Here is an example of how shadows can show depth and texture, to more accurately portray the condition of an object.

The flatly lit example shows the back of the statue's head, with the light source placed close to the camera angle. You can see white areas where the sculptures patina has been scraped away and where pieces have been broken off, but you don't have any visual clues as to how deep the damage is or the texture of the material. The surface texture is primarily shown with by color differences.

Moving the light to the side, in this case well beyond 45 degrees, causes shadows to form in the depressions. This, combined with the color differences, gives the viewer a much better idea of what they are looking at.

For Creative Expression

Where you want a more artistic interpretation, you can be free to explore other possibilities. In general, for 3 dimensional subjects, lighting is lighting whether its sculpture or humans; so you may see a lot of similarities to the techniques in the interview lighting lessons, also on this site.

In the 1st example, simply using a single light, in this case a Tota with an umbrella, can have a pleasing effect. By adding (or taking away) light, you are determining how much form and detail in the subject you want to show. The side you light from is also a creative decision, usually based on the sculpture. In this case we chose to light from the right side because of the face, which is more open in that direction, and also the position of the hand under the cheek. To light from the other side would cause that arm to throw a wide shadow across the body, and leave the open side of the face more in shadow.

In the 2nd example, you can see that light reflected from an umbrella has a very wide spread so it is lightening the black background a bit.There is a natural separation created by the contrast between the light statue and the dark background. It can be further defined by adding a small back light, or kicker, pointed at the back side of the sculpture, from the opposite side of the main light. In this case it's a focusable Pro-light with barn doors closed in.

The subtle edge made by the kicker shows where the statue ends the background begins. The highlighting adds other visual clues, inside the scuplture, showing to the shape of the arm, shoulder and hair. The amount of shine also tells you that the surface is probably a hard one.

The 3rd example shows how to lighten, or 'open up' the shadows a bit more, using a simple bounce reflector. The reflector, a piece of white foamcore, is simply propped up on the table in a position so that the light from the main source, the Tota / umbrella, will be reflected back onto the subject from the opposite side, filling in some of the shadows. The distance to the subject was adjusted until the desired effect was achieved. Notice that we still have a sense of depth and shadow, they are just reduced by the added fill light. A separate light could be used instead, to fill shadows, but in this case the reflector provides a touch of fill easily, without further lightening the background.

In the 4th example we swapped the Tota & umbrella for a Rifa softlight, and lit the sculpture from an angle close to 90 degrees. Because the Rifa is self contained, the spill is more controllable by slightly pointing the light away from the background. This helped us get the background back to its original black tone. Just make sure its wide lighting angle doesn't spill light on to the camera lens, causing a subtle flare. If that happens, you would need to add a flag to block the spill from hitting the lens. (see "Flags" in Light Controls DeMystified)

Positioning the main light at 90 degrees lights most of the sculpture with nice fall off on the darker side. The addition of the small focusable Pro-light (with barndoors in tight for maximum trim) adds some back edge lighting on that darker side. The results are more dramatic.