For anyone thinking about starting a portrait photography business or learning how to use studio lighting, the idea of spending a lot of money on fancy gear can be scary. And for good reasons because even a beginner lighting kit can set you back a few hundreds of dollars. You shouldn't have to spend that much money on lighting gear just to be able to take a good studio portrait. And you don't have to.
You can put together a lighting setup for less than $50. You're probably asking yourself what can you get for this kind of money? The first thing you're going to need are a few fluorescent lights. You can get them for about $15 each on Amazon. Three should be enough for a portrait setup that can cover most needs for a portrait session. The reasons for buying fluorescent lights, other than the obvious cost factor, is that they don't heat up , thus allowing you to put gels on them and keeping your subject comfortable, and that they have a continuous light. The big advantage of continuous light is that you can see how it looks on your subject's face before shooting the photo. It is a great way to learn about positioning light and it will make the trial and error process much quicker.
(Success Tip:Take better photos with this simple deck of cards)
The setup you're going to build will consist of three lights. One will be the main light, the second one a fill light and the third an accent light. Each of them serve a specific propose, as you are about to see in the following video tutorial made by Phlearn's Aaron Nace. Enjoy!
Learn more about studio lighting from these recommended books :
- How to Set Up Photography Lighting for a Home Studio
- Photography for Beginners : How To Set Up Photography Lighting for a Home Studio
- Photography Lighting: Know-How Tips on Setting Up Photography Lighting for Your Home Studio