More About Studio Lighting Setups

More About Studio Lighting Setups

by William Lulow

Following up on the last article about studio lighting setups, the great thing about designing a lighting that is flexible, is that it frees you to create many different lighting effects with a minimum of moving things around. My studio space is much smaller than it used to be and everything has to take up much less space. I was able to get hold of some AUTOPOLES which I have begun using in the last few years. They are held up between the floor and ceiling by spring tension. They are very strong and are completely adjustable for almost any ceiling height. The biggest plus about them is that they take up virtually no floor space (unlike light stands).  I can also attach flash heads fairly close to the ceiling to get the most from the down light. This makes for a much less cumbersome setup in my studio space. I also try to tuck the light cables behind my background so that they are really not visible on the main part of the floor. It’s a very clean setup overall.

This is a single AUTOPOLE.  Currently, I use four of them. Two to hold the background and two for my EDGE LIGHTS.  You can buy them in kit form and they come with cross pieces and clamps.

Again, when you have limited space, these tools are invaluable. Using the lighting setup I described in a previous article, I can change the lighting effects with a simple flick of a switch.

This is what my main studio setup looks like:

Here, I have everything I need for a complete studio. You can see the umbrella mainlight on the left, the fill-in softbox on the right, the background light behind the stool and two edge light accents behind the gobos. Here is a diagram of the basic setup:

My basic setup is easily changed whenever I want a different lighting effect. I can eliminate the fill-in and/or one of the accent lights for a more dramatic effect, or I can turn the accent lights around and aim them at a white background for a high-key effect. Having all the lights hooked up to radio slaves makes the job that much easier as well. This is the radio slave system that I use:

Here it is hooked up to my camera and power pack:

When you are shooting in the studio, especially, it is all about controlling light so that it does the job you want it to. The easier that is, the more you will be able to concentrate on producing top-notch images.