One Light, Two Lights, Three Lights, Four?

A lot of shooters ask, when jumping into this pretty girl shooting genre, how much lighting equipment do they need? Here's my take on it:

When purchasing lighting, and assuming you don't have much experience using it, start with a single light. If you have a few extra bucks, buy something decent. (As opposed to those Hong Kong, no-name, specials listed on Ebay.) Yeah, I know those deals seem like great deals. After all, they often offer kits that include a monolight, stand, and softbox and speedring at very attractive prices. But since glass and lighting are the two most important things you'll be buying, and assuming you're in this for the long haul, don't sell yourself short with cheap gear if you can afford not to do so. The better lighting gear possesses many quality features, not the least of which are holding accurate color temperature, the ability to control the power output in very small increments, and fast recycle times. I'm a big advocate of fast recyle times.

Since I'm suggesting starting out with a single light source, I also recommend you purchase some expendables that will help you create cool images with less gear. I'm talking about white foamcore (for bouncing some of that light), Cinefoil (black foil), and gaffer's tape. Gels are also handy, especially a slightly warm gel like Roscoe's Bastard Amber. (1/2 or 1/4 strength is, most likely, all you'll need.)

Black foil, by the way, is possibly the least-expensive, artfully-effective, weapon you can add to your pretty girl shooting arsenal. It allows you to shape the light in almost infinite ways. It also lets you to flag the light when you want to reduce spill.

Since you'll probably NOT want to be shooting everything with a bare bulb, it makes sense to also purchase a modifier. I recommend a softbox. If possible, I further suggest you buy an octodome -- something on the bigger side like 5' -- or a large, rectangular softbox. I like ocotodomes because they're a less expensive way (as opposed to beauty dishes) to get that beautiful, soft, wrap-around lighting. I also recommend purchasing a reflector. Those 5-in-1 models are nice. They allow you to change them from white to black to silver to gold to... uhmmm... i think that only amounts to 4-in-1. There's another way to change them but, at the moment, my brain ain't as functional as it should be. (Gimme a break. It's the A.M. and I haven't finished my coffee.)

There's a lot of incredibly cool images that can be captured with a single light source. After all, the sun is a single light source and certainly it's been used by a shooter or two, here and there, to snap some decent pics. Mastering the use of a single, artificial, light source will make graduating to multiple light sources so much easier.

The pretty girl at the top is Margo, captured a year or so ago with a single light source.