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This article is part of the ‘Portrait Lighting For Beginners’ series. This series is meant to help you go from a beginning photographer to making beautiful portraits.

Image by johnlewis1513

Your first question right now is probably, “What the heck are these terms?” That’s understandable, especially if you’re new to portrait photography. So I’ll start this lesson by explaining what these poses are.

• Seven eighths view - This is a view of the subject that shows seven eighths of the subject’s face. Basically, this is a dead on view but with the face turned just slightly to one side.
• Three quarters view - This view shows three quarters of the subject’s face. Her face is turned 45 degrees from the camera and the far ear disappears from view.
• Two thirds view - This is probably the most commonly used facial position in portraiture. This is simply a position between seven eighths and three quarters. It provides for a nice comfortable pose without looking forced.

Lighting The Two Thirds And Three Quarters Views

This article isn’t just about telling you what these poses are. This is about telling you the best way to light them! Remember part six of this series on 45 degree lighting? If not, you might want to take a quick moment to go back and refresh your memory, because we’ll be using that idea again here.

The most important thing to remember about all of these poses is that the position of the key light is not dependent on where the camera is located. Rather, the key light needs to be positioned based on how the subject’s head is positioned. The only thing that separates any of these views is that the subject’s head is turned at different angles.

To light these portraits, simply ensure that your key light falls at 45 degrees to the subject’s face. If the subject moves her head, move the light in an arc so that it again falls on her at 45 degrees. Take a look at the illustration below. Notice how the camera stays in the same position, but when the subject moves her head, the key light moves as well to stay at 45 degrees. You get bonus points if you realized upon looking at this illustration that I drew it using short lighting.

Click for larger version

That’s really all there is to it. One of the easiest mistakes to make as a learning portrait photographer is to set up your lighting and then forget it while you reposition the subject. Even a slight turn of the head without moving a light means the subject gets a full frontal assault of flat lighting that really ruins all your hard work in setting up the lights in the first place.

Once you’ve mastered this technique and have it drilled into your brain that you need to reposition your model and your lights, you’re well on your way to shooting portraits like a pro!

So what do you think? Ready to add your shots to the reader photo pool? You know you want to…