Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly lighting (also known as 'Paramount lighting') is yet another basic camera lighting applied to the work of cinephiles and photography-enthusiast. The butterfly lighting technique consists of just one main light that is pointed directly straight ahead at its subject, raised just high enough to create a downwards shadow on the subject.

The butterfly lighting technique is a renown camera lighting setup in the field of high-fashion and glamour photography.The name 'butterfly' stems from the butterfly-like shadow thats created on the underside of the model's nose.

On occasion, photographers using this lighting technique augment a fill light/reflector just in front of the subject, underneath the camera's field of view. This is usually done because capturing images of models from high angles often darkens the light around the subject's eyes. The fill light/reflector bounces some light into the subject's eyes to produce a higher quality image.