Updating A Studio Lighting Setup

Updating A Studio Lighting Setup

by William Lulow

When I was learning studio lighting setups and how to arrange lights for professional photographs, I was taught that all the lights needed to be shaded from the camera with what were called “gobos” or black reflector cards that prevented the light from spilling over to where it was not needed or wanted. Some of the setups looked a bit like this:

or even this:

The lighting diagram looked something like this:

The gobos (black reflector cards) hid the lights from the camera lens so as not to cause any flare, or unwanted light that degrades the image. The top image shows the floor-to-ceiling gobos because some full-length images were needed. It is also a way of treating the background separately from the subject. Whenever a certain background tone is needed such as pure white or any other color, it must be lit independently of the subject. The nature of any electronic flash light source’s exposure value is really dependent on its distance from the subject because the time (speed) of the exposure is constant at around 1/400th of a second). Also, a flash of light tends to fall off and dissipate much faster than a light that is continuously lit. (Although continuous light reacts in a similar way as well).

Since I learned all this, and followed it for years with all my studio setups, a few years ago I bought a new set of lights which make use of grids instead of gobos to keep light from spilling over to areas in the photo where I don’t want it. Here’s what I use now:

Grids like this have been in use for a long time, but I always had more faith in the gobo method. However, I just recently began using them on my battery powered lights. The honey-comb filter keeps the light aimed in one direction and prevents it from spilling over to areas of the image where it is not wanted and they eliminate the need for extra reflector cards and stands to hold them, thus making my location kit smaller and much less cumbersome. So now, the studio setup is much cleaner and more effective:

This was a recent setup on location at a law firm in Philadelphia. Notice there are no reflector cards and nothing to take up additional studio space plus I now do not need the extra stands and reflector cards which necessitated another travel case. The setup is much cleaner and easier to effect than before. I have to explain as well, that back in my old studio days, we often shot with big, cumbersome view cameras that used older lenses which didn’t have the modern coatings on them. So lens flare was a problem unless you were careful to prevent it. Today’s lens coatings are much better.

Depending on the subject matter, if I was doing a studio shot, with all my materials handy, I still might use a gobo if it was really necessary, but I am still using my five-light setup when I do headshots on location. I start with it and then change if the conditions allow. Sometimes men can do with only two lights for portraits, maybe three for headshots.

Headshots have to be well-lit and show the subjects face with little shadow. I usually make these with a five light setup like in the diagram above.  Here is an example:

Portraits, on the other hand, can be lit almost any way the photographer chooses. I did a portrait of my friend (and photographer) Jean Rault while on a trip to Paris a couple of  years ago, to see one of his exhibitions. I brought just two lights with me:

One was used with a small umbrella and the other was set up in an EDGE LIGHT position to produce a highlight on the camera-left side. Or, a portrait can be done with just one light:

For this outdoor shot I used just one light bounced into my small umbrella and let the sun do the rest. Or maybe even something like this:

Remember: a portrait is more how the photographer sees his or her subject. A commercial headshot has certain requirements and must be lit to show the whole face, but can be done with some, little shadow areas like this:

Here, the face is basically lit, with just a touch of shadow on one side to make it look a bit thinner. In this headshot, the light is kept soft with the use of my large, portrait umbrella.

With my use of battery powered lights, location portraits has become much easier with a lot less equipment to carry.