1 Bare Bulb, 3 Different Fashion Images | Inside Fashion and Beauty Photography with Lindsay Adler

You don’t need a lot of complicated gear to create exquisite fashion images. That’s just the truth! In fact, a single bare bulb strobe and a white background will do the trick.

What is far more important? It is essential to put something compelling in front of your camera and to sculpt the light to create interesting imagery.

In this video, I show you three different fashion images using a single hard light (no modifiers) and a clean white background (Super White from Savage Universal). The results are timeless black and white fashion images that could grace the pages of the most exclusive fashion magazines— it's all about the content and execution, not complex lighting setups or over-the-top sets.

Let’s take a look at the ingredients.

Camera/Lens: In all of these shots I utilized the Canon R5 and the Canon RF 24-105 because this combination provides me with a great deal of versatility. I was able to get full-length shots, mid-length shots, and even close-ups without ever changing my lens. The camera has a great dynamic range and plenty of megapixels to work with, plus its face and eye-tracking helps with moving subjects.

Setup 1:

In this setup, I placed my subject as close to the white background as possible, with her body casting a shadow behind her. Next, I took the bare strobe head and moved it as far away from my subject as I could in my space. This helped to create extremely hard light with a very crisp shadow edge behind her.

Next, I varied the angle (height) and position (side-to-side) of the strobe to change the size/shape of the shadow behind our subject. For this image, I was inspired by the work of Herb Ritts, and a relatively more subtle shadow was appropriate.

Setup 2:

In this setup, I used a bare strobe to light the subject and introduced a flag into the equation. A flag is anything that is used to block the light. I introduced a piece of Cinefoil (black tin foil) in between the light and the subject to create a crisp shadow on the subject’s face and background. We varied the angle and position of the Cinefoil on the subject’s face to create

Setup 3:

Lastly, I placed a bare bulb pointed at the background on high power. The light then bounced around the space, reflecting off of the walls, floor, and ceiling. This created a fill light on the subject, even though no direct light was hitting our subject. For this shot, there was a significant lens flare in the bottom of the frame, but this was used to create a moody effect. Because of the backlit nature of the image, the contrast was added in post-processing for a more pleasing effect (and true black point).

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✘ PRODUCTS USED:

Canon R5

Canon RF 24-105mm 4.0

Profoto D2

Savage Universal - Super White

Cinefoil

#lightingtutorial #fashionphotography #adorama

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Photographer: Lindsay Adler

Videographer - Samuel Bouret

Makeup: Joanne Gair
Hair: Linh Nguyen
Styling: Raytell Bridges

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THANKS SO MUCH FOR WATCHING!

[josephchan]

Fall is coming up and Holidays. Wish Adorama and Lindsay great success this year and next.

[josephchan]

Watching her videos has given me creative ideas for Portrait and Product Photography. Thanks Lindsay and Adorama for these classes.

[DavidVelezPhotography]

You make it look so easy, Lindsay! Thank you for sharing your talent!

[alexanderpons]

Love this video Lindsay Adler, its good to be shown that sometimes keeping things minimal can lead to awesome shots! Thanks ADORAMA for having someone of the level of Lindsay Adler on your great channel where we can see all that is possible with the great Gear you guys have available at your store and stie!

[DynamicRockers]

The results are awesome, very 90s Vogue supermodel style :)

[johnleighdesigns]

Oh yes very nice - despite several years experience/practice I still often find myself a little overwhelmed when I have a model in front of me even though planned ideas and moodboard and what lighting and modifiers but I start to re-think and over think the lighting and modifier choices and change mind - going back to the most basic bare bulb has saved me a few times as i then build back up from there - thanks so much for confirming in my mind this is a valid approach!

[ChrisPanasPhoto]

Absolutely outstanding work, wow 😮 Thank you for sharing and being such an inspiration!

[jamaljameelphotography]

Great tutorial with beautiful captures! Loved all the setups but the last one really caught my attention. Well done Lindsay!

[jer]

Yeah, well, I was prepared to not like #3— a low, single bare bulb light bouncing upward? Are you kidding me? A Halloween flashlight effect? Right. What do I know? What I should know is Lindsay Adler can make anything look like a plan. Well done! My take away from this is I do need to experiment more. Once again, you're the real deal. Thanks for sharing this eye-opener!

[TimewithLivi]

Love it! One of those pictures were kinda giving me checkerboard lighting(I think from what I learned from your other video)! Love it!

[rudydeclarisse]

When I saw the thumbnail I knew it was our hall of fame photographer....

[yanafridabinaev]

Phenomenal techniques! Going to try out these photoshoot ideas!

[charliegreen]

Great as always, especially as it’s high contrast stuff which you are just the Queen of.

[balamina]

You are wonderful Lindsay! Very informative tutorial! God bless you!

[MarcusPocus]

wonderfully inspiring and beautifully easy to understand with elegance.. i'm glued to your videos.. would love to see you as model, you have a lovely beautiful look!!

[Shebshady]

You gotta see her work in person. I have several times its an amazing experience

[shinseungjin]

I'm going to try the third one tomorrow. Thanks for the great tutorial!

[DanasAnis]

8:35 that is a perfect, very beautiful shot! 😍

[ashleyarchitect]

Lindsay is an awesome presenter and educator

[silvinaslatopolsky]

Masterclass!!! Thank you. Thank you for this class!!