Portrait Studio Lighting Tutorial

I’d like to talk you through some studio lighting setups that I’ve been experimenting with recently, using my Interfit EX150 MkII two head kit. It’s a decent lighting setup to learn with, each head packing 150w of power so ideal for smaller spaces. If you want to take full body shots or capture movement, you’ll probably need a more powerful setup.

One light setup:

The first shot, and probably my favourite portrait shot I’ve taken recently, was shot with one head and an umbrella to diffuse the light. The head was placed around 45° to the right of the subject, and a light meter reading taken at f4.5.

You’ll have to excuse my somewhat perfunctory diagram, but hopefully you’ll understand what I’m getting at! It’s an extremely simple setup, and it doesn’t take too much effort to produce some interesting shots with it. You could always add a second light behind the subject directly in line with the key light to highlight the hair, but as the shot was cropped so tightly it wasn’t necessary. A reflector / second light may have aided the shot by removing any shadows cast across the face by the key light, but I feel that one light in this instance creates a sense of depth to the face…if that makes sense?! Anyway, here’s the shot:

I’ve taken extra care to ensure I’ve focused on the subject’s eyes, as this is the main focal point of the image. That was the main reason I selected such a narrow depth of field (f4.5), to accentuate the eyes and “eliminate” any aspects that may detract from that aim.

As far as post-processing goes, nothing too flamboyant really – I converted the shot to black and white using the Photoshop channel mixer (adjust to taste), then dodged and burned the eyes to make them stand out, dodged the hair to bring out the highlights and finally sharpened using the high pass filter.

Two light setup – first shot:

The second setup could be considered a more “traditional” portrait setup, but with a subtle twist. The most straightforward setup would be to replicate the above, but to add a second light 45° to the left of the subject. This produces some pleasing but ultimately (in my opinion) flat and lifeless images.

What I’ve done here is to place the key light slightly to the right of the subject, and a fill light directly behind. The fill light has a spill kill fitted to produce a harder light, but hopefully to highlight the hair and adding a sense of drama.

What you may find with this setup is that you have have to employ the clone tool to erase any stray hairs, especially if the model has a lovely head of hair as pictured here! Any rogue hairs aren’t just highlighted, but illuminated and can provide a real distraction. Take care with this.

Here’s the shot:

As mentioned above, this is perhaps a more traditional approach, but for me makes the shot just that bit more interesting. You could also add a third light / reflector behind and to the left to highlight the hair, but once again this wasn’t necessary as the crop was fairly tight.

Again, post processing is fairly straightforward. Once again, convert to black and white using the channel mixer and adjust to taste, add a liberal sprinkling of dodging and burning for the eyes and hair to make them stand out, and then sharpen using the high pass filter.

Two light setup – second shot:

The third shot was inspired by a photograph in the excellent,“Photographing People Like A Pro” book by Rod Edwards, and is an extremely subtle variation on the above shot. I wanted to create a dreamy, moody shot using the second fill light behind the subject.

Not a lot of difference is there?! What I’ve done is move the fill light slightly to the right, to create a lens flare / “sunlight” effect. (I know lens flare is bad, and some photographers may be choking on their cornflakes reading this, but bear with me…)

Here’s the final shot:

This wasn’t quite the effect I was looking for to be honest, but by this time it was late, the studio was hot as it’s the middle of summer, the beeping of the lights was probably annoying the neighbours and the Pinot Noir had started kicking in…!

As for post processing, yet more dodging and burning for the eyes, a light contrast boost (+15) and sharpened using the high pass filter.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this mini studio lighting tutorial, and if you capture any shots using these setups I’d love to see them!