Shooting with one hot light
Here’s another photo taken with just one single hot light with barn doors to shape the light pattern.
This light casts a soft but intense constant light that you can adjust by spreading the beam from a
spot position to a wide angle position. You have to have some distance between the subject and
the light, in this shot we had about 20 feet or more. I chose not to use a backlight, as I wanted the
intense dark shadow to hit the wall behind her, and I loved the dramatic look of all the shadows on
her face and dress. This is probably an example of what is known as rembrandt lighting in a studio,
but I started with a butterfly style of light in mind.