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How to shoot great one-light portraits in a tiny home studio

Feb 16, 2023 by John Aldred 1 Comment
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Learning to shoot portraits at home is often a struggle. Even when you can convince one of your family members to hop in front of the camera so you can experiment and blast lights at them, you’re often constrained by space. It’s a home. It’s filled with furniture. Even if you can move it out of the way for a couple of hours, you usually don’t get a lot of room to set up and shoot.

In this video, though, Jiggie Alejandrino walks us through his journey, setting up some fantastic portrait lighting in his tiny home studio. Keeping the small space in mind, Jiggie only uses a single light for the setups in this video. But it’s more than just another “here’s how to light a subject with one light” video.

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No, you don’t need 5 strobes to take a great portrait. Create beautiful cinematic lighting with just one light

Nov 25, 2022 by Alex Baker Add Comment
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Sometimes I watch movies or TV shows, and I miss important plot points because I’m trying to figure out how they did the lighting. I just find cinemagraphic lighting incredibly inspiring, and it’s always something I’d like to strive for in my stills photography. But looking at lighting diagrams, it always seems so complicated.

I love to use just one light when I can, so you can imagine my delight when I spotted this excellent video tutorial from Armando Ferreira. He walks us through 4 different cinematic lighting effects that use just one light.

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Here is a room you can never fully light with one light

May 30, 2022 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment
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In photography, light is everything. After all, that’s the key part of its very name. When taking photos indoors, there are many setups you can make with just one light. And did you know that, in theory, almost every room will be lit no matter where you place the light?

However, here’s something I’m sure you’ll find interesting. When there are mirrors on the walls, any room shape will be fully lit but one. It’s called the Penrose unilluminable room, and in his video, Steve Mould talks about this interesting phenomenon.

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How to shoot outdoor portraits using the sun as a back light

Oct 31, 2021 by Alex Baker Add Comment
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When you’re outside shooting on location you don’t always want to heft a lot of gear around with you, particularly if you don’t have an assistant. So how can you shoot dramatic portraits with just one light? Simple! Use the sun as your second light source. It’s relatively simple to do, requires no battery packs and creates a beautiful slightly cinematic look. In this video, Ashley from Westcott shows you how to do it.

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How to shoot stylized beauty portraits with just one light and a reflector

Sep 21, 2021 by John Aldred Add Comment
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Keeping the amount of kit you use at a low level can sometimes be down to simply a lack of availability. But it could also be that you’re simply limited in what you’re able to carry with you to shoot at a client’s location. Or, maybe you just want to bring things right back down to the bare minimum to really understand light and how your gear works.

Whatever the reason, Lindsay Adler is here to help. Using just a single strobe with a big softbox and a big reflector (in this case, a white v-flat) she creates a very effective and dramatic portrait. That’s the key word here, though. Big. Big light sources produce beautiful light for portraits as Lindsay demonstrates in this shot breakdown.

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How to create clean simple product shots with just one light and a bit of AI

Sep 17, 2021 by Alex Baker Add Comment
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Have you ever wondered how you can create high-quality product shots using just one speed light? Dustin Dolby from Workphlo show us how to do just that in his latest video, and it is really very simple. I’m a huge fan of using minimal gear if you can, and I love to use just one light source when possible. As you can see from Dustin’s final images you can create a very solid looking e-commerce type image with this method.

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Here are 21 lighting setup with one light in under six minutes

Jul 5, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment
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You probably already know that a single light can give you several different looks. You can make five, six, ten different setups? Actually, you can get as many as 21 different setups with a single studio light. In this video, Dima Metkin will show you how.

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Follow these three tips to create dramatic portrait lighting with a single light

Apr 26, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment
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Lighting is one of the key elements in photography. It can make it or break it, and it adds a lot to the story you want to tell with your image. In this video, Adorama teams up with Emily Teague who talks about the use of dramatic lighting in portraits. She tells you about how to use it, and gives you a lighting demo to show you her simple setup for dramatic, moody portraits.

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Use this simple setup for gorgeous one-light portraits

Mar 11, 2021 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment
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While using one light for portraits is quite a simple approach, there are many ways in which you can use it. A single light lets you create all kinds of different setups, and Jiggie Alejandrino shows you one of them in his video. It’s a simple setup that will give you nice, flattering portrait light, and it will work great in a small studio space. Also, you can create it on a relatively small budget.

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Check out this amazing one-light portrait setup you’ve probably never even considered

Jan 29, 2021 by John Aldred 1 Comment
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Portrait photographer Jiggie Alejandrino is a big fan of shooting with just a single light for portraits. He’s already shown us some pretty cool and dramatic one-light setups in the last few months. But now he’s back with a very interesting setup that most of have probably never even considered. And that’s bringing the softbox overhead pointing straight down.

It’s certainly not something I’ve usually considered. At least, not for portraits. It’s a technique I use often for small products to simulate a big cloudy sky, but with larger subjects like people, that cast some pretty obvious shadows, how well does it work? Well, looking at Jiggie’s demonstration, it works pretty well!

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Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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