There are so many ways to do photography lighting. Especially since fashion photography does not have as many rules when creativity is concerned. Here are four styles of lighting for the studio to satisfy your curiosity.

Split lighting is a common way to narrow a models face. The key light should be placed in a way so that one side of her face is completely lit while the other side of her face fall into the shadow. You can use a v-flat to bounce light back to have less shadow.

Rembrandt lighting is when the key light is placed high onto one side of the model so one side of her face is fully lit while the other side falls into the shadows creating Chiaroscuro effect. Rembrandt lighting creates more shadow an it’s more a more dramatic lighting style. Its characteristic is a triangular shape highlight underneath the eye on the shadow at the models face. Chiaroscuro is the interaction between light and dark used in painting such as Rembrandt for whom the lighting style is named.

Paramount Lighting or Butterfly Lighting is when the key light is placed directly in front of the model face usually right above the camera are slightly to one side and place pretty high above the model’s face as well the lighting is easily spotted because of the strong line effect on the forehead the bridge of the nose and the upper cheeks and the darker shadow under the nose resembles a butterfly. You can also enhance the butterfly effect by either adding a reflector underneath the model space to fill in the shadows to soften the shadows or you can use another light such as a rim light or hair-light.

Loop Lighting is very similar to Paramount or Butterfly Lighting except the key light is moved to one side instead of directly over the model face and usually a bit lower. You’ll should see a small loop shadow coming off of the shadow side of the models nose but it shouldn’t touch the cheek shadow.