To get good results when taking portraits, you can do so very much with one small light, one stand, & one umbrella.

When I photographed New York educator, blogger, poet and my ace boom cool José Vilson, I started with two lights but I was not getting the effect that I desired. I tried multiple configurations & just was not feeling it.

I’m not sure what I was looking to attain but I was not finding it.

After I took away one of the lights, it seemed to magically all fall into place.

When I work with lights, I prefer to create moody photos with shadows. The play on light and dark is something that I find very striking.

Check out some of my other photos of José here…