Light Basics and Vocabulary

The five basic lighting techniques:

Butterfly (or Paramount) -- paramount lighting, sometimes called butterfly lighting or glamour lighting, is a traditionally feminine lighting pattern that produces a symmetrical, butterfly-like shadow beneath the subject’s nose.
 

Loop -- Loop lighting is a minor variation of Paramount lighting. This is one of the more commonly used lighting setups and is ideal for people with average, oval-shaped faces.

Rembrandt -- Rembrandt lighting is characterized by a small, triangular highlight on the shadowed cheek of the subject.

Split -- Split lighting occurs when the key light illuminates only half the face.


Broad and Short -- Broad portrait lighting is when the main light is illuminating the broad side of the face and the shadow from the nose is being cast onto the shot side of the face. Short portrait lighting is when the main light is coming from the short side of the subject and the broad side of the face is more in shadow.

Terms:

* Fill light(filler)-Fill is used to lighten shadows and control Contrast and Lighting Ratios.

* Key light (main light)- The key may determine the character of the lighting, but often a strong Back Light for example, sets the Mood.

* Hair light- An Accent Light presumably limited to the top of the head. Sometimes only a Back Light with delusions of grandeur and fancy-colored gels.

* Background light (set light)- Reveals the character of the background and helps separate it from the subject

* Shadowless-

*Hard light- A relatively small, direct, usually focusable source, with or without lens, that produces strong High-lights and dark shadows.

* Soft light- Diffused, Bounced, indirect light; the opposite of Hard Light.

* Grey card- A Matte 18% reflectance card used instead of a subject for a Reflected Light Meter reading.

* Reflector- Variously shaped "bowls" that shape and intensify a lamp's Beam.

* Diffuser- A Translucent material placed in front of a Light to soften Highlights and Shadows, reduce Contrast and increase Beam Angle.

* Intensity (Strength, or how to set shutter speed and aperture's appropriate to portraits)- The "strength" of the Incident Light independent of subject reflectivity, commonly measured in Foot Candles or Lux.

* 3:1 lighting ratio- A 3:1 lighting ratio occurs when the light discrepancy between two light sources is one and a half f-stops.

Five Characteristics of Light: 
* Direction- Where the light is coming from
* Intensity- brightness
* Color- What color is the light 
* Contrast- amount of transitions from highlights to shadows
* Hardness- edges of the shadows intensity