How to Maximize Lighting in a Fashion Shoot

Fashion Photography  •  Lighting  •  Photography Tips

Finding the right space doesn’t always mean finding the best lighting. In this situation, the producers found an awesome restaurant, complete with glittery safety deposit boxes and lined fireplaces, but the space was too dark to shoot at a comfortable shutter speed. Watch the video to see how they solved the problem:

To light up the safety deposit boxes, they shot with a longer exposure than normal and a higher ISO to brighten the lights, which forced the model to stay perfectly still to reduce blur. They also brought in a wide red light and set it up 20 feet behind the lens, tinging the whole room red.

In their second shot, they brought in their own reflective tables to double the fire set up by the fireplaces. They also set up another red light behind the fireplaces to play with rim lighting and shadows from a different angle. This helps create layers—there are almost two backgrounds behind the subject, giving the image a lot of nice texture and lighting detail (Via Phlearn).

Rather than lighten darkness with Photoshop, they tried to use it only on the light spots to enhance light where it already existed. That way the lighting turns out the most natural it can be, and it’s also easier to get it right in-camera the first time.