Studio Lighting

Correct studio lighting gives a photographer better control over an indoor photo shoot. The proper studio lighting setup allows a photographer to achieve several basic photography techniques.

Photography books and online instructions show photographers the basics of studio lighting. Studio lighting diagrams give a visual explanation of how to set up lighting for certain effects, such as the butterfly lighting used in feminine glamour camera works. StudioLighting.com offers a free studio lighting diagram showing how to setup backlighting for a softening effect on portraits. This technique is important for removing blemishes and skin imperfections in portrait studio lighting.

Some areas rent studios, or lofts to photographers and artists. This seems practical for people who lack space at home, or for those who want to allow potential clients to come to their work area and look around without exposing home life.

Photographers who like to get up and get straight to work exactly when the mood strikes prefer a home photography studio. Since a home based photography room can be of any size, utilizing the right photographic studio lighting is a must.

A studio lighting workshop teaches budding photographers studio lighting tips and techniques. Certain workshops offer an advanced class on setting up a studio lighting system for older techniques using new and older equipment.

Photography studio lighting is less about owning many different lights and more about how to use lighting to your advantage. A creative person with one or two lights in his, or her home photography studio lighting set up can come up with just as many, or more interesting studio lighting techniques than a photographer who owns many lighting styles, yet lacks such imagination.

Equipment used in studio portrait lighting includes spotlights, monolights, studio strobes, flash units, and camera flashes. Photographers bring in studio lighting techniques including, but not limited to, broad lighting, butterfly lighting, short lighting, and Rembrandt lighting.

By positioning the light in front of the subjects face and creating a shadow under, or at the line of the subject's nose, a photographer creates the butterfly lighting technique. As already mentioned, this technique is used on women for glamour effects. On men, this effect tends to highlight and shadow the ears resulting in an unwanted photograph.

Rembrandt lighting produces an illuminated triangle on the cheek near the camera. The rest of that side is shadowed for a striking effect.
For more information on studio photography lighting and studio lighting effects, search online or visit bookstores.