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How to Light a Portrait With DIY Lighting for Under $50

Chris Gampat
No Comments
01/19/2015
1 Min read

Last Updated on 04/10/2019 by Joy Celine Asto

Screenshot taken from the video
Screenshot taken from the video

Lighting doesn’t need to be expensive, and in fact it can sometimes be really simple to use. Aaron Nace from Phlearn recently demonstrated this in a video that they posted where they purchased a couple of fluorescent lights from Amazon for around $15 a piece and then use gels to change the way that the lights look.

Aaron states that they needed a three light setup–the same three light setup that most strobist portrait photographers talk about. In the scene there is a main light, fill light, and an accent light. The main light is providing the main source of light while on the other side you have the fill to add extra details to the shadows. But then a third light gets added called the accent light but traditionally known as the hair light. Aaron’s subject is a male, but this light is really important when photographing females.

While this works out really well, we should let you know that dollar for dollar, continuous lighting is significantly weaker than strobe lighting. However, it is easier to work with.

Aaron’s video is after the jump, and demonstrates a really thrifty way to use DIY lighting on the cheap. Be sure to also check out Aaron’s guest post for our Creating the Photograph series. Also be sure to check out this softbox hack also done for around $20.

accent light amazon cheap DIy Lighting fill light fluorescent hair light main light portrait
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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