Beauty portraits using one light and no studio

I’m a big fan of using natural light as much as possible but at times you just need a little more fill light to produce the end product that you’re looking for. What I want to talk about is that you don’t need $15,000 worth of lighting gear to make it work. You may have to be a little more creative but you can produce great quality images with minimal “aftermarket” lighting gear. Below are a few shots I took over the holidays using minimal gear while maximizing the natural light in the room. Under each photo I provided a brief description of the light set up. 

 Lighting Gear List:

-1 Sigma Speed Light

 -1 Light Stand

-1 White Umbrella

Thanks and enjoy the shots!

Marc

In this shot I had the speed light high up on the light stand pointing straight down on her face. I removed the umbrella from the light stand and had the model hold it by her knees to reflect the light back up on her face. I used a large window as my background. In all of these shots I exposed for the background using my camera settings and set up the speed light to properly expose for the model.

The speed light and umbrella were to the right and I used the curtains to create a different background.

Before I even snapped this photo I knew I wanted to create a more “grungy” shot in post processing so this is why I set up my speed light on camera to get that harsh direct light.

Comments

[Nick]

Awesome work Marc! You are flying bud!

[Marc Champagne]

Thanks Nick! Having a lot of fun!