Tonight our small local photo group gathered in my studio (those not currently infirm at least) for a short tutorial on one light portraits. While portrait lighting setups using 3,4 or 5 or more lights are not uncommon (in modern or classic portraiture) they are certainly not necessary to good portraits.
When I work in the studio I typically use 2 to 4 lights depending on the look I am trying to achieve. But on location, one light and a reflector is almost all I ever use. Increasingly, that one light is a flash on top of the camera that is bounced in a way to give soft directional light. Honestly, anyone who has a hot shoe flash and wants to learn how to take better pictures should start by reading Neil VanNiekerk's blog and/or his book, On-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photographers.
While there are many sites and blogs dedicated to teaching use of OFF camera flash (Strobist and Lighting Essentials being, in my opinion, the two best) they really appeal to serious hobbyists. In some cases, mine for example, they can lead to becoming a serious hobbyist and beyond. But a lot of people have neither the time nor inclination to deal with the triggers, wires, and light stands it takes to do that kind of work. If you own the most rudimentary DSLR and a dedicated system flash (e.g. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, etc,) you can vastly improve your photography quickly reading Neil's blog and book.
But the studio is about setting up lights and backgrounds and being creative with light. And even with one light, you can get quite a few different looks.
Thanks to Jeromie (pictured above) who sat for a few quick shots just as we were ending the program tonight. I'd planned on shooting more throughout the session, but we had a lot of discussion and not that much shooting. But we learned techniques and approaches that will serve us all again and again.
Teach a man to fish...
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