Creating beautiful portraits with clamshell lighting

There are lots of different lighting styles out there to choose from, but when it comes to simple, beautiful portraits, it’s hard to go past clamshell lighting.

What is clamshell lighting?

Clamshell lighting is a simple, two-light setup. Place both lights facing your subject at a 45-degree angle, have your key light (the main one) angled up and your fill light angled down.

It gives beautiful soft, even lighting to your subject’s face, almost like a soft glow. It gets its name clamshell lighting due to the clamshell-like shape that the two lights make together. 

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How to setup clamshell lighting

Setting up the lights is pretty easy, I use a 36″ (90cm) octobox on my key light and angle it down, and a 16.5″ (40cm) beauty dish on my fill light and angle it up. I am using two Godox AD400 Pro lights, the key on 1/32 power and the fill on 1/64 power. I am standing behind my lights and shooting through them (see below set).

My camera settings on my Sony a7R III are ISO 100, f/4.0, 1/200s, and it was shot at around 75mm on my Tamron 28-75mm lens.

You can create a variation using one light as your main light and a reflector as a fill. This isn’t quite the same, but it’s similar.

The final results

While I love some great dramatic light on some of my creative portraits, it’s hard to beat a beautiful well-lit portrait. The clamshell setup provides beautiful, soft light with soft shadows and magical catchlights.

Clamshell lighting works really well on anyone; it’s flattering for men and women of all ages, so it’s a great setup to have in your knowledge bank.

Want to learn some more effective two-light setups? Click here for more.

Model — Andrea Gardiner & Emily Reinhard. Emily’s makeup by Teighan Felton.