Chris Fain’s Profoto is ready I actually asked you to share a few of the lighting setups I use in the studio. Today, May 3 at 11 a.m. ESTYou can log into the live show and ask me all your favorite lighting questions!
Many of you have probably wondered what happened to Lee and me over the past few months. Back in 2021, we were evicted from our wonderful rental home in Puerto Rico (the owners sold it and we were foolish enough not to buy it) and forced to buy our own property. in the same neighborhood. In a nutshell, our refurbishment is almost done and since moving into our new home we’ve been busy setting up new offices, studios and filming spaces.
Our latest dedicated photography space is under construction in my garage, a far cry from the more luxurious spaces we’ve done in the past. In some ways, this new studio space is so small, it feels a lot like the original garage that Lee and I first started Fstoppers with almost 13 years ago. However, working in a small two-person garage with short 8-foot ceilings presents all sorts of new challenges, but that doesn’t mean you can’t create a stunning, professional piece of work in one space. less than ideal time.
When Profoto contacted me to share some work on Live show prepared, I’m a little nervous because I just moved into this house and as I’m writing this, only about 60% of my boxes in stock have been opened. Originally, my plan was to move in in February and get the studio up and running in early March but of course the contractors, time on the island and the thousands of trips to Home Depot each week brought things to a standstill. slow down. Thankfully, the photo space is designed and functional enough to shoot a few photo sessions, so I thought I’d share the basic but usable lighting setups I use today. day by day as a photographer.
The three images above were all taken with only a light modifier and no light at all. The goal of this shot was to show how easy it is to shoot on seamless paper, although a clean wall would also work well, while creating nice soft shadows and natural light. Each photographer will be asked to shoot some sort of clothing or e-commerce image for a local or national client at some point in their career. If you’ve ever been afraid of simply cataloging people, clothing, or fashion, the lighting setup above is easy enough that anyone can replicate it anywhere.
But wait, there’s more! The three images above are just the beginning of my simple yet reliable garage lighting techniques. If you follow Profoto’s Gared Up at 11 a.m. EST, you can see two more unique lighting setups that anyone with a camera can easily use, a seamless scroll and one (or two) basic flash can be turned off. Of course if you can’t catch the live broadcast, visit Profoto’s page where you’ll be able to watch my full mini session as well as dozens of other great lighting tutorials on a variety of topics. The good part is that it’s completely free, but you need to actively learn and experiment!
