I was told to place the lights about 3 ft high and point them up to the model. Is this true?

First of all, to me for bottom fill yes it is! But 2 lights as a main light? NO!

I will tell you why, and Kevin Camp from Tulsa, Oklahoma and James Cooper from Oklahoma City, Oklahoam taught me this one. It gives a very unflattering light to the model. If u know me in photography I am almost 100 percent self taught. And this was a mistake I made on the field one day. Kevin has dubbed it "Halloween" lighting and the reason is the shadows it casts.

In the previous post I showed some ways to use a reflector, the guy also went over three lighting schemes in the studio.

Rembrandt lighting. This is the most common lighting out there I have seen. Ever typical portrait studio uses this lighting scheme. Its about 45 degrees from the subject and the stand is about 6 ft high from the subject. This causes a triangle looking high light on the subjects cheek.

Butterfly lighting: This is another common lighting style. You place the light right above the subject directly centered to them, and down about 45 degrees to the subject. This casts a butterfly shadow under the persons nose. great one light set up.

These 2 cast shadows under the persons eyes. Not above.

The third lighting style the guy went over was edge lighting, we have all seen this. It is the lighting that causes harsh shadows and gives the photos a really dramatic look. Usually used in guy head shots and art nudes. The light is placed 90 degrees to the subject casting side shadows on the subject. You can use one or 2 lights and cause different shadows, but it is still side shadows.

This lighting style causes above the eye shadows, very unflattering to anyone. By placing the lighting on the bottom, the eyes do not get lit as well as from above. Placing the lights on the bottom as fills for butterfly are a great way to do fill light.

Here is a photo I took, and did this lighting style, as you can see the shadows are very distracting, and look like a jack-o-lantern look.

Are these shadows flattering?

No. So if you ever use a light from the bottom, you better have a top light to. :)

Hope to hear more questions!

Cheers,
Wolfie