Rembrandt lightning?

XoechZ

Hello!

What I want to know is:
How do you set up a Rembrandt lightning in DAZ Studio?
In which situations is it useful? So, when and how do you use it?

Thank you!

mark128

XoechZ said:

Hello!

What I want to know is:
How do you set up a Rembrandt lightning in DAZ Studio?
In which situations is it useful? So, when and how do you use it?

Thank you!

Rembrandt lighting is a studio portrait photography lighting technique. Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle under the eye of the subject on the opposite side of the face from the main light. This triangle is created by the shadow of the nose extending to darker side of the face opposite from the main light.

You can create Rembrandt lighting fairly easily in DAZ Studio. Start with one light and no enviroment (uberenv or advanced ambient light). This will give you dark shadows that may be unpleasant, but it makes it easier to position the main light.

Pose your subject.

Position the camera and frame the image.

Position a spot light pointing at the subject and about 45 deg away from the camera. Make sure you have raytraced shadows turned on and set the shadow softness to 1% or sometime.

Render the scene.

See if the shadow of the nose extends over to the darkened far side of the face.

Reposition the light and re-render until you get the nose shadow to just extend to the far side of the face. You can view through the spot light in DAZ Studio to help you with positioning.

Once you get the main light in position, you may want to increase the shadow softness a bit so it so the shadows are not so hard. You will probably want to add at least a 2nd light so the shadows are not so dark. You don't want to second light to throw noticeable shadows, so you could use a UberEnv or Advance Ambient Light and you want the intensity of the 2nd light to be low enough you can see the shadows.

You don't have to use a spot light for this. You could use almost any kind of light that cast shadows as your main light. You could even use UberArea light planes to approximate soft-boxes or umbrellas used by studio photographers.

I have Photo Studio - Point and Shoot 2 light set which is gives you light sets similar to what a studio photographers use. You could create Rembrandt lighting by adjusting one of those light sets. The exact position of the lights to create Rembrandt lighting depends on the models pose.

XoechZ

Thank you for that detailed explanation!

So this lightning basically has only 2 lights. A strong key and a weak fill light. But there is no back light.

mark128

XoechZ said:

Thank you for that detailed explanation!

So this lightning basically has only 2 lights. A strong key and a weak fill light. But there is no back light.

You can add a back light, but it is not required for Rembrandt lighting.