out on the town, and thank us later. You’re free to add additional lights if you’re shooting with strobes or other photography lights. As long as the central butterfly key light is your most intense source, you’ll get the look, albeit in a more commercial, high-key style than many butterfly photographers prefer. Lenses of a longer focal length are especially suited to this style of photography. They isolate the subject, capturing a moment in time authentically. A wider lens distorts the face comedically, spoiling everything that this shooting style exists to deify.
Aside from these tips and our spiel above, there are a few rules to follow in butterfly lighting photography.
With a Butterfly Light, Every Week Is Fashion Week
It’s not difficult to make a beautiful face shine. Give your model the royal treatment with a butterfly lighting setup; they only take minutes to arrange, delivering production value and plenty of glitz without much effort.
Butterfly lighting is one of the most versatile basic lighting techniques in the artist’s lexicon. Glamor light is the perfect go-to whenever you’re desperate for something new on set; simply throw one down, light it up, and you’re ready to roll.
