I taught a lighting demo on Monday at my studio to a class of fine art photography students. I love the opportunity to do this stuff-creative lighting for the sake of creating lighting. I created 3 scenarios: a mixed light (tungsten 2k with broncolor strobes) setup with a strong backlight; an open 'gigantic north window' light; and a complicated setup with 5 strobes that ended up being called the "Jill Greenberg Close Encounters Lighting". My point was to show off studio lighting in a range from simple to complicated, and to get them to think 'bigger' - not bigger in the amount or size of the gear, but bigger in terms of how they approach lighting. It's important to learn and master the traditional lighting styles, and to emulate and learn from the modern masters (hey Jill Greenberg). But it's just as important to keep pushing the boundaries of what you know and what you think you can do, even on a limited budget with a limited amount of gear.
