How to Use Rembrandt Lighting In Portraits

Rembrandt van Rijn is widely known for his amazingly crisp, fine details in paintings. His most famous pieces are his hand painted portraits of other people. In these portraits he would paint the subject with very dramatic shadows and light on their faces just like the picture to the left. Today, we can mimic this style in our own portrait photographs with 2 sources of light. Follow these guidelines to achieve this dramatic style.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Dimly lit room
• Studio lamp
• Large piece of white poster board or cardstock
• Subject you want to photograph

1. 

   Begin by choosing the room you are going to take the portrait in. This room should be dimly lit, such as a bedroom in the late afternoon or early evening.

2. 

   Next, place your studio lamp so that the light is shining at an angle onto the subject's face. The face should appear illuminated on one side and heavily shadowed on the other.

3. 

   Then, mount a large piece of white poster board or cardstock on the opposite side of the studio light. The poster board should be angled so that it will reflect any remaining light in the room onto the subject's darkened side. This will serve as a fill light helping to illuminate and soften, but not eliminate the dark shadows on the subject.

4. 

   If this is done properly your subject should have one side clearly lit while the other side is darkly shadowed but still shows details. See the painting to the left.

Tips & Warnings

• By altering the distance between the subject and light, color of light, and intensity you can create dramatic shifts in style with more artistic results.