Studio Lighting for Portraits

Studio Lighting for Portraits

Face it, people want to look GREAT in their portraits. OK, not great- better than in real life, right? Like twenty pounds lighter, 10 years younger, skin much smoother, eyes and teeth so bright…. And really, that’s our job as photographers to do three things:

*Hide a person’s flaws

*Show off the best features

*Capture authentic personality.

It sounds like a tall order, but if you know the tricks and you can connect with people, it’s not that hard. Boosting confidence and building a rapport goes 50% of the way. Knowing how to pose is helpful too, but lighting is HUGE! Even if it’s a ho-hum pose, if it’s great (flattering) lighting, you’re probably gonna make momma happy!

So many photographers have not been formally trained in lighting for the face and body- they just picked up a camera and loved the creativity and got lots of compliments on how their images came out so they started doing more…  And, well, you can take a lot of pictures and not really have confidence about what you are doing, but feeling like you are doing ok. You can take some “nice shots” but not be getting that “magnetic image” or “dynamite impact” like you imagined on a consistent basis. Knowing how to properly set your lights for flattering faces sets you up for success and allows you to focus on the connection and rapport. The less you have to worry about with the technical the more magic and fun you can create! (fun session=great expressions)

Here are a couple basic videos on how to set up your lights in a studio (Using continuous lights by NANLITE) to get beautiful light direction and facial dimension. Of course, there is far more information in the whole program I gave at SPAC conference (School Photography Association of CA) https://www.spac-usa.org/, and that program (56 minutes) is available for purchase in my EDU site, CreateWithSuzette.com. (available in Feb, 2021), but these segments are free for the inspiration! Enjoy!!

Thanks to Yuki Cloud for modeling, to Jon Yoshinaga for filming, to TripleScoopMusic for the music, to NANlite for wonderful continuous lights and to LUMIX cameras for awesome cameras to capture stills AND video!

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