How I Lit This Fashion Shot

Lighting is one of my favorite things to play with on a shoot. Creative lighting can really give you’re photography a large edge over just shooting natural/ambient light. I love using lights, because I am always growing and learning new techniques. This week I will walk you through the relatively simple setup for one of my favorite shots in my portfolio.

This shot was accomplished using a gridded Alien Bee B800 and a gelled Nikon SB 600. The Alien Bee was slightly camera left, and then the SB 600 was bouncing off a white reflector camera left as well. I found that bouncing the light off the reflector gave it a much more reasonable and controllable spread. The point of using the red light in this shot was to try and mimic (and over dramatize) the neon lights of old Vegas shining through the window, even though there is no window in the shot, it flowed better with the overall story. Many people ask if there is a flash in the lamp, and the answer is no, I exposed for the lamp initially and then built my artificial light on top of it. Looking back on this shot now, there are things I would definitely change (like that glare in the picture, which for whatever reason I liked initially), but that’s the beauty/curse of growing as a photographer, never being satisfied in what you’ve done and continuing to evolve. Check out the diagram below.