Equip Your Lighting Studio

Studio Lights and Accessories

A well-lit studio can make all the difference in your photos and videos. The right products and configuration can give you more control over the lighting, background, and feel of your images. What’s more, setting up a studio is not as complicated as it seems. Understanding basic lighting principles, camera technique, and your gear will put you in a great position to take beautiful shots.

Lighting Kits

If you are just getting started, consider buying a starter lighting kit. In addition to lights, some kits come with accessories like stands, softboxes, and umbrellas. To read more about lighting kits, read 14 Recommended Lighting Kits for Photography. If you want to build your own lighting kit, check out 8 Options to Consider When Building a Studio Lighting Kit.

How to Setup and Use Studio Lights

Put your light on its stand and set it to full power to make sure it works. Connect the light to the camera and make it flash via a remote trigger, pc sync cable, slave mode, or in-camera system. Make sure you have your light’s instruction manual accessible at all times.

From here, think about your camera’s aperture settings and find your light’s Guide Number. The Guide Number is a measure you can use to calculate either the required f-stop for any given flash-to-subject distance, or the required distance for any given f-stop. Understanding the relationship between light and distance is critical.

Now play around with different lighting configurations. If you have three lights, set up a three-point lighting configuration using a main light, fill light, and rim light. If you don’t have three lights, try using natural light from a window, bouncing light off the ceiling or wall, or using a reflector to light your subject appropriately. There are many ways to achieve good lighting – you just have to experiment!