Studio lighting is what separates many professional portrait photographers from the amateurs. This does not mean you cannot get beautiful pictures with natural light only – course possible. However, for formal portraits and glamor, check the flexibility of the light totally produce some powerful shots.
A basic studio lighting kit, flexible enough for many different plans, consists of two lights, with umbrellas and / or soft box. It is best to use studio strobes, which act as a version of jumbo size of your normal flash of the camera. The alternative to this is continuous lighting – think floodlights – which can still be effective, but produce less power overall and have heat and energy usage problems.
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This setup can be used in many configurations – a common configuration is to use a light on one side of a subject and the other light on the opposite side to half the power of the first light. This configuration gives a shot with shadows to emphasize the features, but the shadows will not be very dark – good if you are trying to show the full face or body of the subject.
Another option is to use a single light on one side of the subject, and the second light to be a background light or hair light. A background light is useful to make the subject of the background, but should be much lower power than the main light in most cases.