Your First Light Setup (in 3 steps) | Take and Make Great Photography with Gavin Hoey

Gavin Hoey

Gavin Hoey is a freelance photographer, writer and trainer of all things photographic. His work is regularly featured in photography magazines, websites and videos.
Gavin has a real passion for sharing his photography and Photoshop knowledge. In 2008 he started recording and uploading video tutorials to YouTube. These quickly gained a large following and to date his videos have been viewed over 20 million times.
In 2010 Gavin was the winner of Adobe’s “Next Photoshop Evangelist” competition and since then he has given training demonstrations in Photoshop, Lightroom and Photoshop Elements in the UK, Europe and the US.
In 2012 Gavin joined forces with Adorama as a presenter on Adorama TV, where he inspires and teaches photographers from around the world in the art of photography and post processing.

“How do I start with flash?” is a question almost every portrait photographer asks at some point. If you’ve just bought a Speedlight or you’re looking for a simple lighting set-up that works every time, Gavin Hoey has the perfect answer for you.

Using just a single Speedlight (or flash) and a small softbox, Gavin will take you through his three steps for simple but beautiful portrait lighting. First, he’ll set up his camera so it sees just the flash, then he gets the softbox super close to his model, and finally, he controls the background brightness by moving or feathering the light.

The best lighting setups are those that are also adaptable, so Gavin throws in a little extra excitement by adding a small fan. In doing so he shows how a simple twist can make your first lighting setup look like a professional studio shoot.

Interested in learning more about lighting and lighting setups? Check out these guides on 42 West:

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