Welcome to Lighting setup 101. This image is the first installment of my lighting setups. I will try my best to explain how I did each shot and hopefully you will learn something you didn’t already know about lighting. I use small strobes for all my lighting. Check out the gear section for more information about my gear.



The image above was lit using the bare minimum equipment I had during my trip to Iran. All I had was 2 flashes and a 5 in 1 reflector. The main light camera left –  Canon 580 ex flash at 1/2 power was fired through the diffusion material of the reflector (with the cover removed). The second light is a Sigma flash 500 DG with a DIY grid made of straws put together. This gives a graduated light on the background which is just a cream coloured wall. Camera- Canon 5D with canon 70-200 f4L lens at 1/125 f5.6

There is a small fan on the floor (again camera left) that is blowing the hair to add some sort of motion in the image. This is a very neat trick that is used a lot to make a simple portrait into beautiful glamour portrait. Look at the lighting diagram below for more info.

stay tuned for more…lots more…