Mastering Studio Lighting: Setup Tips for Photographers

Stepping into a dedicated photography studio opens up opportunities to explore your camera’s settings and capabilities in a controlled environment. Whether you’re photographing products, adding to your fashion photography portfolio, or trying out portrait photography, a studio provides a consistent and adjustable lighting setup that you’re in control of.  

By mastering studio lighting, you gain full creative control over shadows, highlights, and the overall mood of your images and can achieve professional results. With this in mind, let’s take a look at how to set up studio lighting to get the look you’re after.
 

Why lighting setup is so important in a photography studio

When you’re out and about taking photos of architecture, wildlife, or turning your hand to on-location wedding photography, you’ll usually rely primarily on natural lighting and environmental factors to shape your images. You can then use subject positioning and your camera settings to make the most of the available light.

In contrast, when photographing in a studio, it’s your chance to set up lights from scratch. You can choose where shadows and highlights appear and decide the mood your photos will evoke.

With the right studio lighting set-up, you can have creative control over your images’ depth, contrast, and texture.

Our beginner’s guide to photography lighting looks in more depth at both natural and artificial light and the effect it can have on your photos.

Top tips for setting up your photography studio lights

Now you know the impact lighting can have on your photos, here are some hints to help you practice working in a studio. 

Tip 1: Understand lighting placement

Are you wondering how many lights you need for studio photography? The answer really depends on your photography type and style. As a rule of thumb, three lights offer a good starting point to cover the main placements:

• A key light: Your main light source, which works well at a 45° angle at the side of your subject.
  
  
• A fill light: Placing this opposite your key light can help soften shadows.
  
  
• A backlight: Positioned behind your subject, a backlight can add depth and dimension to your photos.

However, you can also achieve great results with a single light, and you’re welcome to experiment with more. 

Tip 2: Explore different lighting types

Photography studio lights are not one-size-fits-all all. Different types create different effects, so it’s helpful to understand the results each is likely to achieve.

• Continuous lighting: This type of lighting stays on rather than flashing. Having clear, continuous lighting helps you see your subject clearly and adjust shadows and highlights in real time.
  
  
• Strobe lighting: These lights provide a powerful flash when you take a photo. Using a strobe light helps freeze motion, creating crisp, well-lit photos — ideal for fashion shoots and high-speed photography. 
  
  
• LED lights: These energy-efficient bulbs offer steady illumination. LED lighting tends to be softer and more even than other types.

Tip 3: Try out lighting modifiers

A great way to control and adjust your studio lighting is to try modifiers, such as reflectors and diffusers. 

Reflectors are fabric panels stretched over a frame. They bounce light onto a subject, helping to shape and soften the lighting in a scene. You can use them to fill in shadows and create a more balanced exposure

Diffusers, like softboxes or umbrellas, can also be helpful — they disperse light evenly and gently by adding a translucent film or panel for the beams to travel through. This can help scatter harsh light, making it more even and flattering. Diffusers are particularly handy for gaining greater control over strong strobe lighting.

Tip 4: Use a light meter

A light meter measures the intensity of light in your studio. By reading the amount of light hitting your subject, you can adjust your camera settings or lighting setup to ensure consistent and precise results. 

It’s a helpful way to ensure your photos don’t end up overexposed or underexposed.

Tip 5: Think about your background

While it might not strictly be a lighting tip, this does relate to your overall studio setup and will undoubtedly affect your lighting. If you’re using a backdrop — we have a whole array of options to try at the FUJIFILM House of Photography Studio — make sure you adjust your lighting to take any patterns, shapes, or textures into account. 

Tip 6: Brush up on the Inverse Square Law

The concept of the Inverse Square Law can seem complex, but it’s worth investigating to help with your lighting setup. It’s also something our experts cover in our Introduction to Portrait Lighting workshops.

In its simplest form, this law refers to the fact that light intensity decreases with distance. When you move a light source away from your subject, the illumination diminishes. The Inverse Square Law means that when you double the distance between your light source and subject, the light intensity is reduced by a factor of four. 

Knowing this can help you recognise when to adjust your light's distance to help control brightness and shadows.

Tip 7: Practice!

Like any art form, practice makes perfect when it comes to studio photography lighting. The more you explore, the more you can discover your own style, preferences, and methods. You can see what works and what doesn’t and begin to recognise patterns. 

Experiment with lighting at the FUJIFILM House of Photography Studio

At the FUJIFILM House of Photography, we’re pleased to have a fully-equipped studio available to hire. Equipped with our Elinchrom One, Three, and Five set-ups, the studio offers lighting options to suit every style of photography. 

Find out more about hiring our studio, and visit our welcoming space to enjoy a professional set-up.

We also run a variety of genre-based workshops at the FUJIFILM School. Take a look at our listings to see our upcoming lighting workshops and see if any other techniques take your fancy.