Black and White Portrait Lighting Tutorial: How to Use Multiple Lights for Maximum Contrast

It’s very popular right now to create really soft Rembrandt lighting, with lower contrast and decreased saturation. These subtle tones look great in color, but if you convert them to black and white, you’ll end up with a muddy gray mess. When shooting for monochrome, contrast is key. In this video, I’ll show you how to use multiple lights to create stunning, high-contrast black and white portraits that stand out! I’ll walk you through different setups, explaining how to maximize contrast using hard light, softboxes, v-flats, and creative modifiers like optical snoots. Whether you’re aiming for a timeless look or want to add some film noir flair, these setups will give you the tools to master monochrome lighting in your studio. There are a number of ways to create contrast in the studio, but I love using multiple lights, sometimes with hard modifiers, and refining the look with negative and positive fill. This allows me to create a full range of tones and make my images pop. Today, I’m going to show you three variants of the same basic setup to help you get a trio of distinctive looks, and then we’ll finish things off with a creative film noir setup. Click here for a full list of all the gear I use in the studio - https://johngress.com/gear/ NiceFoto SN-29 https://amzn.to/3aCtOM0 V-FLAT WORLD Foldable V-Flat, Set of 2, Black/White Amazon https://amzn.to/3NI0f29 B&H https://bhpho.to/3VD8tKR V-Flat World https://bit.ly/3fXqaid Elinchrom ELC 500 Studio Monolight Amazon https://amzn.to/2PzMLGP B&H https://bhpho.to/3oJXVx7 Elinchrom Indirect Litemotiv Octa Softbox (75″) Amazon https://amzn.to/3GZa45L B&H https://bhpho.to/3oOM4Oq Elinchrom Rotalux Stripbox 35x90cm Amazon https://amzn.to/3nUwD3M B&H https://bhpho.to/40PXZbZ Mola Setti 28″ Softlight https://amzn.to/34UnPRv All of these images were shot with a Canon 5DIV: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07... Music: Evolution by Bensound http://bensound.com/ 0:00 Introduction 2:12 HOW IT WORKS 4:28 SET-UP #1 6:29 SET-UP #2 9:19 SET-UP #3 12:16 SET-UP #4 Disclosure: This description contains affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. #BlackAndWhitePhotography #StudioLighting #PortraitLighting