Lighting Techniques in Studio Photography

Light placement is imperative in your studio.

Professional photographers create custom effects by manipulating the light that falls upon their subject. Whether you are taking pictures of people, food or items for an online auction, you can take advantage of some basic lighting plans to enhance your photography. While you can spend a lot of money on professional studio lighting equipment, you can also use cheaper work lights from a hardware store and achieve similar results with the same lighting techniques.

Things You'll Need

• Lights Backdrops Soft box Photographer's umbrellas

Instructions

1. Start with continuous lighting to save money. Even if you plan to equip your studio later with more expensive strobe lighting, you can start with continuous lights. The only drawback is the heat generated by these lights. Turn them off occasionally during the shoot if you're photographing a person.

2. 

   Soften harsh direct light by using umbrellas to bounce a diffused light on your subject. Use silver umbrellas for glamour shots and try a white umbrella to softly illuminate skin. Translucent umbrellas work well when the light source shines through the translucent surface, muting harsh shadows.

3. 

   Increase the three-dimensional look of your photography by using side and three-quarter lighting angles. Direct front lighting can leave your photographs looking flat but by moving the main light to one side, the person or object takes on interest and depth as shadows accentuate facial contours or object details. While this renders a more life-like photograph, bounce the light into an umbrella when photographing people for a flattering effect.

4. Enhance your subject by lighting the backdrop. Used correctly, a backdrop fades away and the subject takes center stage. Unfortunately, many amateur photographers concentrate only on the light falling upon the subject and ignore the backdrop. The result is a harsh shadow on the backdrop that detracts from the entire photograph.

5. 

   Place a light behind your subject, shining upwards on the backdrop to eliminate any shadows. This is especially important if you're using a camera flash. Alternately, direct a light from behind the subject, shining forward. This counters shadows and provides a backlighting effect for human subjects when the light is positioned above the subject's head.

6. 

   Hang a light above your camera and use a softbox for shooting portraits. Often called "beauty lighting," because it casts a soft glow on skin, erasing under eye shadows, you may also attach your light to a very tall pole.