The basics of what you need for a shoot are simple. Lately, I have been working on some creatively themed portrait shoots as a personal project. Whew! Let’s move on and get into some of the nitty gritty of setting up a studio portrait shoot. There was also a nice post here on DPS recently called One Light Portraits: Simple Elegance, by Rick Berk. Two that I have personally found useful are Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers, by Christopher Grey or Basic Studio Lighting: The Photographer’s Complete Guide to Professional Techniques, by Tony Corbell. In order to move on, I would recommend getting a good book or two on studio lighting to give you a thorough description of some lighting basics. I am trying not to get pulled into a discussion about equipment, but admittedly some equipment is required. Don’t get too hung up on the equipment at first, but try to understand how to position and control the lighting to get the desired results. You could use a couple of lamps with a shower curtain liner to diffuse the light if you want. Basically any system of lighting can work fine. Westcott has their Spiderlite TD continuous lighting system that also could suffice. Now, you do not necessarily need to use strobes. There are a lot of other brands of strobes out there, but these have worked well for me and fit within my budget. I currently use a set of Alien Bees strobes from Paul C. To shoot my studio work, I use simple, durable yet economically feasible equipment. I promise you, once you get your feet a little wet and wild in the studio, you will not only love it, but also find that you have a better eye for light even when you are out at the wee hours of the morning trying to capture that perfectly beautiful sunrise. It is more of a reason of why to get started with studio lighting and to break through any mental barriers that might be in your way. Now this article is not meant to be a full on detailed description of what lights or modifiers to buy or an in depth scientific analysis of the inverse square law complete with physics equations and Einstein like theorems. Not the easiest place to start I can assure you, but it definitely does not need to be as awkwardly bemusing as it first appears. Strangely enough, when I got started with photography, studio lighting was one of the areas in which I was most interested. Wow! Already seems like too much huh? You might find yourself thinking, “I can just use the giant light source in the sky that is available everyday and be done with all this other mangled mess of an armamentarium.” At times I would not disagree with you, as the natural light from the sun is hard to beat and is in great abundance, however, when I look at how much my understanding of light and shadow has improved from my many unsuccessful studio lighting shoots, the value of learning this sort of lighting is tremendous. ![]() Not to mention the need for extra equipment such as backdrops, light stands, modifiers, reflectors and the lights themselves. The tangled, twisted mess of light size, power, angle, position, direction, etc… can be daunting to say the least. Studio flash photography often appears to be complicated and confusing for the new photographer.
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