Butterfly Lighting
Objective: To learn butterfly-style lighting.
Assignment: Produce a portrait photograph utilizing butterfly-style lighting.
Turn In: One 8" x 10" B & W photograph mounted on 11" x 14" board and a contact sheet in a clear envelope clearly labeled with your name. Include this assignment sheet.
Due: March 21

Butterfly lighting is so-named because a successful execution of the technique will produce a butterfly-style shadow directly beneath the nose of the subject. This style of lighting can be done either in the studio or with the light of the sun. It is a classic glamour style of lighting, being that it emphasizes the eyes and the cheekbones.
For this assignment, your subject should be lit either with direct sunlight or with a studio hot light. You may shoot in whatever format you desire, be it 35mm, 120 or 4"x5". Make sure the "butterfly" shadow falls directly beneath the nose and does not stray to one side or the other. It should not fall low enough to hit the lip. The light source must be high and frontal. The lighting should be symmetrical. You may want to use a reflector to bounce some of the sunlight back into the face, softening the effect, but make sure that the "butterfly" is visible. Please get in close to the face of your subject.
When using this lighting style for men, be careful that their mustache does not get in the way of the lovely butterfly shaped shadow. Also, you may find that the lighting style may high-light the ears and make them undesirably prominent.