Beauty Lighting

Beauty lighting is designed to show off the kind of perfect skin and makeup typically used in cosmetic advertising. It is essentially butterfly pattern lighting from the previous pages, with a second fill light or reflector added to reduce some of the shadows.

You may be tempted into thinking that beauty lighting is a surefire way to make anyone look beautiful, but it isn’t a one-stop solution. Short lighting or Rembrandt lighting is often a better solution.

If your subject has flawless skin, fantastic bone structure, perfect makeup, and no issues about her face appearing as wide as possible, then beauty lighting is the way to go. If not—as in the case of many subjects—it’s best either avoided or modified

The main light is almost ...

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