From the course: Portrait Photography: Business Portraits on LinkedIn Learning

When to use studio strobe lighting from Portrait Photography: Business Portraits by Robert Vanelli

Lighting is extremely unpredictable—especially going into a corporate environment. So that’s why we decided to shoot with studio strobes. Studio strobes give us the extra power that we could use to light our set. I’d rather go into the environment with too much light and then dialing it down, than going in and not having enough light to get the shot.

There are so many different types of strobes that you could use. The ones that we are using for this shoot have the power pack separate from the strobe itself. This way the head can be put on different types of booms or light stands without adding too much weight. There are other types of strobes that have the power already built right in. These are going to be a little heavier, so we have to make sure we use sandbags or a counterweight when we’re attaching these to different light stands.

All strobes, regardless of the type, use what’s called a trigger to make them fire. I like to use Pocket Wizard. With a Pocket Wizard, a lot of the different strobes we have—especially the higher end ones—already have the trigger built right in, so I just connect it to my camera and then as I start to shoot, it starts to trigger the strobes.

When using a strobe—whichever one you decide to go with—make sure you understand how the strobe itself works so when you’re on set you can dial in or dial down the different types of power that the strobe has to offer. When all is said and done, you have to feel comfortable with the types of strobe that you use.

Gear recommended in this article can be found on B&H Photo & Video

Pocket Wizards

Dynalite Flash Heads

The newer Bajas from Dynalite

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