Studio Portraits With One Light Or Flash

Studio Portraits With One Light Or Flash

By William Lulow

Whenever there isn’t enough light present to make a picture, the flash on your camera will probably pop up so that you will have enough to make a “proper” exposure. Isn’t this great? If there isn’t enough light, light gets added automatically! What could be better? The problem comes with the kind of light these pop up flashes provide. If your unit is attached to your camera, it is called a “built-in” flash and, although it will usually light the scene in front of the camera, the light it makes is:

• Harsh
• Direct
• Specular
• Comes from camera position
• Doesn’t light the background
• Usually is not strong enough for specialized uses

What makes the light harsh?

1. It is aimed directly at your subject
2. It is of very short duration
3. It casts harsh shadows on every other part of the subject

What makes it direct?

1. It is coming from the camera position
2. It is not changeable
3. It produces a very flat type of light which simply lights the subject

 What makes it specular?

1. The flash on the camera is usually quite small compared to the subject
2. It acts as a “point” light source
3. It causes bad reflections on shiny objects and even on people’s faces
4. It will cause “red eye” which is really the reflection of the retina in a person’s eye because the flash point is so close to the axis of the lens itself

Why doesn’t an “on camera” flash light the background?

1. Since it is attached to the camera, the strength of the flash will only go as far as the subject
2. Backgrounds will be black because the flash only measures lamp-to-subject distance
3. Even automatic flash units will only measure lamp-to-subject distance.

So, as your photographic expertise grows, you will want to do away with most on-camera flash situations in favor of using off-camera flash setups.

Most electronic flash manufacturers make units that can be used off-camera. They can be connected to the camera with a special wire or wirelessly. There are specialized brackets which take the flash off the lens axis and elevate it to approximate a “Hollywood” type light. The light can then be aimed downward toward the subject. This eliminates red-eye and gives the subject a more overall light. It is still harsh in nature, but at least it is coming from a different direction. The thing to strive for is to have a flash unit that is attached to a light stand that you can move around to create different types of lightings and moods. One of the problems with these “speedlights” even if they are attached to light stands, is that many cannot be aimed down. They can be aimed directly at a subject and also aimed up at several angles including directly at the ceiling. So, they are limited in the kind of light they can provide. You would need to invest in more of a studio-type speedlight that can be aimed in almost any direction.

This is one of Westcott’s smaller monolights (200 W/S). It is sufficient to provide some good light. For my studio or location sessions I also have the 400 W/S version:

I need more power from my mainlight because I bounce it into a large (5.5 foot diameter) umbrella to produce a really soft light.

I also like to use the Westcott speedlight for applications where I need an “on camera” light:

I mount this unit on the camera’s hot shoe and because it has a built-in flash trigger, it will also fire my other Westcott monolights. It’s rated at around 80 watt/seconds, so it’s strong enough to provide a decent amount of coverage when bounced into the white reflector. It can also be used as an off-camera light by mounting it on a light stand (or have someone hold it) and using the Westcott flash trigger that I use with my other lights. This is the unit that I use for events in conjunction with one or two other lights.

But to get started in the studio, begin with one light placed on a stand and begin to move it around the subject to see the various effects you can achieve. I always begin with the light up high and sort of behind the camera. Here are some examples of what you can do with just one light.

This is an example of a HOLLYWOOD LIGHT. It is the most fundamental way to use a single light setup. It is obtained by placing the light near the camera but up fairly high. This an example produced by this lighting:

The setup for this kind of lighting is as follows: (the mainlight was bounced into a large umbrella).

This is the correct position of the light except it would be aimed into an umbrella or otherwise diffused. The tell-tale sign of the Hollywood Light is the V-shaped shadow under the nose. Here are a couple of other lightings you can effect with just one light:

Side Light:

Rembrandt Light:

The telltale sign of this lighting is the triangle of light under the subject’s eye on the opposite side of the face from where the light is placed.

Here is another setup with just one light. This is called an EDGE LIGHT:

Here’s the diagram:

You can see that this just lights the edge of the face, but if you turn the subject toward the light, it produces an image like this:

This can be a really dramatic kind of lighting that can be used effectively for some portraits.

The trick is to experiment with all of these and see what might work for the kinds of images you like to produce. These are the beginning points. Later, you can try adding a second light which I will talk about in another article.