Today we're going to talk about lighting setups now many photographers contact me
regularly asking how many lights do I need how many lights do you use for
different shoots. Well I'm gonna show you some really good three-light setups for
beauty and fashion shots that you'll find really useful, I'm gonna show you
those in a short while, but first of all let's take a look at some of my images
on my commercial photography site because I think you'll be quite
surprised how often I use very few lights so let's take a look at this shot
here which we shot recently down on the coast this shot actually only uses one
location studio light powered on a battery pack the rest of the light is
fill light using ambient daylight this product photography concept shot
actually only uses one light as well so it's again it's more about the knowledge
on how you use the light and how you create the concept that's important
rather than saying I have to use five lights or I have to use four lights. You
basically want to use the exact amount of lights you need to achieve the
visualization. Other shoots are more complex this particular example I needed
12 lights to capture the image in-camera in one shot. There were also some rods
and wires holding things in position which have been retouched later but from
a lighting perspective I wanted to be sure that I could capture everything on
the product in one capture. Another good example of multiple lights was this
recent motorbike shoot that we did for a live show on KarlTaylorEducation.com
and I think I used about eight or nine lights on this particular shot, however, I
also demonstrated the technique of how you could use one light and multiple
bursts in different places to achieve the same result. This shot actually has
one key light on the model but it has one very important light adding blue
light into the shadows so it's actually just a two-light setup. So when we think
about lighting we must think about it not in the sense of 'oh I need to use
five lights' or 'I need to use four lights', we
have to try to think about what we're trying to achieve visually and then work
towards that goal via pre-visualization and then achieve the result based on the
equipment necessary. Now what I'm going to do today is I'm going to show you a
couple of lighting setups that use just three lights and how you can use them
effectively. So if we head over to my blog on KarlTaylorEducation.com
you'll find a blog post called portrait photography lighting ideas three
creative ways to use three lights now let's take a look at this example. Now
there's no end to how creative you can be using just three lights for portrait
or beauty photography and this is something we cover extensively over on
KarlTaylorEducation.com but today I'm going to share three ways that you can
use three lights each of these setups uses only basic modifiers and shows
effective techniques that can help add three-dimensionality to your subject.
Further examples of three light setups can be found in our 'portrait section'
along with more examples of great one-light, two-light and four-light examples
too. So let's look at the first one, three lights for a high key fashion shot
now you can see in this image here that we've got a very high key punchy look,
colorful background, with really beautiful rim lighting surrounding the
model, around the edge of the shoulders, the neck, the cheekbones, and up onto the
hair. It's also got a sense and feeling of flare coming into the shot and that's
quite deliberate for the look and style of the shot with the pastel pink
background and overall the image has got quite a high key look but actually the
shot was quite simple to achieve. Let's take a look at the lighting diagram and
you'll see the setup for this shot. So I have two silver umbrellas creating the
rim lighting that's visible on the models face either side and over the
bare shoulders, the key light on the front of the model was using a Focus 110
umbrella which is also silver, the same as the
standard silver umbrellas at the back. Now the trick to this shot is
positioning the silver umbrellas at the back exactly the right angle so that you
can just tilt them to allow a little bit of flair into the camera but you can
control it and it's that level of control by just turning the silver
umbrellas and then moving them out and into the shot that will control the
amount of flare coming into the camera. The Focus 110 umbrella from the front is
particularly good at delivering a punchy fashion style look to the shot. It has a
sort of para like quality but not quite the same level of quality as a para but
a very good economical alternative instead. The pink background was made by
simply painting a board and painting it with pink matte emulsion paint and the
light from the umbrellas at the back and from the key light was enough to give me
the pink background. Now if you look at the catchlights in the eyes on the
model you can see that the front key light is from slightly above, now
generally when I'm shooting with a beauty dish Para 133 or a Focus 110
umbrella, I'm shooting with that light slightly above the model at a 45 degree
angle about one meter to two meters away from the model and that results in the
result that we've got there. Okay, let's take a look at my lighting example
number two which we've titled on the blog as strong, bold and dynamic. Now what
you should be doing when you look at the image and you can see the image here is
you should start to look at it and try to evaluate, well how is that shot
lit, how has the photographer... how have I managed to light that 3/4 length almost
full body length shot in such a way? Well again this was a three-light setup and
it's actually quite a simple one as well. Let's move down to the lighting diagram
you can see that the background is a grey paper roll that's coming down
behind the model and the models standing on top of that and then behind the model,
hidden down here on lower studio low stand, or a floor stand is
the glow that's being created behind the model, shining on the background. Then the
lights on the model are two lights - they are 30/120 strip softboxes so they're
quite narrow they're about that wide and they're quite long. One of them is used
horizontally above the model in much the same way in position where I would put a
beauty dish or a Para 133 for my beauty shots, so I'm using the 30/120 in a
horizontal format above and across at the top of the model and then I'm using
one more 30/120 down the side. So what I'm actually creating is an L shape of
light using two 30/120 softboxes and there you can see the result that
I'm able to achieve which gives a nice contouring and shape where the light is
predominantly coming from the right and then it's fading away off to the left so
it is a soft light but it's not too soft so it has a little bit of structure to
the cheekbones and to the textures and the fabrics. My third lighting setup is
very similar, we've called this one bright and stylish on our blog. Now if
you examine the photograph first of all you'll notice you can actually see the
edge lighting coming on to the edge of the models forehead and on to the
cheekbone here as well you'll also notice the graduated glow on the
background so immediately you can see that one of our lights is being used as
the background light now if we look at the lighting setup for this one you'll
see it's very similar to the other lighting setup except I've moved one of
the 30/120 s behind the model. So I still have a light horizontal across the
top of the model in the common position at a 45 degree angle or just above the
models head and then in this instance I've moved one of the 30/120 soft
boxes, which is vertically placed, but I've moved it behind the model to catch
the catch light down the side of the hair, the forehead and
the cheekbone and then as you can see in the lighting diagram, the third light is
therefore the background. The addition to this lighting setup was the fill
reflector below the model. Now as this shot's been taken horizontally I was able
to position a fill reflector below the model to bounce some of the light from
the top light back up to fill the shadows under the neck and under the
jawline. Now these are just three lighting setups using three lights we
have many many more on KarlTaylorEducation.com using one-light, two-light,
three-light, and four-light and using lighting on location, in fact, these
actual shoots where you've seen these lighting diagrams here we walkthrough
them completely and you can watch the entire video for those shoots as well.
Well I hope you found those three-light setups useful, we'll see you next time.
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