It doesn’t matter how sharp are your camera lenses, if the lighting isn’t right, there can be handful of light and dark shades appearing in your photographs. Professional Photographers know the importance of studio lighting, which is one of the reasons why they spent more capital on building their studio instead of spending on expensive camera and lenses.

If you are a young photographer just thinking about building your own professional studio setup in your own apartment or workspace, this guide would certainly be a great tool for you.

Lightning Choices Hotlights : As their name suggests, these lights are really hot. They are quartz halogen lights, typically around 800 watts. Hotlights are used for shooting videos with perfection and for still shooting of products. Shooting with them is quite uncomfortable because it shines in the eye while shooting, above all they are very hot and most probable to cause fire.

Cool Lights : These are basically the opposite, they are built with florescent and don’t get hot. They resemble daylight and therefore can be used comfortably in the daylight under a room. Cool lights can also be used with a flash, however they have very little power compared to flash. Lights can be adjusted by switching off many of the bulbs available.

Flash  : We are not talking about everyone’s favorite Superhero Flash. Flash is the favorite tool for photographers and studio owners as it does not have any of the disadvantages of Hot or cool lights.

Pros and Cons of Flash Pros of Using Flash

• Cheap : Flash are quite cheap and much more affordable than Other light sources mentioned above.
• Portable : These are very easy to carry around electrical instruments. You won’t have a hard time shifting your setup outdoors for a little shoot.
• Battery Powered : You don’t need to plug it in into your power socket, Flash operates over a battery.

 Cons of Using Flash :

• Because it operates over batteries, you would need to carry a separate box of batteries for emergency.
• Flash provides a very limited power.
• Each Flash needs to have configured with a radio trigger in order to execute.

These are best suited for journalists who need to use flash on the move. On the other hand studio lights are much more better if you want to set them up in your apartment studio.

Studio lights should ideally by set up at eye level if you wish to have video shoots and portrait shoots. It is most commonly used placement of camera lights and backdrops instead of High and Low.

Lights need to be soft if you need to include models and actresses in your video, because they don’t hurt eyes or shine while shooting a video.

Ideally your subject should stand a bit far from the backdrop, one light should focus on background, and other on your subject.

Setting up a Studio isn’t rocket science, we hope this article will help you set up your new Studio, if it does, let us know in comments