I often get asked about what lighting I use & why, so I thought it could make for a handy blog.
Here goes with the top 5 questions I’m often asked about the lighting I use in my studio.
- What lighting do you use?
It’s an obvious one to start with & the question I get asked the most.
I shoot probably 98% of my sessions with natural light, I love the depth that natural light creates & those gorgeous graduations of light to shadows.
I have a large window in my home studio that is almost down to the floor & up to the ceiling.
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- What do you do on cloudy/dark days?
As soon as people find out I shoot with natural light, this is usually the follow up question.
In all honesty I love cloudy days & actually find shooting on a cloudy day much easier than when it’s super sunny.
The clouds help to diffuse the light & create the lovely long, soft shadows & gentle highlights that I adore.
But if I have siblings in, or if it’s really stormy then I’ll use a constant light to boost the available natural light.
The one I got was the Jinbei EF-200 LED & it’s fab, I often can’t tell which images I used the Jinbei in from the natural light shots.
I position my light so that it is shining onto the opposite wall. I find that bouncing the light into the room (rather than it facing directly onto the baby) creates a softer, more natural light.
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- Why don’t you use studio flash?
I’ve, quite rightly, been asked this on numerous occasions.
Studio flash is fab & in fact I did use it for about 3 years.
But I decided to make the switch because natural light suited my style of shooting more.
Studio flash illuminates the whole room, especially in a little white studio. So it has a very clean look when I use it in my space.
But I found I preferred the softer, more graduated look that natural light gave me.
Plus with natural light & continuous light I can fire shots really quickly. So if baby laughs, or splashes I can fire shots really quickly one after another to capture every moment.
- How do you capture nice light on a baby that moves a lot?
Babies that are able to move lots never fail to have me in stitches of laughter.
They quickly discover where the toy cupboard is, so one top tip is to make sure you can shut this away so it’s not visible otherwise they’ll constantly be making their way back there.
The other tip is pretty obvious, but an absolute must have. Toys, toys toys.
Make sure you have lots of gorgeous, fun toys that you can quickly grab & swap.
The favourites in my studio are the:
- What’s your best lighting tip?
Diffusion is key both to creating a natural looking light when using constant or flash lighting units & also when shooting with white.
Shower curtains are fab for diffusion, but I also use voiles & white linen (unlined) curtains.
The stronger the light, the more diffusion I use & that’s to ensure that my highlights aren’t ever too strong (it’s very easy to blow the highlights when shooting with white).
