Simple One Light Setup For Two

I prefer to have one person in front of the camera at the time, if I can chose. But that is something I can not do all the time. So I try to develop ways of doing it as easy as I manage. Smaller groups, like two people is ok. And here are a few things I try to think of to make it as painless as possible.

For this shot, I just used a large 5-foot Profoto softbox Octa with a Profoto D1 and a white background (turned slightly grey from the lack of background lights).

Posing with one large light

Before this small group shot I did individual portraits of these two, and used the same lighting setup. Just one large softbox camera left.

But, to get to the point, the placement of the light and the posing of the people is what makes this lighting setup work well in this case. The man has a slight tan, at least more than the woman. So placing him nearer the light is a good thing.

The woman has softer facial features and will benefit from having her head turned (as well as the body in this case) to the light, at least in my opinion. And as she is farther away from the light, posing her with the face turned to it creates less long shadows and gives the impression of the same amount of light on her as the man.

And, on a final note, the woman were a bit shorter in reality, so I had her standing on something that made her taller and more equal in height. That mostly because I wanted to have a semi-tight group photo and not so zoomed-out which I otherwise would have to do if I had to display their real height. A little bit of cheating, I know, but I think it looks pretty natural with this crop.

For more one-light setups, please look through my archives.

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