5 Basic studio lighting setups

Hey, wondering the web I found this nice site (I don’t remember how I  got there, probably from one of the forums). It has some great content and very nice video tutorials (although they start with some annoying commercials, but I guess we have to make your living somehow…). One of those great video tutorials is about a subject that we all like – portrait photography setups. In this one you will get 5 setups to learn from and you may see how the pros (video taken by Nick Carter– photographer and Kamara Innis – model ) are doing their work.

The Video:

So what can see and learn from this video? Here is a quick review:

  1. Head shot – Very easy to do setup. Actually is based on only two lights: main light and umbrella(simple 33″ Black & Silver Black umbrella)  to the models right and a softbox to brighten her white background. Very easy and very popular portrait setup for professional head shots. Nick is using here a Canon 50mm f/1.2 on a Canon 20D (an awkward combination  😉  ), that gives a very good combination for studio head shots.
  2. Half body shot -For this setup Nick simply changes the light setup, the umbrella (simple 33″ Black & Silver Black umbrella) will light the background and the soft box will light the model.
  3. Full body shot – Nick changes the lens on his “amazing” Canon 20D to the better lens for the full body shot Canon 24-70L, While the lighting setup remains the same.
  4. BW picture – For more dramatic look, Nick changed the background to a black one and now using only one light.
  5. Natural light – Natural light, is what you thing it is. In this shot Nick posed the model near to a big bright window and let the creativity do the work. You can try to under expose the light and get on effect or overexpose the light and get a completely different look.

The bottom line:

great video Nick!!!

You don’t have to over lght a scene to get great  looks!

Go and try it with you own flashes and strobes, I will post my shots soon, you are wolcome to do it too!!!

4 thoughts on “5 Basic studio lighting setups

  1. Hi, as an amateur photographer I really appreciated the simple, yet effective lighting in the video. I also wondered how Nick Carter got on with the lovely model, Kamarra (sorry if the spelling is incorrect). I didn’t count how many times the adjective “lovely” was used, but if he didn’t at least get to go for a coffee with her after the shoot, it wasn’t for the lack of trying!
    I learned from the tutorial though, thank you.

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