Let's show you an offset lighting setup what I mean by an offset lighting setup. Now just a couple of quick things so you understand what's going on here. Although I'm showing studio lights, and I'm showing a DSLR camera, I've actually set these up so they simulate window light, and where we would have the iPhone at 30 millimeters. So this is going to help us to understand where you need to sit in relation to the light and where you need to have the camera so let's have a look at this from above. So what we've got here is we've got the window light coming in, and then behind the subject at a right angle to the subject is our background. Now what We need to do is make sure we pick as clean a background as possible.

So what we're looking for is a blank wall of some type. Or if you don't have a blank wall, maybe cover it with a large plane due date or something like that, but we need a blank wall and we need a neutral color. You can explore with deep reds and things like that and if that's what you've got, then use that. But if we're just going to create a simple portrait for our social media, a simple selfie, keep the warm neutral so keep when I'm saying neutral, what I mean is maybe a beige or a light gray or white. But if you haven't got that and you've just got the wall you've got just use that. So what we've got here is we've got a large softbox and this is simulating a large window or a patio door of some time.

Now a tip for you that is really, really important. When you look out of the window. If you can see the sun Through the window from where you're sitting, that is a bad position for the sun to be in for you to take your photo. So what you need to do is make sure that you're taking your photo when you cannot see the sun from where you're sitting, the sun isn't shining directly through the window. And then what you're going to get is some really nice soft light, because what will actually happen is the sun will bounce its light off the atmosphere, and then that will come in and create a really nice soft light on the face. If you can see the sun is going to create hard line.

So if you haven't taken the time I've got a full course on natural portrait photography, how to use natural light again, take that this is an introduction you've got everything you need here for this shot. If you want to learn a little bit more about how to do outside, go and check that course out how to use different lighting conditions have shooting tough conditions. What we're doing here is we're really, really controlling the light. Now the other thing that's going on here is the camera angle. If we see where the subject is in the camera, we can see that the camera, we have the light here, which is quite flat lighting the subjects face, the camera angle isn't shooting across the face here, it's not over here shooting this way. It's actually shooting over here.

And we're doing that because we're positioning the lights on the subjects face. What we've got is the light on the face. Now we've got this light falling on this side of the face. And then we've got this side in shadow. Now if we move the subject around, we would lose this type of lighting. So let me show you this is optimal if you're shooting on an office.

Lighting pattern with the back wall and the light at a right angle because you sometimes just have to shoot with what you've got. This is optimal for that type of light. As you'll see the shadow on the nose is still quite soft, we're getting what is known as open loop lighting pattern here. Again, I have another course into bats portrait photography and classic studio photography. And this is a classic lighting pattern is open loop lighting. And because of this, we get this nice highlight and then it drifts into this nice shadow on this side.

Now if we move the subject, I'm going to show you that in a second. We're going to lose this and this is going to become dark. So let me show you that. So now we've changed the angle, and we're what's split lighting now or side lighting but the proper term for this is split lighting. And you're going to see this is very dramatic. Let's go and have a look at what that's going to look like.

You can see we've been Move the subject move the camera. So these positions now so that the camera and the subject of parallel to the light. But this is not going to be optimal for the type of portrait who want to do here. And if you want to create a really dramatic compelling look, try this I'd love to see your images post them as a project. There is no right way and wrong way. But what I'm trying to do is teach you a pleasing look that is going to be used by most people.

So here's the split lighting. Now you can see it's split in half, it's almost like there's been a line drawn down the subject. Now if you want a really dramatic look, have a play with it, have some fun, but you can see the light on this side of the face. The eye is completely in shadow. It has very little light on this side of the face. And this is what happens when you use a split lighting pattern.

And we're going to compare this now to the previous ones hold this picture in your mind. Let's have a look at the previous one. See what that looks like now As you can see, with a light now just a big window light, we've got this nice gradient across, the eyes are opening up a bit now, so we're getting a bit more light in the eyes and we're getting this feature over this side. So this is why I would recommend you would use an open loop lighting pattern over a split lighting pattern when you're using an offset lighting setup like this. So let's just remind ourselves where we would put our chair and our camera in relation to the window light. So as you can see, we've got this angle and we can change this a little bit, move it around a little bit more.

Now some of you probably wondering what this is over here. If you've not seen one of these before, this is a little silver reflector. The light hits a silver reflector, and it's just going to put a little bit more light into the shadow side and soften the harshness of the image. Now I've included it here and you might be thinking, Well, you didn't mention that in equipment section. That was expensive and not expensive, but you don't need to buy one of these. All you need is a piece of cardboard and some baking foil and just attach the baking foil to the cardboard with a couple of staples, or a little bit of glue, and you can create your own reflector panel.

Now it's not going to create loads of lightness, so you have to play with it. If you know a photographer and amateur photographer or professional photographer and they've got a proper reflector, you can always borrow that and play with it. You can make your own get a good sized piece of cardboard, you probably want to be two foot wide by three foot high. Put some tin foil over that don't worry about being tidy. And then just put that on a chair climb out to a chair or just a lien against the chair. So it's reflecting back in.

So let's just show you where it is what it looks like. As you can see, the light is hitting and it's angled into the face. So it's hitting here and it's going to bounce into the face over here. Just gonna soften up that side of the face. So that's the offset lighting pattern.