LIGHTING - Bounce or reflective lighting

This refers to indirect or secondary lighting, or reflected off some other surface before reaching your subject.
These subjects here could have been silhouettes if it wasn’t for the light behind them reflecting or bouncing off a wall BEHIND ME and Illuminating their faces as a secondary light. It is very flattering as the hair will be illuminated from behind by the stronger light and a softer flattering light on ther faces.
All imagery © Jon Davison 2022.

So for portraiture, make sure you are standing with your back to a light coloured wall or other surface, and the main light source is coming from BEHIND YOUR SUBJECT but make sure that the source of the actual light is out of frame. The frame of Karim (d) ‘the swordsman’ (plus the page header) uses a similar effect, but was shot in a studio. I placed a light above and behind the subject, plus a light on the floor facing away from them, this bounced off a white angled table surface onto his face. In all these shots the back lighting is stronger than the front illumination.

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