Photography Lighting Examples

Chloe - Gold Reflector

This shot was totally natural lighting with a little help. Chloe was deep in the shadows on a terrace at her house in order to give a dark, moody background.

I used a large gold reflector (held by her mother) to direct the sunlight from the garden, directly onto Chloe.

Using a reflector meant I could have the sunlight EXACTLY where "I" wanted it, on Chloe but NOT the background. Whatever type of photography you do, a decent reflector is an invaluable piece of kit.

Sky - Fill in Flash

For this shot, I had to pretty much shoot into the sun whilst kneeling on the grass. To prevent too many harsh shadows, I used my flashgun to add fill in light.

I set it to ETTL (Full auto) and used aperture priority on the camera. I adjusted the aperture to give a relatively high shutter speed to capture the action. Remember, most flashguns need a shutter speed of 250th/sec or LOWER to work correctly.

Emily - Backlight

Emily's mum had spent hours getting her hair just right so I wanted to show it off a little. The main lighting was a single large softbox just behind and slightly above me.

To get the backlighting effect, I placed my flashgun (Sigma EF-500 DG Super) behind Emily on the floor, and set it to "Slave" mode. This enables the flash to fire in synch with the main lights WITHOUT the need for cables.

A sensor on the flashgun triggers the flash the INSTANT the main light hits it. A fantastic piece of kit.

Summer - Studio Lights

The walls and ceiling in this room were quite dark, and the setting required the use of the studio lights.

2 lights of equal power (500w) were used, one to Summer's right, the other to her left. One had the softbox on, and the other was fired through a luminescent brolly.

To keep the dark mood of the room, I vignetted the picture using Photoshop, making the edges darker.

Back to Tip 8. Lighting