The Power of Shadow in Portrait Photography

Like all pro photographers, I’m obsessed with light. But I also love to harness the power of shadow. And that’s exactly what I set out to do in this shot. 📸 bit.ly/Complete-Studio-Lighting
I captured this image live as part of a Hasselblad/broncolor workshop held in Taipei, Taiwan. I was determined to control the shadow density just as carefully as the light, and in this video I show you how I did just that.
As I take you step by step through my lighting diagram, you’ll discover how I balanced rim lighting on the model’s face, neck and shoulders with controlled shadow fill. You’ll also see the specialised modifier - one I also use often in my product photography - that enabled me to secure the perfect exposure for the model’s face.
Along the way, you’ll hear one of my trademark digressions on why you never need to use a light meter again!
What do you think of the final image? Did you manage to guess the details of my lighting setup?
Do you know this critical studio lighting knowledge?: 📸 bit.ly/Complete-Studio-Lighting
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[@rostanddarbouze5735]

OMG! I could not possibly give you enough accolades. After watching two of your videos I said that's it this is what I've been looking for. You are an amazing teacher and photographer.

[@ephyrammedia8649]

I always enjoy the honesty your videos come with, I am forever inspired by your passion to pass your knowledge to others. Thank you Karl for being great guy and a master of photography

[@VisualEducationStudio]

You are welcome

[@givebackdocumentaryproduct5981]

Great video as always Karl. Thank you .

[@craighodge4403]

I feel for constancy, until you can understand lighting better. A light meter is an invaluable tool to have & use when you are starting out on your journey. Otherwise as a beginner you can spend double the time trying to get the effects you want, & not always understanding why you're not getting the results you want. But if you can get to grip with lighting ratios, it can speed up your journey. Also as a beginner it can be harder to replicate results without a light meter & detailed lighting diagrams. I can however totally understand why a professional photographer can do things by sight, but as a beginner I feel much more comfortable using a light meter & working out my ratios. Beautiful lighting, absolutely love it!

[@dannycastro1826]

I Love incorporating shadows into my studio portraits, and I want to take it to another level. Thank you for video this video Karl. It was really helpful.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mintdel333]

Old school lighting 👌

[@LetMeTellYouSomeTing]

When I see Karl posted a new video. Gotta click immediately. Because I know I’ll learn something

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Cheers.

[@realthoprivate]

Thanks for the video, Taylor. Great as always!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

My pleasure!

[@kavanlake871]

Years ago, when I didn’t know lighting, I invested in your DVDs …the one where you went to Iceland and did the shoot in the green moss, and the waterfall, and of course that crazy windy shoot and the abandoned airplane. I learned so much rom that DVD set, and I continue to learn from you Karl. You’re a pretty awesome teacher, and of course, an incredible photographer. Thank you.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Very kind thank you.

[@RalfWeyer]

First thing that came to my mind was „Karl used a snoot“, but that would have resulted in a hard line as you described. Didn’t think about a projector and defocusing the light. Great job Kar, thanks a lot 👍

[@pabloarteaga324]

Great explanation, thanks for sharing this content Karl, , very much appreciated

[@realthoprivate]

Agree so much with light meters, often makes no sense. Especially when shooting tethered. Faster to sample pixels on the screen. However, there is ONE area where I think a light meter is quite useful! When us low-end photographers have to burn through 50 corporate headshots in 2.5 hours, it's convenient to set the flash using a light meter, making it easier to batch-apply the same post processing adjustments to all pictures, ending up with a bunch of pictures that looks fairly similar.

[@TheTlahuizcalpan]

If the light is the king, the shadow is the queen.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Absolutely.

[@smalltalk.productions9977]

always a well done lesson. thank you for the effort and the sharing. i am an appreciative subscriber. thumbs up.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thanks for the sub!

[@damiancanteros]

I'm always amazed by the quality of the content and your professionalism. I think it is of great value the fact that don't try to impose your views or methods (e.g. the not-use of a light meter) but you encourage your viewers to find out for themselves. I thinks it's a rare good thing.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

thank you but in another video I must admit I probably went a bit overboard trying to convince people why not to use a lightmeter, a lot of short sighted people who already own one got a bit aggravated.

[@vads4683]

Just amazing lighting and also great, that there are creative and cheap alternative solutions, that may take more time to put in place, but give almost same effect by controlling the light.

[@heyokaikaggen6288]

Really, what would you do? (genuine question, am very curious)

[@Todd_Kuhns]

Well done and presented, as always.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you kindly!

[@nilntha]

Thank u sir

[@rodneymaconline]

Wow just wow

[@martin-steiner-photography]

Thank you Karl

[@vivekvishwakarma1253]

Amazing explanation. Thankyou.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@tedming3515]

Karl's photography is a like a bottle of seasoned wine next to a crate full of selfies and Instagram snapshots

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Very kind Ted thank you.

[@tedming3515]

@@VisualEducationStudio You're most welcome, Karl

[@alnoormeralli]

Very creative with the projection lighting. Really like the underexposed light on the body and dress that keeps the color saturation high. In this case would you have defocused the 133 or focused while keeping the power level low?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

It wouldn't have made a huge difference because the light was such low power, any highlights on the body would have been more specular and les light would reach the background if the para had been focused. In this case it was defocused

[@masausuki1464]

After awhile being a member of KTE, I've started to understand the physic of lights and controlling them efficiently and this knowledge brought my work far more beyond than before. But Karl, where / how do you get ideas of your creative lighting inspiration? I feel like I'm just about to the next step to create moods and feelings in my shot.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi Masa, so glad to hear that the science and art of lighting is coming to you through our platform. For your second point I do talk about that in other classes and we're doing another class on that topic soon.

[@-123]

Karl big Tjanky U ! I am watching you more then 10 years. Hello from Russia.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you and hello to Russia.

[@RonnixPhotography]

Watching...

[@RS-Amsterdam]

Love it when you crush "so called rules" like 'you need a light meter' with simple samples why not, supported by numbers to prove your right hehehehe Great explanation and with B/W photography shadow is even more important to shape objects or part of objects/humans. Thanks for sharing !

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Absolutely RS

[@darrylroberts5235]

Hi, what tethered software uses 30th stop measuring? Thank you.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi Darryl, this was Phocus by Hasselblad but Capture One will be the same, when we measure in tethered software you are measuring the value of the brightness of the pixels of the recorded image. Either an average of an area or specific pixels (you can do the same in Photoshop too) Pixels are made up of Red, Green and Blue values and each one can be measured from 0 to 255 (0,0,0 being black and 255, 255, 255 being white) So for example a measurement of R125, G125, B125 would be about mid grey, a single value increase above that is about 1/30th of an fstop in luminosity terms although it is not strictly linear it is very close.

[@nmpradeep9001]

💝

[@lamgino4280]

Hello,Karl .The spotlight is Flash Light ?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

They are all flash, they are all always flash. Studio lights have a 'modelling light' so you can see what you are doing and what it will look like and then they have a flash tube around the modelling lamp that fires when you take the picture, the modelling light is so weak by comparison that it doesn't record. Here's a full explanation - karltayloreducation.com/lighting-theory-and-equipment/

[@x3thelast]

Karl really doesn’t like light meters. I agree tho. Why carry another tool to a shoot when there’s one built into your camera. Some folks just can’t break their habit.