Effective Lighting for a Successful studio shoot

There are literally hundreds of books and tutorials written about studio lighting and the effect they have on the model in front of you. You will here about the different lighting patterns such as Loop lighting, Butterfly, Split and Rembrandt to name a few and how these lighting patters effect and control the contour, position as well as the shadowing on the models face. Yes this is relevant and I would encourage every studio photographer who uses strobe lighting to have a basic understanding of these lighting techniques. However after many years behind the camera I have found that experimenting beyond the norm produces the most interesting and intriguing results. There is no set rule that prohibits you from creating your own look and style. There are many purists in the photography world that will insist that traditional lighting patterns is the only acceptable way of lighting the model. I completely reject this notion. Frankly if all lightning was the same than its safe to say every photograph would be nothing more than the one before it. Being grounded in the basic fundamentals of lighting patterns is not something to dismiss and you should have a strong working knowledge of how they work but it’s important to be yourself and develop your own unique style as a photographer. Despite what anyone will tell you there is no right or wrong way in photography other than in my opinion continuing to evolve and innovate as an out of the box forward thing photographer. This will set you apart and allow you to gain notoriety in the industry. Strobe lighting will become your best friend in the studio. Having lots of power means that you can control and manipulate the light in the most interesting ways. You can change the direction of the light hitting the model; create shadows or different moods simply by diffusing the light through strobe modifiers such as soft boxes and umbrellas. The most important part of strobe lighting is to move the lights themselves around to get different effects and see how the shadow falls. The placement of your lights will depend much in part on the models features such as whether the model has long or short hair, dark or light skin and ultimately want characteristics you want to enhance and bring to the forefront. The rule of thumb to use is there will always be a main light illuminating the model, all other lights regardless of how many your going to use are considered fill lights. This is where you can really experiment to create highlights and shadows for effect. My favorite main lighting source is the Beauty Dish. This offers beautiful even rap around light that I personally find pleasing. So...study the models face and determine the lightning pattern that will work best for them and for the type of mood your looking to create. I will get into the varies lighting pattern in more detail down the road