I’ve used a clamshell lighting setup for beauty photography and headshots. This time I decided to make a larger version for a portfolio shoot.
The concept is to use 2 lights or 1 light & 1 reflector set up in a “V” shape. The setup has the lights facing your subject at 45 degree angles (open part of the “V” facing the subject). If you are using a reflector versus a second light the reflector is normally on the bottom of the “V”. Clamshell lighting provided even lighting and fills shadows / wrinkles. That’s why it’s nice for headshots or portraits. Here is a diagram.
The larger version is the same except I used a 69” Elinchrom Rotalux Octabox on an Elinchrom BRX500 strobe as the top of the clamshell, and an 8’ piece of white foam board as the bottom of the clamshell. The foam board was angled using a studio sandbag. The light was mounted on a Manfrotto super boom. I shot on a Savage Universal Fashion Grey background paper.
Here is the setup:
As always, I set my Nikon D810 camera and metered my light to f/9, ISO 160, 1/160. I had my model both sit and stand approximately 1-2 feet behind the front of the foam board. Also, for this shoot I shot tethered and on a tripod.
Here are a few photos from from my photoshoot with model Brianna Schuster with The Helen Well Agency.
I’m sure I’ll be using this setup again