For someone who does mostly still life photography my lighting set up is about as simple as you can get. Most of my work is done with a Nikon SB800, usually on manual, and most usually inside a Chimera Pro Plus 16″x12″ softbox. Besides that I may use various homemade snoots or grids, either with or without the softbox. My main aim is always to create the appearance of a single light source. Fill is usually either a white card or card covered with crumpled aluminum foil fo stronger fill. Occasionally I will use a Sunpak hammer flash inside a 16″x16″ Westcott Mini Apollo softbox if I need a more controlled fill or if I need to light the background. For close up work I usually use the SB800 with a Lastolite 8″x10″ Micro Apollo softbox. The main thing about the two flash units I use is that they are adjustable down to 1/64th power in 1/3 stop increments. I have a flash meter but I never use it - I’m using digital after all so exposure and lighting ratios are easily checked and adjusted. Same for positioning light or lights, so no need for the modelling lights of larger studio flash units.

Simple lighting in action

Basically experience gets me in the ball park as a starting point for exposure and lighting positioning. What if you don’t have the experience? Well, if you are using digital test shots are effectively a free ride and feedback is instant. Don.t scour the web for lighting diagrams, formulae etc. try this - you’ll learn way more and what you learn will stick. Collect up a variety of small subjects - round, square, rough textured, smooth, shiny, glass metal objects - you get the picture - and put them singly or grouped on a background. Set up your light or lights and move them around your subject taking test shots as you go. Try frontal lighting, side lighting back lighting, hard unmodified light, soft diffused light - try any and all combinations. All the time recording your experiments. use reflectors in different positions. If you have more than one light, try different fill light positions and lighting ratios or light the background for a variety of tonal ratios. Just keep experimenting, really.

At the end of this you will have a collection of test shots illustrating your experimental lighting formulae. You can separate out those that really work and those that don’t - remembering that a lighting set up that doesn’t work for one subject may work great for another and you just may stumble on some set ups that shouldn’t work by all the “rules” you may read somewhere but just does! You will end up learning how to light just about anything. Test shoots may seem a boring concept but, trust me, it can be a fascinating process. Just try it.

By the way if you want to learn how to get the most out of small, cheap flash units (the ones you probably already own) plus loads of fascinating and useful projects for homemade stuff that will let you light like a pro and save a fortune into the bargain, just shoot on over to Strobist. It is the single greatest resource for this stuff on the web and you will be there for hours scouring all the tips on offer. You’ll keep going back for more as well, believe me!