Photography, as we all know, literally means 'drawing with light'. And working in the studio provides an enormous amount of control and flexibility with regard to lighting. But great results don't always require complicated techniques or a cartload of equipment. In this article, I'll walk you through a range of highly effective options when 'drawing' with just a single light source.
I learned one of my biggest lessons on a location shoot back when I was a photography student. The venue was a large classical music performance/recording space that had rather unique architectural features. And before the models arrived, I lit the set by first taking a Polaroid, seeing which parts of the room were dark, and then setting up lights to fill in those spots, repeating the process until the whole environment was evenly illuminated. My goal was to capture all the details of this interesting location.
When the first of the day's models arrived on set, I took another Polaroid and quickly realized that my lighting was a disaster! Everything was completely flat. Minor adjustments of my lights didn't help either, so I decided on a more drastic change: I turned off all of the lights that I'd painstakingly set up and started over from square one.
Beginning again, with a single lighting source helped me realize what I was missing; contrast and drama. In my desire to light the environment completely, I'd robbed the scene of all sense of dimension. By illuminating the scene with a single light, I immediately created dimensionality and contrast that had been sorely lacking in my test shots. Indeed, using a single light source in the studio can be an interesting and valuable exercise for any photographer. There's a visceral experience in watching how a scene changes as you move a single light axially around a subject.
We'll start with a single light plus beauty dish (a circular reflector) shot against a plain white background. Even with a very simple setup like this one, you can create different looks by simply changing the position of the light, as you'll see in the examples below.
The image above was shot using an on-axis light source - a light placed directly in front of the model, on the same axis as the camera. This is a very candid style, similar to what you would get with a ring flash or a simple on-camera flash. Over the last decade, this type of lighting has become popular in fashion advertisements, particularly those set in hotel rooms or other space-constrained locations. It flattens out contours, which is useful for hiding imperfections in the skin or overly-prominent features. Take note though; done poorly, images lit in this style can all too easily resemble snapshots or even worse, mugshots.
In this next image, we've done nothing more than move the light approximately 15 to 20 degrees off-axis. Yet you can clearly see an increased sense of dimensionality and contrast. The lighting is not quite as flat. We are starting to pick up shadows in the model's nose and chin that were completely washed away in the on-axis lighting setup.
It's really worth spending a few moments comparing the image above with the on-axis lighting example. Why? Because looking at photographs is a wonderful way to learn about lighting. Even without seeing the lighting setups I'm revealing in this article, you can deconstruct them from clues in the finished image. Ask yourself, 'How crisp or diffuse are the shadows?' 'What is the shape of the light(s) visible in reflections, such as the catchlight in the model's eye?'
A neatly circular catchlight, like the one visible in the image above, correctly suggests a beauty dish. A ring flash, by comparison would create a skinny doughnut-shaped catchlight. A softbox would produce a rectangle, while an umbrella would appear round with bright radial spines. The position of the catchlight and the direction in which the shadows fall also allow us to infer the placement and height of the lights.
as others have mentioned, the setup of the lights in the article is good.. but it would be nice if the shots were taken in the same pose with just the light moved to different locations to show the difference.... much easier for the beginner to understand!
A good article to show that you do not need a lighting set but first you need to learn what can be done with one light. The immediate missing factor I feel is the explanation of keeping the lighting ratio within the capability of the film or sensor and here I think the use of soft lighting hides a multitude of sins :-)
But perhaps styles have changed over the years and black holes are acceptable these days. Adding a simple reflector would probably satisfy my crit.
Though I am in agreement with the premise of seeing and creating with one light, I am not sure the images are the best examples of it. So sorry. Regardless, thanks for sharing and getting so many minds to contemplate the fundamentals. God knows we can all use it.
All 3 examples above are terrible. The first one - the shadows are not controlled at all, and form a bad pattern (lots of bumps on her dark side). The second - just washed out, and flat, no lighting work presented. The third - the main light is positioned too above and too aside - resulting in a larger nose than could be.
Yes, you can use just one key light, but then you have to be able to master a shadow pattern. If you can't - then stick with a large reflector and fill the shadows, just a touch, so it is not looking like black holes.
My favorite one-light setup is missing: put the light source behind the subject so that the camera is in the shade of the subject. Place a large white or metallic board near the camera 9preferably to one side) so it get illuminated by the lamp and reflects light towards the subject.
Quick question: what about other lights in the room? Is this shot in total darkness except for the primary light? Do the lights in the room even matter? The models shadow dissappears in all of the shots showing the setup (to make everything clear). Is this a change or how the whole scene actually looks during the shoot? Or did someone turn on other lights to capture the setup.
Working with flash is a different animal - the flash is so many orders of magnitude brighter than the ambient light that the light in the room almost doesn't make any difference at all. If you set your exposure for flash and took a picture with the flash turned off, your photo would be almost totally black.
Maybe not. If you use Nikons, they make accessory SG-3IR, which snaps onto your camera and triggers light-activated off camera flash units (InfraRed, line of sight only, cheap). Also, a long PC cord works in some cases. If your flash has a PC connection, PC cord light triggers are available that can be taped to your light stand in any position. If not, light triggers are available to fit under the flash unit shoe. Wireless is your more expensive option.
If I was teaching studio lighting technique, this is exactly where I would start. Although, I probably would have included at least one black and white image to help illustrate the simple drama of using a single light source.
Thank you for taking the time to put together this article. It is a good introduction to using a single light source to produce different lighting styles. I'll certainly be recommending that new photographers wanting to start doing portraiture read it.
Once you understand the light and shadow effects you can achieve with a single light source then you are well on your way to understanding all lighting. Only by understanding the light illuminates and shadows define can you master lighting. .
All lighting setups start with a single main or key light. Additional light sources are only used to modify that main or key light, i.e. to modify the light and shadows. Learning single lighting is the key to learning lighting in general.
Regarding fill light, I sometimes find it useful to set the key light to establish the overall look then *turn it off* and build up the lighting set starting from the weakest light and progressing back up to the key light.
Obviously, this isn't usually necessary if you're using two or three lights, but it can be a very handy approach for complex lighting scenarios with multiple environmental lights, hair and accent lights, fill, etc. It can sometimes be a little easier to visualize the contribution of the small / minor lights without the key lights when you are working with a truck full of gear on a complex lighting stage.
Beauty dishes are over rated.. They are best for close up work, head and shoulders with the dish placed close up, which is what they were designed for. They are much less suitable for full body shots.You can get just as good results or better using a simple brolly (dirt cheap) or softbox. I suggest the article is not about the equipment, but about the lighting techniques demonstrated. Overall, a good introduction for the beginner; it demonstrates what can be achieved with a simple setup. Now adding a large reflector to this which could be a simple piece of white card would add a whole range of additional lghting.
How disappointing. We normally associate this site with higher caliber work, even if the topic is single light source. These images are not interesting at all. I think having access to a studio, with a nice backdrop that you'd want to get more creative with your lighting. Budget has nothing to do with it, it's using your imagination, you are not shooting products for eBay. TERRIBLE.
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