Part of getting your lighting really nailed down is the simple fact of being able to really see the light. This can be tricky for new photographers to see though since when you are using flash you never really see the light stay on your live subject long enough to study what effect its having on them. I always suggest to people getting started with lighting to buy a few hot lights before strobes and play around a lot. Move lights up, down, left and right and see how every move effects the subject you are photographing.
Another really useful tool I recent ran across is the Virtual Lighting Studio. Besides having a really scary 3D person as a model this is a very cool way to learn how lighting works. You have the ability to add up to 6 lights to illuminate the subject and can perform most actions you would do on a shoot like move the lights around the scene, gel the light, change the modifier on the light and more to fine tune the lighting on the model. Start with one light and move it all around to see how the shadows change, then continue adding on lights to see how they can change the scene, it’s really fun and a great way to learn how light works!
Check out the site here: Virtual Lighting Studio
What do you think about this site? Let me know in the comments below.
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