Simple Portrait Lighting Setup: Gorgeous Result

Updated: 23 December

We loved this beautiful portrait by photographer Ryan Pendleton (who has previously guest posted on dPS on the topic of ‘How to Take Photos that Stand Out from the Crowd‘) when we stumbled upon it today – and when we saw how simple the set up was (see below) we wanted to share it as it’s something most people could achieve!

Here’s Ryan’s description of how he shot it:

“For the lighting setup, I didn’t get too complicated on this one. I set her up next to a large Southeast-facing window and placed a large silver reflector under her face and to viewer’s left to punch it up some. It was cloudy outside, but that was offset by a lot of reflective snow on the ground, which made for this nice, soft light.” See more of Ryan’s work here.

A window and a reflector – so simple yet so effective (see tutorials below for more information on how you can do it).

Here are Ryan’s settings for the shot:

Camera: NIKON D700
Focal Length: 85mm
Shutter Speed: 1/200 secs
Aperture: f/2
ISO: 200

Update: check out this behind the scenes shot from Ryan that shows just how simple the set up really is.

You can also read this interview on the setup where Ryan talks about the shot.

Related Reading

Want to take shots like this? Here are a few tutorials and resources that you might like to check out:

• How to Take Photos that Stand Out from the Crowd (a guest post by Ryan that we published previously)
• Reflectors: Your Secret Weapon for Amazing Portrait Photography
• Reflectors and Available Light Photography
• 21 Inspirational Natural Light Portraits
• Portraits: Making the Shot (eBook: our introduction to portraiture)
• Portraits: Lighting the Shot (our eBook on Portrait Lighting)

What do you think of this image? Tell us on our Facebook page thread for this image here.