The Light Archive: 205 professional lighting setups, by Jose Carvajal (ENG VERSION)

205 real lighting setups, explained in detail. This isn't theory or scenes staged for a book — these are the exact setups I've used in editorials, brand campaigns, and tests throughout my career as a fashion and beauty photographer.

For years I've documented how I build light for each shoot — what gear I use, where I place each source, which modifiers I choose and why, and what changes between an editorial result and a commercial one. This guide brings together 205 of those setups in a single document, explained one by one.

What's inside:

• 205 real lighting setups, from shoots that have been published or used commercially
• Examples from editorials, brand campaigns, tests, and other projects — not just one type of shoot, but the real range a working professional photographer deals with
• A detailed breakdown of each setup: gear, light placement, modifiers, and the reasoning behind each decision
• The difference between lighting for an editorial and lighting for a commercial client

Who this is for:

Fashion and beauty photographers, whether still learning or already working, who want to stop improvising with light and understand how the setups behind real work are actually built — not generic textbook examples.

About me:

I'm a fashion and beauty photographer (@jose_carvajal). I've worked shooting numerous campaigns, lookbooks, and e-commerce for brands including SUOT Studio, Stradivarius, Mango, Lefties, Laagam, and Antik Batik, among others. This guide is the result of years of work on set, condensed so you don't have to learn it through trial and error.

Why €300?

Put in perspective: for less than it would cost you to rent a studio for a full day, you already get all the lighting pre-production work done for 205 real shoots, without spending that day testing, failing, and re-rigging. That's €1.46 per setup — barely more than a coffee in Barcelona.

This isn't a generic 20-page PDF. It's the condensed result of years of real work on set, backed by work for brands like Mango, SUOT Studio, Antik Batik, Laagam, and Stradivarius, and magazines like Schön!, TUSH, Sicky or Herdes. What costs €300 here would cost you considerably more in studio hours and trial and error — with no guarantee of reaching the same result.