Using V-Flats for Background and the Perfect Lighting

Are you looking for an easy way to achieve great lighting with minimal gear? Regardless of whether it's because you are starting off and have to stay within a certain budget or you simply do not want to carry and set up a lot of gear, here's an easy way to get perfect lighting. 

In this video from V-Flat World, photographer Dani Diamond shares how he uses two of their v-flats to get his perfect directional lighting for portraits and how he uses one of the v-flats to be the background.  

If you happen to be shooting in a location with ambient lighting coming from the front and rear, you could get similar results with just two v-flats. Since the location Diamond was shooting in was darker from behind, he added a strobe to introduce some backlighting on the subject with the modeling lamp turned on. Any light source could work, as it doesn't have to be a strobe. 

When you have to be mobile and shoot on location, you can get by with just two v-flats and your camera. It makes travel and setup so much easier. Personally, I know I prefer to pack up light than to bring a whole studio setup with me for on-location work. How do you use v-flats to help you achieve the perfect lighting for your portraits? 

Alex Ventura's picture

Staff writer Alex Ventura is a professional photographer based out of the Houston area that specializes in automotive and glamour with the occasional adventures into other genres. He regularly covers automotive related events for Houston Streets & Spekture with some publications in the United States.

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