How to light your photos like Rembrandt
In a previous blog we talked about Caravaggio, an Italian artist whose innovative use of light continues to inspire film producers and directors to this day. His paintings have had a huge influence on still photography too, and in this blog we’re focusing on someone who has had such a huge impact on photography that he has his own lighting setup named after him - Rembrandt van Rijn.
Born in the Netherlands in 1606, Rembrandt was the ninth child in a deeply religious family - his mother was a Roman Catholic while his father belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church - and these religious ties would strongly influence his work as an artist. He attended Latin school when he was young and enrolled at the University of Leiden - the oldest university in the Netherlands - but his heart was always set on painting. After working as an apprentice for various artists in Leiden and Amsterdam, he then opened his own studio back in Leiden where he began to hone his own unique way of using light, and it’s a technique that’s now widely used throughout portrait photography.
The beauty of Rembrandt’s use of light is in its simplicity. Whereas photography lighting is usually intended to illuminate as much of the subject as possible, this technique leaves one side of the subject’s face in subtle darkness, with a small triangle of light on their cheek - a key indicator of the Rembrandt technique. The light flatters your subject by slimming the appearance of the face and adding definition to the cheekbones, and it’s a really simple way of adding atmosphere and intrigue to what might be an otherwise plain portrait photograph.
If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself then why not follow our simple step-by-step guide below? We can’t guarantee you’ll be as successful as Rembrandt, but we can say that it’ll make your portraits look great.
How to: Rembrandt lighting
- Before you start setting up, think about what you’re going to use as your light source. This could be a well-lit window, a strobe, a soft box light or something similar.
- Now you’ve got a light source, you need to make sure it isn’t too harsh. If you’re using natural light, try placing a thin white sheet over the window so that any shadows become softer and less prominent. If you’re using something like a strobe, then a white umbrella is ideal.
- Position your subject so that the light is shining down on them from around a 45-degree angle. If you’re using a particularly large window for your light source, it might be a good idea to block any light that is coming in from below head height.
- Turn your subject away from the light very slightly until the shadow of their nose helps to create that trademark triangle of light on their cheek. Feel free to experiment with this to find the most flattering angle.
- Once you’ve found a position that looks good and flatters your subject, all that’s left to do is get snapping. If you’ve got all these elements right, you should be able to instantly recognise the difference in your photographs
