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Cheat Sheet Education

Photography Cheat Sheet: A Super Easy Guide to Rembrandt Lighting

Chris Gampat
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06/22/2020
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat Joshs photos with the softbox hack (1 of 1)

Rembrandt Lighting is a popular technique for portrait photography.

Chances are that if you’re really into portraiture, that you’ve studied work that includes Rembrandt lighting. This method is popular partially because it’s such a flattering lighting option. It’s known for the signature triangle that you see on the face because of the angle. And like all photography these days, it’s pretty much just about the angles. Luckily for you, it can be done with both natural light and off-camera lighting. We always prefer to control the lighting that we put in the scene. Today, we’ve got our own original cheat sheet for you, along with supplementary info.

Angles

The shadow and the fact that this image was lit on only one side makes this very low key

“For the absolute most effect, make the zoom head of your flash the widest it can be. If you’re using a softbox of some sort, you’ll want the light modifier to be to the side of the subject and just a bit in front of them a tad. This will help with aiming the light at the right spot.”

– How to Create Rembrandt Lighting in a Photo

Rembrandt lighting is all about angles. As annoying as that sounds, it’s true. The big things:

  • Your light has to be to the side of your subject though still in front of them. With the subject facing you, place the light between a 45 degree to 90-degree angle
  • Have your subject turn their face towards you at a 0 and 30-degree angle
  • Fire the light

So let’s say that you’re working with a light source that doesn’t move: that’s fine. Just move yourself or your subject. Windows are an absolutely fantastic option for Rembrandt lighting. Always try to use a lighting source that’s soft and larger than your subject in the frame. So if you’re photographing a full person, make sure the window is larger than the person. If you’re shooting just the face, then the light source only really needs to be a few feet large.

Time of Day?

To get Rembrandt lighting, a photographer can shoot at pretty much any time of the day. But the best time is whenever your window has the most direct light. To figure out what that is, periodically look at the light in your studio or home. Take notice of how dark the shadows are at a specific time. Then also consider the weather conditions. If you’re shooting on a cloudy day, then the light is always going to be softer than usual. But if the sky is super bright, then the sun will be able to soak through, providing that you have a clear view of it. Of course, it doesn’t always work.

It’s All About Communication

So here’s the thing, your portrait subject will know nothing about the lighting that you’re shooting them with. So ideally, you’ll need to direct them on how to position their face. This method of Rembrandt lighting is specifically about posing the face. Their expression can be anything that you wish. But they just need to be facing the most effective way in this situation. There are lots of ways to do that using hand signals. And to understand it the best, you should really try to get in front of the camera every now and again.

This cheat sheet was made with Visme. Click here if you want more Photography Cheat Sheets.

angles lighting photography cheat sheet portrait portrait subject rembrandt lighting subject tutorial
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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