I'd never thought having more lights improve the quality of the photographs dramatically. I always thought one source of light is enough for the look I want but whenever I shoot, I still feel like there's something missing.
When it comes to studio setup, you're in control of everything. You don't have to rely on the sun's position depending on the time of the day and stuff since you can do it yourself. But that's the thing, it sounds easy to set up your light but it's really not lol.
When I was doing a lot of self portraits, I didn't have studio lights. I just relied on the good 'ol window for that sweet source of light and if it's afternoon or way too cloudy, then I can't do it since the light source would be too weak. So I've never done any of this studio set up thing before.
I know in general that photographers usually have many lights and they are positioned in strategic ways but I seem to always forget that fact. It's like, I will only learn once I experience it myself if you know what I mean?
Here in these photographs you can see there is a black background and well I was also wearing a black tight dress haha so I needed to put up some lights somewhere else so I wouldn't look like a floating head. Can you guess how many lights there were?
This initially was just a practice of makeup but quickly turned into a lighting practice since I needed to photograph the makeup better for more glitter to show up and also just to match the vibe of the makeup so I went with the dramatic light effect. I thought one source of light will work because I wanted drama and shadows but because of the background and what I was wearing, another challenge came up.
In this photo, I had 3 lights around. One in front of me as a main source in a soft box... one to my right that's pointing down at me from maybe 6 feet, and another tiny light behind me on the opposite side that's pointing towards my hair.
Sounds quite complicated for a beginner, but I now understand, and it looks so good!
This is how it looks like with a light without a diffuser on my right side and just one tiny light behind me (pointing at my hair). It looks very dramatic and harsh but looks kinda flat. Without the big diffused light in front of me, it wasn't enough to fill in the shadows. I mean it still looks nice but needed a gentle push because of what I was wearing.
I was changing the light's position but still can't help but feel flat. This was also after post production, so in the RAW file you can barely see my body and hair haha.
But yeah... I just found the right balance that I like which is the three-lights setup and that is what you're seeing from this photo. The amount of diffusion matters a lot too, which demands your time and energy for an experimentation. :D
Having a softbox makes the shadow softer but imo gives a very "studio-like" vibe since some details are not that sharp but without one, it gives a really nice direct sunlight vibe and the sharpness is just +++ which I like. :D From this photo for example is with a direct one and the one previously had a light with a softbox in front.
Anyway, those are the things that apparently matter that I really didn't think of them as much. Experimenting with lights is really fun and I now get why some people really have a LOT of lights and reflectors in their studio + some random RGB lights too and those attachments that creates an artificial shadow haha.
This is where you'll realize in photography your camera don't matter as much. It's your lights that matter the most. Annnd why so many street photographers are so impressive because they don't control the sun pretty much and have to rely on their creativity and skills to time them all. :P
