50+ Stunning Portraits & Still Life Images Using One Light
You’d be amazed at what it’s possible to achieve using only one light or strobe. Although many of us may envy a full studio setup complete with all lighting configurations imaginable, it’s often something of an unrealistic dream! Today’s post is designed to inspire you to shoot with the equipment you have, and make the most of your simple lighting setup!
One Light Only
Every photo below was taken with just a single external flash or strobe (and, in some cases, a reflector as well). There’s no fancy multi-light trickery – just a simple setup, and some creative photographic thinking. Enjoy the images, and feel free to share your own in the comments!
Dish of Beauty
Day One Hundred Sixty Nine
Levitation
108/365 [EXPLORED]
Not sure what that is, but it is so cool!
Day One Hundred Ninety Five
Shiny Happy People
Street Dreams
Over 30 years of family fun!
365.17
Álvaro Hernández
Formidably Tireless
Iwan Wolkow
Light
Industrial Girl
Stella Bottle
Royce
Dad in Mono
Self Portrait
Frog Party!
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….
Juan José Ballesta
Allison Railroad
On Darkness
Joshua Targownik
Setup shot for the Sea of Green
Kayla
Happy Valentine Week
Ang
No More Running
Playing with Lighting
Lost
A Year of Sundays
Tim Forbes
Doe Ironwood
Orange is IN!
Mosh
Lemon Drop
ContactSheet Emily
365.23
Emily RAF
S x 2
Doe Ironwood
OneLight Madness
It’s a Geeks Life
Pastel Sticks
Annah1
365.2
Andrej & Olga
Bottle Tops
Lighting Resources for One-Light Photography
Here are a few links, websites, and resources for finding out more about lighting in general!
- Strobist – A great blog, packed with lighting examples, tutorials, ideas and tips.
- Using a Single Strobe – An interesting forum post, complete with loads more examples and explanations of this type of photography.
- Quick Tip: Dramatic Portraits With Off Camera Flash – This quick tip article is all about getting your flash off the camera, and using it in creative ways to capture great, dramatic portraits. Whether you use a dusty old garage sale hot shoe speed light or the latest electronic strobe kit matters much less than how you place, and direct your light.
- Single Strobe Photo – A slightly over-commercial site, but it contains plenty of examples of the type of kit you should be looking to purchase.
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Heres another one:
a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/cresk/3962313548/ title=Legacy by Gert van Duinen (no time as usual), on Flickr rel=nofollow/a
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cresk/3962313548/
thankyou for choosing my photographs! (contactsheet emily Emily RAF)
its a privilege to have mine next to such amazing photographs!
Ben.
Heres 2 that I shot couple of days ago : D
http://raonurcouch.tumblr.com/post/1154646150/back-in-black-i-make-it-look-easy
http://raonurcouch.tumblr.com/post/1154534625/back-in-black-shes-not-a-flight-risk-atleast-i
Basically ANY and ALL of my photography can get posted on this blog post..
love all of these and would of LOVED to been added to this list, maybe some day..
http://www.itsjustjake.com
http://www.flickr.com/illuminatecs
Love all this stunning portraits that you have i like the cowboy design of the image. haha.. that’s cool. ^_^
Thanks for adding a couple of my shots to this awesome list! Great work everyone!
two shots done with 2 lights sources
This is a great collection of images. Thanks for posting!
You must not be very attentive if you think all of these were shot with only one light. At least 8 (by my count) are using more than one strobe…
Hi
This is a great collection
I would like to add the ones here at Photography Office – they too were done with one light Softbox in Studio
http://tinyurl.com/4h69rhg (Photography Office Website)
Regards, Erik
Most of my images are taken with a single light source. Thanks to the great tips on this website as well as the ones shared in the lighting resources.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianhart/
That guy in the photo “Lost” has an astonishing likeliness to Michael C. Hall!
Great portraits, I’ve just loved them!
It’s NOT about placing lights… it’s ALL about placing shadows.
these are just fantastic shots, some are really creative and show what can be done with some simple lighting and an imagination