One Light Portraits

One Light Portraits

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With Veterans Day just behind us, I thought one of the shoots from my ongoing Veterans Day Portrait Series would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a lighting technique called the “one-light wonder.” In this series, I’ll explore the creative possibilities of using only one light and a little creativity. In addition to showing what you can do with one light, this month I’ll also share which lightweight, easy-to-transport tools I used to create the ad-hoc, on-location studio for these portraits.

The location for this shoot presented an interesting challenge. It wasn’t an office or someone’s home, the more typical scenarios. For this session, I’d need to set up and shoot in the back room of a restaurant where the vets had their monthly meeting.

The shots featured in this article are part of the One-Light Wonders series not because they’re wonderful portraits, but because they’re a good example of how much you can accomplish with just one light and a few simple tools. So let’s get right to it!

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To read the full article, launch the digital version of the July 2013 magazine.

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