The Many Portrait Looks You Can Create With Just a Single Light

Although you will often see professional portrait photographers working with multi-light setups, you can absolutely create compelling images using just a single light. In fact, there are different looks you can create just by varying the position of your light. This excellent video tutorial will show you how light placement affects your photos and how to use it to create the looks you are after. 

Coming to you from Daniel Norton Photographer, this great video tutorial will show you the impact light positioning can have on your portrait images. If you are new to working with artificial light, it is crucial that you start out with just a single source. It is important to build a strong foundational understanding of the fundamental properties of light, such as subject-to-source distance, relative size, falloff, and more, and if you jump right in with multiple lights, it can be difficult to separate which sources are doing what and thus, how to make the proper adjustments to get the results you want. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Norton. 

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!"

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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3 Comments

Great job as usual!

Daniel Norton and Marisa Roper... Name a more iconic duo, I dare ya!

Very unique portraits!