Simple 2 light setup for portrait or beauty shot

When I started my photography journey, I was obsessed with different lighting modifiers and complex setups, often using 4-5 lights or even more. I thought, "The more, the better." I would buy softboxes, strip boxes, grids, beauty dishes of various shapes and sizes—you name it. This buying frenzy was fueled by YouTube photographers, who would come up with a new "amazing" seven-light beauty setup every week. However, most of the time, all this fancy equipment didn’t result in better pictures.

Since then, my approach to lighting has changed. Now, I tend to use as few lights as possible, often starting with just one, and only adding more when necessary. I frequently use V-flats, bounce cards, and flags to reflect or shape the light.

So, here is a very simple two-light setup:

Last year, I did a shoot for a local hairstylist at his salon. We aimed to create a set of simple black-and-white images on a white background that would highlight the shape and texture of the hair. Since the space was limited, this minimalist setup came in very handy.

To reduce the footprint, I used only one large softbox behind the model's back. For the key light, I positioned a beauty dish slightly above eye level and just off-centre. I also placed a blackboard on one side of the model to reduce light spill from the softbox and to add a bit of contrast in the shadows.

I used a very similar setup on another shoot where the objective was to create a beauty portrait with a touch of mystery. I wanted to use hard shadows to partially cover the model's face. To achieve a well-defined line, I needed a smaller light source, so instead of a beauty dish, I used a small spill kill (reflector) and placed a black flag fairly close to the model's face.

As you can see in the above image the flag is very close to the model's face. This was necessary to create a defined shadow line. The flag was later removed. in photoshop.

And here is the final image.