I don’t recall when exactly I realized I didn’t have to buy every possible piece of lighting gear to create a certain image.

Whenever I came to that conclusion, it signaled I understood how to break apart and deconstruct how an image was made, especially if the image involved lighting by the photographer.

Coming up with workarounds was a necessity for me when I was in college.

Years later even after I became a staff photographer at the newspaper, I would always find workarounds.

Hey, what can I say? The bossman was always a tightwad when it came to expenses.

For this blogpost tip, when you see what I used to create a very flattering image,you will realize how well finding workarounds has served me.

 

Borrowing from the very idea that front lit objects tend to cast little or no shadows, it follows then this kind of light is women-friendly.

The thing to remember is that you should try and make the light source big so that it is also soft.

If you don’t have a beauty dish like mine, substitute with an umbrella.

You might want to invest in a boom to pull this off too.

Or else, have an assistant hold your swivel bracket, umbrella and light stand at an angle or even horizontally, so the light stand doesn’t get in camera’s way.

It’s always a good idea to take a picture of your setup.

Then change one variable at a time, and then take your picture and grab another shot of your setup changes.

It’s quite tedious in the beginning to work like this but over time, you can take this setup in your mind and place it anywhere on location.

Below is a photo by my buddy Rodrigo Peña who helped me out on my recent Small Flash Lighting workshop.

Rigo borrowed my setup on the right and photographed his very lovely wife Letty.

Next: One Speedlite setup for great-looking portraits2

Peter Phun Photography

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