You’d be amazed at what it’s possible to achieve using only one light or strobe. Although many of us may envy a full studio setup complete with all lighting configurations imaginable, it’s often something of an unrealistic dream! Today’s post is designed to inspire you to shoot with the equipment you have, and make the most of your simple lighting setup!
One Light Only
Every photo below was taken with just a single external flash or strobe (and, in some cases, a reflector as well). There’s no fancy multi-light trickery – just a simple setup, and some creative photographic thinking. Enjoy the images, and feel free to share your own in the comments!
Dish of Beauty

Day One Hundred Sixty Nine

Levitation

108/365 [EXPLORED]

Not sure what that is, but it is so cool!

Day One Hundred Ninety Five

Shiny Happy People

Street Dreams

Over 30 years of family fun!

365.17

Álvaro Hernández

Formidably Tireless

Iwan Wolkow

Light

Industrial Girl

Stella Bottle

Royce

Dad in Mono

Self Portrait

Frog Party!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

Juan José Ballesta

Allison Railroad

On Darkness

Joshua Targownik

Setup shot for the Sea of Green

Kayla

Happy Valentine Week

Ang

No More Running

Playing with Lighting

Lost

A Year of Sundays

Tim Forbes

Doe Ironwood

Orange is IN!

Mosh

Lemon Drop

ContactSheet Emily

365.23

Emily RAF

S x 2

Doe Ironwood

OneLight Madness

It’s a Geeks Life

Pastel Sticks

Annah1

365.2

Andrej & Olga

Bottle Tops

Lighting Resources for One-Light Photography
Here are a few links, websites, and resources for finding out more about lighting in general!
- Strobist – A great blog, packed with lighting examples, tutorials, ideas and tips.
- Using a Single Strobe – An interesting forum post, complete with loads more examples and explanations of this type of photography.
- Quick Tip: Dramatic Portraits With Off Camera Flash – This quick tip article is all about getting your flash off the camera, and using it in creative ways to capture great, dramatic portraits. Whether you use a dusty old garage sale hot shoe speed light or the latest electronic strobe kit matters much less than how you place, and direct your light.
- Single Strobe Photo – A slightly over-commercial site, but it contains plenty of examples of the type of kit you should be looking to purchase.