Lighting portraits demands creativity and a clear vision. Whether you're aiming for elegance or drama, understanding lighting setups can dramatically improve your portrait photography.
Coming to you from John Gress, this practical video outlines three distinct lighting setups you can apply to your own fashion portraits. First up, Gress walks through a refined, painterly setup designed for full-body shots, relying on soft lighting to produce a sophisticated, elegant feel. By cleverly feathering an octabox and using subtle flags to control shadows, Gress achieves an appealing, sculpted look without overpowering the subject. He emphasizes that minimal gear can produce stunning results if you're mindful of positioning and exposure tweaks, highlighting specific camera settings to replicate the look exactly.
Next, the video shifts toward bold, editorial-style lighting perfect for creating striking portraits suited for magazine spreads. Gress explains how utilizing grid reflectors and precise flagging creates dramatic shadows and texture, accentuating the subject's attitude and the garment's structure. He also clarifies a common misconception—highlighting that flash duration, not shutter speed, is the critical factor in freezing motion indoors. By toggling strobes from standard to action mode, he significantly shortens flash duration, achieving razor-sharp images even when photographing dynamic movements. This clear demonstration provides valuable insight into capturing perfectly sharp, motion-intensive fashion portraits without relying on complicated techniques.
For the final setup, Gress explores color gels, adding vibrant energy to fashion photography. He begins with cyan, magenta, and yellow gels but soon pivots to red, green, and blue to achieve cleaner color combinations on skin tones. The detailed explanation about balancing and positioning the colored lights reveals the importance of meticulous metering to achieve precise secondary colors where the lights overlap. Changing wardrobe items within the same lighting setup underscores how dramatically a single adjustment can alter the mood—moving from subdued to vibrant, almost pop-art imagery.
Beyond these lighting setups, Gress offers valuable post-production tips to subtly enhance your photographs. His straightforward method of selectively darkening midtones around the subject demonstrates how subtle adjustments can effectively guide viewers’ attention without distracting from the image itself. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Gress.
If you would like to continue learning about how to light a portrait, be sure to check out "Illuminating The Face: Lighting for Headshots and Portraits With Peter Hurley!"
