Photography Masterclass Magazine
Expert guide
6 Budget Portrait Lighting Setups With Pro Results
Studio portraiture is a genre with multiple possibilities, thanks to the huge amounts of lighting and accessories available on the market. It’s also a genre that can prove expensive, if you want to invest in all the kit!
In this article, I’m going to look at 5 lighting setups that you can do on a budget, as they all use only one light and a small range of accessories. You can also watch the accompanying video to see all these lighting setups put into practice.
EQUIPMENT
First things first – you will need a camera that allows you to use full manual control. You need to be able to control your exposure triangle (ISO, shutter speed, aperture) at all times with studio work.
A standard zoom lens will be fine for portraiture but the ultimate lenses, in my mind, are prime 50mm and 85mm (or equivalent if you don’t have a full frame camera). As a side note, you can often pick up a 50mm f1.8 lens for a ridiculously cheap price!
Studio lighting can be expensive if you’re buying it new, but you could always consider starting off with some second hand gear. Elinchrom, Godox and Interfit are all reliable brands to look for (Elinchrom are more expensive but offer excellent quality). You can pick up a second hand kit on eBay for around $150 – 200 and that includes all the accessories you’ll need.
Studio flash heads’ power is measured in joules – the higher the number, the more powerful the light. Anything from 250 joules upwards will give you more than enough power for these shots.
You will also need some accessories to diffuse the light. A softbox (a standard kit size one is more than adequate) diffuses the light over a large area – standard ones are usually square but you can get rectangle and even octagonal ones!
You’ll also need two umbrellas – one white translucent shoot-through and a black umbrella with a silver lining (some black umbrellas also come with white and gold inserts).
A reflector allows you to reflect light back into your scene and these generally come in white, gold or silver. You can also use card and polyboards, in particular, to create a cheap black "reflector" to absorb light.
Barn doors are used to direct light and block off areas where you don’t want the light to hit. And finally, you’ll need a remote trigger or sync cord to fire the light and a light meter to measure the light and get correct exposures.
LIGHTING SETUPS
Let’s have a look at the different single light setups. I’m not going to go into great detail on camera settings in this article, as that’s a whole different subject but the joy of studio lighting is that you can control the amount of light coming into your image – therefore freeing up your settings! As a general rule of thumb, I try and shoot with an aperture of around f/8 – f/11 in the studio and a shutter speed of about 1/125th of a second. Always use the lowest ISO available on your camera in the studio (usually ISO 100 or 200). To get the exposure you’ll need to use, you plug the sync cord into your light meter and take a reading off your subject’s face.
LOW KEY
This is a very simple look where direct light is aimed onto one side of your subject’s face, leaving the other side in shadow. You can simply aim your light at your subject and the other side of their face will disappear into shadow.
But there are ways to enhance the low key look. Firstly, you can use a black background, which will help to absorb the light and give a more dramatic look to the shot. You can use a piece of black cloth as it only needs to be large enough to cover a head and shoulders area.
Secondly, a silver reflector behind the model helps direct the light back in and gives definition to the side of the face in shadow.
And thirdly, a black reflector opposite the light stops excess light bouncing back onto the face. If you have one in your kit, you could also experiment with a honeycomb grid on your light, which adds definition and interest.
SOFTBOX
In my view, a softbox is the most useful accessory you can have for a studio light.
The diffused soft light that it produces is extremely flattering for all skin tones and smooths the light over a large area.
You can use a softbox to light on side of your subject’s face, with a white reflector opposite to bounce light back onto the other side of the face. Alternatively, you can use a black reflector to keep one side of the face in shadow and add drama. Using a white background with a single light like this will give you a grey background, due to the distance of the subject from it and the fact that it’s not been separately lit.
Another approach to try with a softbox is to raise your light above your subject and angle it down so that the softbox illuminates your subject from above.
Get your subject to hold a silver reflector underneath their face to avoid shadows from the chin.
WHITE UMBRELLA AND SILVER REFLECTOR
This is a similar setup to my last suggestion with a softbox, but a white umbrella is used to reflect light over the top of your subject. The silver reflector is again held under the face to prevent shadows and also add a catch-light to the eyes. You can also add in black reflectors on either side of the face to add contouring to the cheek bones.
DIFFUSER UMBRELLA
For this shot you’ll need a white shoot-through umbrella, also known as a diffuser.
These umbrellas give a very soft, diffused lighting effect that is very gentle on the skin. The umbrella should be positioned above head height so that it diffuses light as widely as possible.
You will need to position black reflectors either side of the subject or you will end up with the umbrella light bouncing around your room.
Using a grey cloth background, gives a very soft look to the shot and also helps to absorb light.
RIM LIGHTING
This is a lighting style that’s somewhat fallen out of favour, but it can produce a fun and different look! It adds a glow around the edge of your subject = otherwise known as rim lighting.
Your light is simply placed behind your subject and hidden by them. You will need at least two white reflectors to bounce enough light back onto your subject’s face to stop them being in shadow. I’d also advise using a black background to make the rim lighting stand out.
IN CONCLUSION
This article should hopefully give you some tips to get started with some simple lighting setups that won’t cost you the earth to achieve. It will also give you a good basic understanding to then build up your lighting know-how.