Studio style portraiture without expensive equipment

Do you need expensive flashes and modifiers and backdrops to make studio style photos? No, is the short answer. It makes life easier of course but so does having all the latest technology in any field but it can be twice as much fun working round the issues without forking out the ££££'s.

Take this self portrait for example. The model came free (!!) and the lighting was from an LED hand torch balanced on  a book shelf 1/25 at f2.8 ISO400 The camera was on a tripod but even that could be dispensed with if you placed it on a table in which case it would be best to shoot using the mirror lock up devise which most DSLR's have (assuming you are using a DSLR)

The background is black purely because no light is falling on it but its best to avoid having anything too close to the subject in case you are getting any light spill.

Obviously low key photographs like this are ideal for some subjects (grizzly old men for example) but may not suit everyone so I'll come back and show how to do some high key portraits with simple equipment in another post.