Why Use Studio Lights When You Can Use the Sun?

My name is Jeremy Lebled, and I’m a fashion photographer. I recently just did a shoot to demo Leica’s S Camera. My specialty is using just the sun to get a high-end studio look to photographs instead of using dozens of strobes.

A lot of photographers are under the impression that they need to invest in very expensive studio lights to achieve the high-end studio fashion look. They will spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on pricey light modifiers, light stands, studio strobes and so forth.

Why spend the money that you could be investing on a backup camera or a high-end lens when you have the greatest light source you could ever want right outside your window: the Sun?

The reality is, some of the greatest photographs in the world have been captured in natural light, not with fancy studio equipment. For instance three of my top photographic inspirations, Peter Lindbergh, Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts, have countless beautiful photos that were shot in daylight and are still able to achieve the high fashion style.

Just grab a big roll of seamless background paper, a background stand and a couple of assistants and you’ve got what it takes to create high end quality fashion shots.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video that shows the way I set up for my shoots:

Here are some of the photographs that I created in this way for Leica:

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