{"id":52288,"date":"2025-05-29T00:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T04:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=52288"},"modified":"2026-01-28T00:45:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T04:45:56","slug":"studio-lighting-example-for-pet-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/studio-lighting-example-for-pet-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"Studio lighting example for pet portraits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cat<\/p>\n

Studio lighting example for pet portraits<\/h2>\n

Rosa who I have photographed before as model, also lives out her love for cats as a catsitter<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 (Check out her Instagram page). \u00a0She brought her cat, Happy, in to the studio for a few portraits … but Happy had definite opinions about that! My career as a photographer of cats seems to be off to a somewhat shaky start! He was just being a typical cat – adorable, but with a mind of his own.<\/p>\n

In setting up the lights, one of my main considerations, just like it would be when shooting on location, is to make sure I have a background that complements the intended photo. So in this case, I also started with the background splash of light. I took some time to get it at just the right angle, at the right height, with a color that I like. \u00a0(I gelled the flash for that orange color.)<\/p>\n

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Lighting details:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I used (3x) Profoto A2 flash<\/a>\u00a0 (B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>) for this photo session. Even though I have a number of larger studio flashes, I wanted to see for myself if I could do a really nice portrait lighting setup with these remarkably portable flashes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a Profoto 2ft Clic Octabox<\/a> \u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>) on camera-left as main light; and a\u00a0Profoto 2ft Clic Octabox<\/a> \u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>) as rim light on camera right.\u00a0The splash of light on the grey wall in the back, is from the third A2 flash with a gel, angled towards the wall via a boom-arm. I lifted the exposure in the RAW file for that spot so that you can more clearly see that flash.<\/p>\n

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Camera settings and camera gear used for this sequence of photos<\/h2>\n