An example of a simple portrait lighting setup.

Sometimes photographic lighting configurations can be very complex and intimidating. However, they don’t always have to be. Sometimes, simple works.

The portrait below is actually a 2 light setup, shot in my studio on gray paper. The key light used a jumbo soft box to the right of the subject, just out of frame. A large silver reflector was placed to the left, again, just out of frame. The background is lit with a standard 7 inch reflector shooting thru a 20 degree grid and a green gel. A foam-core gobo was used to create the lines on the background.

That’s it. Pretty simple. It goes to show that you don’t always need a lot of lights to create a striking photo.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading!

-Ken.