The Wonderful World of Single Light Set-Ups

As a photographer, it is very easy to get carried away, it was just this morning I read something on a mainstream website where this guy had posted a photo then gone on to explain how he had lit it. Using 6 speedlights, on each flash, he had some kind of funky and fancy adapter. I could not help think that, the reason for taking the image in this was more a technical reason than anything else.

Simple is good, Simple is key.

Master the basics, and only add in lights when you have no other choice. – Here is my blog about single light set ups.

Here is an instagram of a single light set up:

I should point out, that yes, there is an Ice Light in this shot, this is to aid focusing and pupil size. This room was quite dark and I wanted a very natural eye, so adding some constant light helps, but, since I was shooting at f22 and 1/125th or something, this was only a modeling light in this instance. But this does show my go to lighting set up when I want a classic butterfly light. For those interested, this is great video interview lighting set up too !!

This set up would give you a shot like this:

Lighting & Set-up

• 35in Square softbox in front of the subject
• 400w Nano light With a large silver Westcott reflector above the models head
• Distance light is from Subject – 1 meter
• Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji 60mm, 1/125 @ f16, ISO 200
• Model – Bridgette / Make up by Penny Grimley

For a long time, I have always loved simple and elegant lighting solutions. As the clients get bigger, the stress gets higher and the need for simple, trusted lighting set ups gets even more important. We won’t cover it in this blog here, but if you want a great guide to the basics of lighting for people, Photographer Christian Hough wrote a great guide for the Bowens Litebook a few years ago. You can find it here on pages 30 onwards. You can check out just how amazing Christian is here.

Bowling for Soup had been a major band in my life for a number of years, since I was a little wannabe be punk kid with jeans so baggy I almost needed two belts to keep them up. It was like meeting and photographing my idols at the same time. I had the added pressure of my brothers sons first birthday the same day. I knew that it was going to be a very fast set up, little no test shots and in some very random location, but how little time and how random was yet to be seen…

This was the very situation where knowledge of single lighting set ups comes in handy. There was no room for loads of lights, the room was an dull vomit yellow color and had a very odd smell. But, it was our location.

The lighting set up was something I gave very little pre-thought to, as I knew exactly want I wanted, I knew the story I wanted to tell. I just packed the biggest soft box I had and placed it as close to them and the camera as I could. The last thing I needed was to worry about a funky, complex lighting set up. I didn’t know what I had on location until I got there, so packed very light, very small and packed for a single light safe option. I had about a 4 min set up time in the end. The whole shoot was over in about 15 minutes. I took about 25 frames in total.

Lighting & Set-up

• 35in Square softbox in front of the subject with a 400w Nano light
• Distance light is from Subject – 1.5 meter, Distance to subject – 1.5 meter
• Pentax 645d, 90mm, 1/200 @ f20, iso200
• Chris Burney, Gary Wisemen, Jaret Riddick, Erik Chandler (top to bottom – Bowling for Soup)

(I should out that Kate James saved me on this day…. thank you for having a finding a trusty working lighting plug… as we know in the UK as a kettle lead)

You can see the full blog here.

Lighting & set up

• Shot with a single speed light
• Orbis Ring Flash
• Distance light is from Subject – VERY close
• Canon 5dm3, Sigma 105mm, 1/100 @ f22, iso200
• Model – Jammy Lou / Make up by Penny Grimley

The Photo above was shot with a single speedlight using an Orbis ringflash modifier. I had it pretty much faced away from the model with only a hint the light falling direct on the model.

We used an SB910, which is pretty powerful for a speedlight, but still, we had to have the flash very close and almost in shot to get f22 and the depth of field. Getting the light nice and close, keeping the power nice and high is a great way to get those killer highlight reflections on the lips and eye shadow.

Why Single Light?

For me, portraits are about story, communication and single elements of narrative. In my eyes, this means single light set ups. The last thing you need when photographing non-models, models or even rock stars, is them to walk into something and feel uncomfortable. Lots of lamps, cables and stands just distract from the shoot and take away the energy levels that you are trying to work with. The more you can channel the attention of the subject into the camera, the more you are going to capture. This is why I love single light set ups. Honest lighting for honest images. I think there is a very real danger and a upcoming trend of over lighting subjects.

Lighting & Set-up

• 35in Square softbox in front of the subject
• 400w Nano light
• Distance light is from Subject – 1 meter
• Fuji X-Pro1,
  Fuji 60mm, 1/125 @ f11, iso 200
• Model – Anita / Make up by Candy Alderson

This image is another single light set up, you can see another light in the background lighting the white backdrop, this is I guess is really a double light set up, but only one light would be on my subject. White poly boards are totally amazing. I wanted show this photo as an example of a studio set up of a great portrait set up when you need a crisp white background.

The increase of the ‘single-light set-up’ in my work, was due to the lack of a studio space in the beginning. With no car, where ever I was shooting, I have had to travel to work using trains or buses. I had to pack down, travel, set up, shoot, break down and carry stuff home.

Taking loads of lighting has always seemed like hassle to me and just something that was totally impractical. Not to mention all I could afford was cheap starter studio kit lighting.

Shooting on a super tight budget and having to carry my kit everywhere makes you really think about what you need, and how many things you can use the kit you do have for different effects. If I cannot personally carry my camera and lighting kit to work, I sometimes think I am using too much these days.

I have come very used to working with the smallest, lightest, kit I can find. This is especially true for my personal work. On my website I have a gallery of portraits. All of these shots are just a single light set up. As with pretty much anything visual, personal opinion is always subject to many things, but as I look about the world today, the biggest thing people are doing, is over thinking and over lighting portraits. The amount you can do with a single light is incredible. Both of the shots below are just lit with a single light.

Lighting & Set-up

• 35in Softbox facing subjects
• Distance light is from Subject – 3 meters
• Model – Tara & Verity / Make up by June Jocelyn
• Top Shot: Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji 23.3, 1/30th @ f13,iso 200
• Bottom Shot: Pentax 645d, 55mm,1/55 @ f11,iso200

I think of things this way, the less natural light added to an image the better. The less modified the light, the more natural. Even before adding powered lighting, you have the ambient light to work with. Simple is always best.

Have a play about, watch how light works, work with the shadows, use things to block light or add light. The shot below is a mix of a few things, but on only a single strobe light is used. Mixing Flash and ambient can be tricky but rewarding when you get the hang of it. When we was shooting, I had noticed the light was super bright outside and a small column of light was beaming though the studio, so… we just used it as a rim light and added lighting from the front. The rest of the lighting was done in a digital way using the colour look up modes in Photoshop.

Lighting & Set-up

• Mix of sunlight & Westcott Apollo softbox
• 400w Nano light
• Distance light is from Subject – (Sunlight)
• Softbox 2 meters from the subject
• Model – Chloe-Jasmine Whichello / Make up by Candy Alderson
• Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji 60mm, 1/125 @ f11, iso 200

Any lighting created, or added to a an image, must in some way add to the story of the image. I would use the Key Light (brightest light) to highlight the key element of the story (image), then if needed, a fill light to bring in other elements for visual detail or impact. Do note that not every image need the eyes to be the brightest or the face.

Use the lighting to tell the story – Reflectors work in the studio just as well outdoors. Sometimes setting up a single light and a reflector is fast and will get you want you need in a simpler way. My key light would be a strobe light or constant with a reflector being my fill light. I find this give a very natural lighting effect that emulates the natural word.

Remember you can use a reflector to block light just as much as use them to add light back into images.

This image is an interesting one. It was of course lit with a single light, and again my trusty 400w nano head, I have a super secret modification method of sticking my jumper via sticky tap to the outside of the diffusion panel, I then remove some of the panel letting the bare bulb shine though. It gives this effect.

I think it is a pretty neat trick. I guess it is just like making a gobo. For constant lighting. The really cool thing here is to play about with the placement of all the elements for some exciting shadows.

The Bowling for Soup portraits are lit with my ‘go to’ lighting set up. It could not be more simple. Close , soft, even and beautiful. We get this effect by having super large light sources that wrap around the subjects. I try and get my light source at least a meter about the eye line, then have the softbox as big as I can, but not having the tip of the light lower than the eye line. This will give me an even light, but not ruin my shadow under the chin. A 90 inch softbox is perfect for this, round, square, octobank… it’s all the same pretty much but will affect your background and the amount of wrap you have around the subjects face. I like the square, but the catch lights are then square. it’s a trade off.

I know Joey L likes Octobanks to get a more natural catch light, I like the deep square so I can play with the feathering of the edge. Have a play and see what works for you. This is the lighting set up I used in a clearer image.

Ten points to think about when using single light set-ups on portraits:

1. When you are shooting single light set ups, you need to remember to keep things simple.
2. You can create some great shadows.
3. Watch out for hotspots from the lights
4. Try and mix your added light to the ambient light
5. Using large modifiers can help spread light
6. Try and keep your lights above the eyeline of your subjects
7. Either shoot with your light very flat onto your subject or past a 45 degrees angle
8. Work with the distances. Subject to light source – for the hardness of the shadows & light
9. Experiment with by shooting 45 dgress to the light source
10. Move your subjects, not your lights to fine tune the lighting.

Tiny adjustments make significant impact

If we have a look at these three shots of Tara, all are very simple set ups, with tiny lighting adjustments.

Shot A Lighting & Set-up:

• 35in Square softbox 45 degrees to subject 2 diffusion panels
• Distance to subject – 1.5 meters
• Pentax 645d, 90mm, 1/125 @ f18, iso100
• Model – Tara Newton / Make up by June Jocelyn

Shot B Lighting & Set-up

• 35in Square softbox 45 degrees to subject 2 diffusion panels + flag to stop light hitting background
• Distance to subject – 1.5 meters
• Pentax 645d,
  90mm, 1/125 @ f18, iso100
• Model – Tara Newton / Make up by June Jocelyn

Shot C Lighting & Set-up

• 35in Square softbox in front of the subject
• 400w Nano light
  Distance to subject – 1.5 meters
• Pentax 645d, 90mm, 1/125 @ f18, iso 200
• Model – Tara Newton / Make up by June Jocelyn

Shot B is a moody shot with the light coming over my right shoulder with a large softbox with the black side of a reflector blocking the light from lighting up the background. This is known as flagging the light. You can see this in shot A too. If you compare shots all the shots, the lighting is very similar with very slight adjustments. Have a play about moving your subject and your own camera position to see how many different lighting set ups you can make.

In pretty much every case, you can move your subjects faster than moving your lights. Being confident and giving direction can help you go from shot to shot.

Lighting & Set-up

• Lupo Lux 1000 HMI, Distance to subject – 2 meters
• Pentax 645d, 90mm, 1/60 @ f4.5,iso200
• Model – Juliette

Constant lighting is a bit of a buzz word at the moment. In the shot above, we used a LupoLux light with some barndoors to get this shot. I was loaned the LupoLux for a couple of days. It was fun to play about with, but, I think I am a not quite sold on them yet. Next to Kinoflo or Profoto, they didn’t really feel like Pro end gear. That is not to say they are bad lights. The rule that I like to work to is that you should try and work with the kit you feel most comfy with.

Lighting & Set-up

• Westcott Apollo softbox with 400w Nano light bounced into a silver reflector
• Distance light is from Subject – 2 meters
• Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji 32mm, 1/125 @ f11,iso 200
• Model – Amielia / Make up by Laurie Wright

Lighting & Set-up

• 400 Nano with a Bare Bulb raised to high on a 2 meter stand and bounce of a ceiling
• Pentax 645d, 90mm, 1/60 @ f10, iso200

About The Author

Dave Kai Piper is a UK based Fashion & Portrait Photographer. As well as being a Pentax Ambassador, Fuji X-Photographer, 3 legged thing & Lexar Ambassador, DKP works as a consultant though Ideas & Images for such companies as Future Publishing. DKP is also an Adobe Community Professional. Current projects include consulting on the UK’s flagship consumer and trade show, The Photography Show.
You can follow Dave on his Blog, Facebook and Twitter.