Have you wondered how studio photographers work? Of course, there's no single approach and all the best photographers have their own secret sauce - but they are adding their sauce to some basic principles.

Lighting is a little bit like composition. There's no problem breaking the rules of composition, but the best results are by photographers who know the rules of composition in the first place. Similarly, understanding light and how it impacts your subject is fundamental to both studio and location photography. And when it comes to photographing people in the studio, then some basic principles are a great place to start.

Studio Lighting contains a series of articles that ran in Better Photography magazine many years ago. (If you have a subscription to Better Photography, you'll find the articles in the archive stretching over 7 or 8 issues. This publication draws them all together, ready to read.)

 The contents covers the basics, from equipment selection to basic lighting and posing techniques. Here are the ten chapters.

1. Lighting Equipment

2. Light Quality

3. Broad or Short?

4. The Basic Lights

5. Positioning the Light

6. Four Lights for Portraiture

7. Posing Your Subject

8. Positioning Two Heads

9. What About the Hands?

10. Finessing the Light

The publication is 50 pages and can be read online or downloaded for personal use.

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