Good lighting is essential to creating a strong, visually pleasing image. This is as true for naturally lit outdoor shots as it is for studio portraits. For individual or even couples portraits, many photographers make use of on-camera flash or compact, battery-powered strobes to supplement natural light and fill shadows, but how do we situate these in the scene? What light shaping tools should we use? Groups alone can be tricky for a plethora of reasons. Whether it be getting everyone to smile, getting kids to look at the camera, or the infamous blinking family member, there’s no shortage of challenges that we face in the field. Just wait until you add a pet to the mix.
In this guide, we’re looking to answer the above questions and teach you a thing or two about lighting for group portraits. Multi-light setups may seem overwhelming at first glance. After all, it’s often more involved than simply adding more lights. Luckily, with a little practice you’ll be well on your way to creating elaborately lit and visually stunning portraits. These setups not only illuminate our subject, but they add depth, detail, and can take our work from snapshots to magazine worthy images.
Gearing Up
What you’ll need varies from situation to situation and will depend greatly on the look you aim to achieve. The essentials include two lights and a trigger. You could use two speedlights mounted on stands, but for greater power, a small strobe is recommended. On-camera flash is great for unplanned moments during a reception, but battery-powered strobes are the way to go for posed portraits. A popular setup is a strobe as the main light or “key light” and a speedlight to fill in shadows. That being said, the lights alone are not typically enough to shape the light. For that, we’ll need a modifier.
Modifiers are tools used to shape, diffuse, or intensify light. You may be familiar with some of the popular ones like reflector discs or softboxes, but for portraits we can also employ a tool like a collapsible beauty dish. A larger softbox is an invaluable tool for illuminating groups, and you don’t have to point it directly at your subjects either. Softboxes spread light so effectively that you can cover a greater area. For portraits, we want an octa-softbox as the softbox will distribute a diffuse light across our scene while the rounder shape creates a more natural looking catchlight in your subject’s eyes.
How we position our lights is the key to this whole operation. Simply pointing that straight ahead at our subject isn’t going to produce pleasing results and can even hurt our images more than helping them. Of course, no lighting kit is complete or even functional without light stands and the appropriate adapters. Just make sure the stands and adapters you choose reach the height you need to and can support the weight of the rig you’ll be mounting.
Setting Up
Positioning your lights can be as easy or complex as you want it to be. The basics involve setting up your strobe approximately 45 degrees from your plane of focus. This is done to feather our light, or to angle it with the goal of reducing harsh shadows and contrast. If using a secondary light, such as a speedlight, this can be situated in a number of places on set, but we’ll touch more on this shortly.
As mentioned before, our first light serves as the main light source or key light. It should be equipped with a large softbox and will be used at full power or close to full power to provide the greatest amount of light. Experiment with power before starting your shoot. If you’re using a strobe in tandem with a small light such as a speedlight, the strobe should be your key light. The second light will be used to fill in shadows created or enhanced by the key light. You can pair this light with an equal sized softbox for consistency in light quality.
Lighting has the added benefit of separating your subject or subjects from the background. This can be achieved by positioning the light behind our subjects and aiming in one or two ways. If you aim the light at the background, it will illuminate a rounded area of it and aid in isolating our subjects from the background. Additionally, a hair light can be used to similar effect. This time, the light will be situated above the subjects and angled downward at an angle to illuminate the hair from behind.
Reflectors bounce light back into a scene to fill shadows or in some cases, add a color cast. This can be done by using a 5-in-1 reflector that features standard white, silver, gold, and even black to reduce bounce. To learn more about modifiers and how they alter the look of your image, I highly recommend giving our guide Which Flash Modifier Should I Choose? a read.
As you begin to dabble in group and/or family portraiture, experiment and try different things. Move your lights around and take test shots. Practice with friends and family members so you’re ready when the paying gigs start rolling in. For more information on lighting for portraits, check out our other helpful guides on the B&H Explora page!
