Rim Lighting Photography for Stunning Portraits

Discover a wonderful one-light technique for truly beautiful portraits.

Want to capture eye-catching portraits using just one light? Watch this class to learn how to achieve remarkable results with minimal equipment.

You’ll learn from professional photographers and lighting experts Karl Taylor and Urs Recher as they demonstrate how to create beautiful, soft rim lighting using backlighting – with a twist.

Don’t miss this chance to discover a super-smart, simple-but-effective technique that enables you to produce what looks like a four-light effect with just a single modified light.

In this class:

  • Portrait photography using a single light
  • How to use backlighting for creative effect
  • How to avoid flare
  • How to modify rim light
  • Using reflectors and flags
  • How to control shadows

Questions? Please post them in the comments section below.

Stunning female portrait using rim lighting as a backlight.

Stunning female portrait using rim lighting as a backlight.

Comments

  1. Kate Butts

    Hi Karl,

    if I don’t have such a big soft box can I replace it with a smaller soft box lighting through white semi transparent fabric which will be 120 by 180?
    Or what are the other options to replace such a big soft box, please?

    Thank you

    Love the classes )

    Kate

    1. Hi Kate, that’s good as you are thinking along the right lines (those based around the physics of what is happening). And yes that is one way to get your smaller softbox to appear bigger. the only problem is that it will be brighter in the centre rather than the edges of your new larger diffusion sheet. So you you have to think about the physics of it again – ‘how can I get the spread of light to be more even?’ Answers to that would be move the light further back, and/or add another layer of diffusion (if you have enough power) or add and extra bit of diffusion just to the centre of the main diffusion so that it reduces the power of light in the middle to balance it with the outer edges.

    1. Hi, it just needs to match the ratio of your sensor so for example if you’re using full frame 36mm x 24mm you could multiply by 10 which would be 360mm x 240mm which would be a bit big to use so then divide that by 1.5 or by 2 (whichever you think is going to be best for you) and then make that size. I actually have different ones in different sizes but of course they all match the ratio of my shooting format.

  2. Karim Brusseleers

    Hi Karl, do you think you can get a good result by working with one or two light sources pointed at a white background behind the model instead of using a softbox?

    1. Hi, no I that would likely result in flare and wouldn’t be quite as effective and you would also create a lot of light ‘pollution’ bouncing around your studio because the inverse square law would come into play as the distance of the light would be much further from the subject.

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