Imagine arriving at a location where you need to shoot a captivating portrait of a person, but you only have a small bag with a camera, tripod, two small continuous LED lights, two compact light stands, and two compact softboxes. However, the location is bland and there is no compelling setting to pose your subject. What do you do?

As a part of the 2025 Eddie Adams Workshop, Dan Winters, a professional photographer, illustrator, and filmmaker, taught students how to make interesting portraits using just the gear that could fit in this small pack.

Because the location itself made for a poor background, Dan opted to use a black tablecloth he found as a black background. That turned out to be too shiny, so he found a different material. With no equipment on hand that was designed to flag light, he finds a regular black binder for this purpose.

The lesson is to use what you have. If you have a bad location, find a corner and transform it with some resourceful thinking and a couple of compact lights. You can do a lot with a little.

If you’re not familiar, the Eddie Adams Workshop is an annual gathering of people who are devoted to the pursuit of capturing photographs that stand out, help tell stories and share emotions. What makes it truly unique is that the 100 attendees are there by invitation only.

If you want to apply to get in, you need to be a college student, a professional with under 6 years of experience, or a military photographer. You submit an application with no more than 20 photographs and some information about yourself. The attendees are chosen by a panel of experts primarily by the impact of the photos. The idea is to nurture new talent, whether young or old, and give them a platform to learn, grow, and network. It’s a truly special event.

If you’re curious about the lighting equipment Dan used in this shoot, he had a Nanlite FC-120B as his key light, and an FC-60B as his fill. Both lights had the ultracompact Nanlite SB-FMM-O-60 60cm Octagonal Softboxes, which come with removable egg-crate grids. These lights run on AC outlets or batteries. They're small, lightweight, affordable, and highly capable. They enable you to do a lot with a little.