Apart from the camera and lens you use, your choice of lighting equipment for shooting portraits can make all the difference between getting a great shot and ending up with just a mediocre one. Applied correctly, good lighting will evoke an emotional response and create an overall mood for your portraiture, accentuating certain features of your subject while diminishing others.
To achieve your desired effect, here’s some of the essential lighting gear that belongs in every portrait photographer’s kit. To keep it simple, we’ll assume that you’ll be relying less on available natural light than on artificial light in its various forms and your ability to control it.
Lights
It’s entirely possible to achieve acceptable lighting for a portrait using a single studio light, but you can easily and noticeably boost your versatility by using two (or three) light sources and positioning them strategically to achieve desirable effects (especially in combination with modifiers).
You can start by setting the mood for your shot by using continuous lighting to illuminate a backdrop. LED studio lights typically used for video offer high-quality continuous illumination that’s also well suited to your portrait setup.
If you’re new to this, you may be weighing the differences between using a flash (aka strobe) or a speedlight and trying to figure out which is best for you. As with just about anything, each comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages, but you’ll probably find either or both useful for certain purposes in the long run.
Speedlights are smaller, compact and more affordable. They can be used on-camera via the hot shoe or mounted onto a stand. As you’d expect, they only deliver a limited amount of flash intensity due to their diminutive size, but they can be used in conjunction with other light sources simply to provide some fill. You can also use them as a modelling light.
The Westcott FJ80-SE M Universal 80Ws Speedlight features both manual and TTL flash modes, with high-speed sync up to 1/8000s, as well as a round head that provides soft, even coverage both on-camera and off.
By comparison, something like the Godox AD600Pro TTL Flash offers up to 600Ws of intense output power, using its included large-capacity lithium battery pack or an available AC26 AC power source to provide 360 full-power flashes with an incredible 0.01-0.9/second recycle time.
Modifiers
Once you have your lighting set up, you can find alternate ways to enhance the quality of light and make best use of shadows by introducing a variety of modifiers into the mix. They come in many different styles, shapes and sizes, and they’re each in their own way indispensable tools for getting the light just right.
Diffusers offer an easy way to soften light, spreading the illumination more evenly by creating a barrier with various degrees of translucence between the light source and the subject. You can get pretty creative with reflectors and diffusers. A typical 5-in-1 reflector offers the benefits of a diffusion panel as well as those of a reflector in a portable package.
They usually come with a set of reversible covers – giving you the choice of black, white, silver or gold surfaces – that you zip onto the panel to redirect harsh lighting, whether it’s coming from a natural or artificial source, or to add softness to your portraits in a suitable shade of your choosing.
The Illumi 80cm 5-In-1 Double Stitched Reflector, for one, features an elasticized cover that snaps snugly into place, and when not in use it folds down neatly and conveniently to just one third of the working size. The double stitching around the circular edge ensures lasting durability.
Light stands
C-stands (short for century stands) can be used to support all those lights and modifiers, and even to rig the camera itself. It’s a highly versatile tool that can be deployed quickly and easily in a variety of ways, stackable on-set and collapsible for easy transport and storage. With its legs properly spread into position, a C-stand offers limited stability, and it’s always a good idea to position a sandbag or two for added security.
The Kupo CT-40M 40″ Master C Stand comes with a removable turtle base that you can not only separate from the main riser section for easier carrying but you can also put it straight work on its own to support gear in atypical situations that require it to be placed closer to the floor or ground.
