From the course: Learning Portrait Photography

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Adding a rim light

Adding a rim light

- When we photograph people, we often need them to stand out from their background more, and using a rim light is a great way to do that. Now I call it a rim light, you may have heard it called a hair light, or a kicker, or an edge light. Basically all it is, is a light that shines from behind. Especially in studio photography, we shine a light from above to illuminate someone's hair, and it's the same purpose, it's to separate our person from the background, with a different light value, with a little bit of brightness. It doesn't take a lot, either, because a light shining toward the camera, ends up being more efficient, and so, with even a white reflector, I can reflect light that skims off of somebody's shoulder toward the camera, and it ends up just defining their body a little bit more. I like to do it with white, or silver, when I'm using reflectors. If I use gold then I get a little bit of warmth with it, and it feels kind of like a low sunshine, like the sunset, or late…

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