Cinematic Portraits Tutorial: Lighting & Composition Guide

Cinematic portraits are growing increasingly popular as photographers take inspiration from the big screen. These stylised portraits evoke emotion and tell a powerful narrative, all within a single frame. Achieving this cinematic look, however, can be challenging, as every detail must work together to create the desired impact. 

In this article, we’ll explore the two most important elements of a cinematic portrait: lighting and composition. So, let’s take a look. 

What Makes a Portrait Cinematic

First, we need to understand what sets a cinematic portrait apart from a standard portrait. Let’s explore some key elements:

Lighting

One significant quality of different types of portrait photography is the creative use of lighting. In typical portraits, photographers might opt for standard setups. However, with cinematic headshots, there’s more room for experimentation. We’ll look into specific lighting setups later in the article.

Find out more: Mastering Studio Lighting for Portrait Photography: Tips&Tricks

Storytelling

Cinematic portraits often go beyond standard poses. Rather than simply capturing the subject standing still, these portraits can depict the model mid-action, delivering a narrative into the composition. 

Tip: As part of your preparation, grab stills from your favourite films and compile a mood board. Annotate each image with your observations, noting the composition techniques and lighting setups that resonate with you. Use this as a reference to build your own photoshoot plan.

Depth and Layers

Depth plays a key role in creating cinematic portraits. By placing objects in the foreground or background, you can add a sense of immersion and lead the viewer’s eye towards your subject, creating a more three-dimensional effect that contributes to the cinematic mood. 

Alternatively, you could use a shallow depth of field, often seen in film close-ups. This technique blurs the background, isolating the subject and helping to achieve a bokeh effect, where the background is beautifully blurred, and points of light take on soft, circular shapes.

Tip: To achieve this effect in post-processing, use background bokeh AI. It will help add depth to your photos without any additional tricks.

Colour and Tone

Colour grading is another essential aspect of cinematic portraits. While standard portrait photography often focuses on accurate skin tones and outfit colours, cinematic portraits allow for more creative freedom. Photographers can experiment with cool, moody tones or warm, nostalgic hues, mimicking the styles of film portrait photography and cinema.

Tip: To achieve the desired colors in your photos, we recommend using the image filters available in Aperty. You can choose either the presets offered by the software or create your own. 

You may also like: Editing Portrait Photos Like a Pro with Aperty: Tips by Steve Roe

Using storytelling and carefully considering your composition will help you achieve the cinematic look in your portraits. As for lighting, it is crucial for not only producing high-quality portraits but also capturing that cinematic feel. Let’s explore lighting in the next section.

Lighting for Cinematic Portraits

Lighting can make or break a portrait. You may have the perfect location, model, and outfit, but all of that can be ruined by poor lighting. Getting the lighting right not only enhances the quality of your photo but also gives it the impact that makes your viewers fall in love with the image. Let’s look at some key techniques for achieving cinematic portrait lighting.

Soft vs Hard Lighting

Both soft and hard lighting play essential roles in cinematic portrait photography, depending on the mood you're trying to capture. For traditional portraits, soft light is generally more flattering, while hard light creates more dramatic, impactful shots.

High Contrast Lighting—Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro is a lighting technique borrowed from Renaissance paintings and widely used in cinematography. It creates high-contrast images by playing with stark differences between light and shadow. This technique adds a lot of drama and mood to a scene. 

How to Achieve It?

Position your key light at a sharp angle to your subject, allowing only portions of their face and body to be lit, while the rest falls into deep shadow. This style of lighting is great for highlighting emotions and focusing on specific areas of the scene, helping you tell a visual narrative with your portrait.

Shooting the Dark Side

In cinematography, it’s common to shoot from the shadowed side of the subject’s face rather than the lit side. This adds mood, mystery, and drama to the image, drawing the viewer in.

How to Achieve It?

Ensure that some facial features are still visible by angling the camera towards the shadowed side of the face while keeping a portion or the edge of the face lit. If the shadows are too deep, use a fill light, which is a softer secondary light source that helps reduce the shadows without overpowering the main light. This technique, combined with Chiaroscuro, can enhance the dramatic effect in your portrait.

Split Lighting

Split lighting is another dramatic technique often used in cinematic portraits, where one half of the subject’s face is illuminated while the other half remains in shadow. This creates a bold, intense look.

How to Achieve It?

Place your light source at a 90-degree angle to the left or right of your subject. The closer the light source is, the more pronounced the shadows will be. Adjust the light’s distance to control the drama and intensity of the shadows, tailoring the mood of the shot.

Colour Gels

One key feature in cinematic lighting is the use of colour gels over light sources. Colour can evoke different emotions and help set the mood, making it an easy way to achieve a cinematic feel in your photography.

Cool vs Warm Tones

Use cool colour gels (blues, greens) to create moody, mellow, or dramatic effects. Warmer tones, such as orange and yellow, evoke feelings of nostalgia, warmth, or intimacy. Depending on the scene, choose the colour tone that best enhances the overall mood and narrative of the portrait.

Complementary Colours

Understanding colour theory will help you create harmonious and visually appealing images. Complementary colours work well together and create balance in the scene. Be mindful of the existing colours in your background, props, or wardrobe to avoid clashes that may detract from the overall quality of the image.

Shadows and Cinematic Portraits

As you’ve likely noticed, shadows play a significant role in cinematic portrait lighting. Unlike standard portraits, where models are evenly lit to minimise shadows and highlight details, cinematic lighting embraces shadows to tell stories, evoke emotions, and create drama. By mastering the use of shadows, you can deliver a cinematic quality to your images. 

Compositional Techniques for Cinematic Portraits

Cinematic portraits give you the freedom to get creative with your model’s positioning within the frame. Unlike standard portrait photography, where the subject is typically the sole focus and distractions are minimised, cinematic portraits encourage you to view the model as a key component within a larger scene. Other elements present in the environment should be given attention as well, adding to the overall narrative and mood of the shot.

You can use cinematic framing techniques like the rule of thirds, leading lines, or framing within a frame. The subject might be positioned off-centre, and often the photo is taken in landscape orientation rather than portrait, allowing more of the surrounding environment to contribute to the story.

Model Positioning

One of the most effective compositional tools is the rule of thirds. Instead of positioning your subject in the centre of the frame, try placing them in the first or last third. This opens up space in the frame and allows the viewer to absorb the environment, enhancing the narrative aspect of your image.

Tip: The model doesn’t necessarily have to look directly at the camera. Positioning them off-centre and facing into the open space of the frame can create a more dramatic effect. The remaining space in the frame can showcase other elements that help build the story, making the scene feel more immersive and cinematic.

Leading Lines

Use elements within the environment that naturally guide the viewer’s eye toward the subject. These lines can be anything from a narrow path, a low wall, railings, or even patterns in the architecture.

Tip: Leading lines create stronger compositions, and though the viewer may not consciously notice, they will be subtly directed towards your subject, delivering an immediate and impactful focus. 

Frame Within a Frame

This technique, common in both cinematography and genres like street photography, involves using natural or architectural elements, such as doorways, windows, or tree branches to frame your subject within the scene.

Tip: By framing your subject, you not only guide the viewer’s eye but also add depth and context to the image. The frame-within-a-frame approach can also be a narrative tool, symbolising themes like isolation, focus, or separation.

Silhouettes

Silhouettes are a powerful cinematic technique, often evoking mystery and style. You can easily replicate this in photography by lighting the scene behind your model and positioning them to block the light source.

Tip: Have your model create interesting shapes and poses to add drama to the silhouette. For instance, place your model in front of a brightly lit window, where the light behind them veils their figure in shadow. This setup also doubles as a frame-within-a-frame composition, adding another layer of visual interest.

Study Cinematic Techniques

To truly master cinematic composition in your portraits, take inspiration from cinema’s finest films. Identify films that reflect the style and mood you want to achieve, and study how composition plays a role in their storytelling. Look for the following elements:

• Where is the subject placed within the frame?

• Which way is the subject facing, and why?

• How does the subject engage with their surroundings?

• Are there elements in the scene that help frame or lead the eye toward the subject?

• What emotions are the subjects conveying, and how is their posture or pose emphasising this?

• How is lighting used? Are there parts of the subject that remain in shadow, or are they fully illuminated?

• How is colour being used to evoke mood or emotion in the shot?

Cinematic portraits can look absolutely stunning when the lighting and composition align with the mood you're aiming to evoke. The challenge lies in capturing the cinematic atmosphere within a single frame, but once you master this aesthetic, your portfolio will stand out with incredible depth and creativity. 

Study how lighting is used in your favourite films, how the subject is positioned in the frame, and how they interact with their environment and express emotion. Translating your ideas and planning into a single, cinematic shot will be incredibly rewarding. Good luck with your shooting!