Notes on working with one light

Most of the pictures I still like were made with one light. Sometimes it was the sun through a window, sometimes a bare bulb on a stand, once a car headlamp in a car park outside Porto. The source changes. The rule does not.

One light forces a decision. You have to choose where the shadow falls before you choose anything else, and that choice tells the viewer where to look. Add a second light and the decision gets softer. Add a third and nobody has decided anything.

On set this also means fewer people, fewer cables and more time with the person in front of the camera. The crew relaxes, the model relaxes, and the pictures start to look like they happened rather than like they were arranged.

I still carry more lights than I need. Most days they stay in the cases.