Lighting setup for the model shoot...

We used three lights for this shoot, but really only one was used to lite our model.

For all the shots that had our model standing we used a three light setup, the two lights on either side were large softboxes that were used primarily to lite the white wall behind her (with the intension of blowing it out). We used a beauty dish with a diffusion sock to lite the model herself.

One thing I would do differently is to put something between the side lights and the model as there was a bit more spill than I would have liked. In his 3 day seminar Zack Arias showed how to used some very inexpensive folding doors from Lowes or Home Depot for this exact purpose.

You can still buy (and download) the video files from this seminar for an incredibly reasonable price ($129) here. You can read here why I think it's one of the two most important things you can buy if you are serious about photography.


All of the images shot in the red "pleather" bench were shot with just a beauty dish and diffusion sock. We used a piece of Rosco Cinefoil as a "visor" on the side of the beauty dish closest to the wall, it acted as a flag (or gobo) to keep light from spilling onto the white wall.

There was a comment on yesterdays post asking about a DIY beauty dish, you can read our post and see sample images of the beauty dish I made here, you can also watch our YouTube DIY beauty dish video here.

Below is an outstanding video Mark shot in between running around as my lighting assistant, he did a great job at both tasks. Watching it will also give you a better look at our lighting setup.

If you are a subscriber you will need to return to the blog to watch it as videos (still) don't get pushed through with your ubscription.

(click on either image above to view larger & in a new window)