Why I Use This Professional Portrait Lighting Setup Time and Time Again!

For professional advertising portraits, I always use this particular lighting setup. Why? Because it works so well! In the video, I discuss three of my own images which used the same core setup.
Do you have your own go-to lighting setups? Let us know in the comments below ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
-------------------------------------------
📸 Accelerate your progress with hundreds of classes, support, and perks!
bit.ly/karl-taylor-membership
-------------------------------------------
📸 Start Learning For FREE:
bit.ly/free-photography-classes

[@GurpreetSingh-kg8wu]

You are simply amazing Karl !

[@tedming3515]

Thank you, Karl. Portraits are stunning with a strong spice of character in them.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Cheers Ted.

[@CarmenFalkenburg]

Awesome Karl as always

[@gadgetsandtech]

About the same principle as Jill Greenbergs portraits. Great breakdown! Cheers!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Cool, thanks!

[@AzzurroWolf]

What a fantastically detailed video. Always handy when someone takes the time and effort to put an actual diagram together. Loved it. Thanks.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@AtlRopeGuy]

Thank you again Karl for sharing your wisdom and experience!!!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

My pleasure!

[@quirkworks4076]

So helpful!

[@RalfWeyer]

Thank you very much Karl. Great explanation as usual, clear, easy to understand and on point. 👍🙏

[@VisualEducationStudio]

My pleasure

[@mightymuffinful]

Thanks for sharing this great setup! Love the character shots!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jmitchvision]

Great break down as always Karl! GOD bless you Mate!!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thanks, you too!

[@oneclickbeaute9244]

great and helpful sir

[@MBVisionSchweiz]

Hey Karl Thank you for another great Video. I Enjoy every information and insight you share. I'm looking forward to your next video. Wish you all the best and thanks for sharing your know-how with the world. Regards from Switzerland. Mathias

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Awesome, thank you!

[@messylaura]

Happy that you added steam that you had captured yourself, its the way i approach any added elements, i'm only a hobby photographer but i don't feel happy adding anything i didn't capture myself. Thanks for making these videos for the people,

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you.

[@johnl4469]

G'day Karl, thanks for these mate. keep well, stay safe.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thanks, you too John.

[@VithorPrestes]

This is awesome, thank you Karl

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Cheers.

[@mickue]

Again, great Video! Thank you!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

My pleasure

[@terjebrattelid7574]

Thanks for all your interesting videos.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

My pleasure!

[@realthoprivate]

Thank you Mr Taylor!

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you.

[@AntonioStarq1]

Great stuff as usual, time to work on today’s challenge. I’m not sure why I still watch these KZbin videos although I’m a member.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Ha ha very good. Yes the info on KTE is much more in depth! :)

[@adolfogazzo5966]

As allways, a great video.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@RB-of2uu]

You are the genius sir ❤

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you.

[@02ajax02]

great explanation I like that you took the time to explain the dogs expression

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Cheers.

[@davidjones8070]

I’m thinking of using this setup for my sons military shots. Thanks Karl great breakdown.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Cheers.

[@KobusGevelspar]

Thanks so much AGAIN.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Any time!

[@masausuki1464]

I thought it was with Para as a dominant light. Very punchy looking lights on faces plus lovely gradient of shadows. That's what I found the effect of Para. Now I found a beauty dish is also very nice for creating 3 dimensionality. Thanks for showing a great tip Karl;)

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi, yes but a Para 88 or 133 is better than a beauty dish at sculpting but the beauty dish is an affordable alternative solution.

[@derekmccabe9614]

How about some discussion on the light power ratios. On a scale of 1 being lowest power and 10 being full power… what was the power for each light to achieve this balance?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

That information is really only useful to you if you also know the distance of the lights from the board or the subject to the nearest 3 inches (5cm) and I don't have that information. And even with that exact information the levels would need to be adjusted based on the reflectivity of the clothes and skin, so it is far better to start with a light on mid power range and then take a test shot and then adjust up or down from there knowing that each full number change from say 5 to 6 or 5 to 4 is one f-stop of light up or down. On my platform I teach people to see light in f-stop values and they can usually have the lights at the correct power after two test shots with that training.

[@Boleskinebeatz]

Great video Karl.. are you a fan of using grids on beauty dishes in situations like like?

[@QuinonesBoysForms]

Great vid, as usual. How did you handle the reflection on the glasses?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Take the glass out

[@Hamidu]

Hoping to see the actual set up, overall not bad

[@davidglukh6473]

Such a great video, thanks Karl Do you by any chance know anything about stop motion animation, and possibly implementing these kind of lighting scenarios into a scene?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Stop motion animation is shooting 25 frames of stills and moving the subject slightly for each frame, knowing that it will take 25 frames to make one second of animation. You can shoot it with conventional stills cameras and lighting and then you drop each still frame onto a video time line to render into an animation.

[@gertlapoehn8381]

Great. 👍💐🙂

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@heyroys]

Masterpieces created by a master. ❤...🇮🇳

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Very kind thank you.

[@heyroys]

@@VisualEducationStudio Welcome sir🙏😇

[@gewglesux]

That Dog tho...

[@BooTangClan]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Thanks.

[@EvanFotis]

Great breakdown and technique! Is there a way to avoid catch-light with low reflector on poses where the key light does produce one like the two photos of ladies in order to have just a single catch-light on the upper quadrant of pupil? The ambient light still needed to lighten shadows but not the lower dot in the pupil. This would be especially useful for video shots as it is far more difficult to erase in post than in a still image.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

The lower catchlight is enhanced by the specular reflections created by a 'glossy' silver reflector. If you replace this with a matt white diffuser you will still have some fill light but with less noticeable reflections in the eyes.

[@EvanFotis]

@@VisualEducationStudio thanks for the tip and prompt reply!

[@thomascroonen1325]

With the male model wearing the glasses the beauty dish casts a shadow down from the glasses and the reflector below casts a (softer) shadow above the glasses which would seem very unnatural. I assume you lit up those shadows in post?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi Thomas, the beauty dish does cast a shadow downwards and it would be a softer shadow than that of the reflector because it is a bigger and closer light source. The reflector is a fill and does not have the power of the beauty dish because it is reflection of the beauty dish light, the disparity in exposure between the beauty dish and it's reflected light from the reflector means that the beauty dish exposure cancels out any significant shadow that would have been created by the reflector.

[@adsertheblade]

Having followed you for a while, I've learned so much that I started using this setup before I actually heard about it. I suppose I sort of worked it out, trying to create a look that I wanted. I think this means that your videos are working. I wonder why you use a beauty dish, but then sort of negate its effect with bounce boards? Would it not just be easier to use a Para? Thanks for another great video

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi, as explained clearly in the video the main purpose of the bounce boards was not for bounce but as flare blockers from the backlighting. I mentioned that they can provide you a gentle bounce back fill from the back lights if you wanted it but if you wanted to reduce it to then spin the boards around to the their black side. I also explained that the main amount of fill light was coming from the silver reflector that was placed below the subject and that this was necessary due to the 'craggy' expressions the subjects were making and the angle of the light to keep the shadows in the craggy shadows from being too dark and contrasty. I appreciate that you like the video and that you are moving forwards with learning through experimentation but please make sure you listen to the videos properly to avoid me having to write it all out again in the comments.

[@adsertheblade]

@@VisualEducationStudio You're quite right. I didn't quite connect it all from the video, lots of info to process, I guess I missed a few points. Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

👍

[@kinsmanmceastland533]

Where did you get the full body manikin from?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Amazon.

[@surfing4theloveofit]

Beautiful work Karl, as usual. Great tutorial. Thanks rick, Australia

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Very welcome thank you.

[@surfing4theloveofit]

@@VisualEducationStudio I can't believe you replied to my comment, you must be very busy, your work makes me feel wow, as I don't photograph for a living any more, but I wish I had a mentor like you when I was young, love your channel, thanks Karl 😊

[@icouldusemorecoffee]

I have a question regarding old photography. If you cold help please? I was wondering why in old photography from 18 - 1900s you can't see the sky? Vanilla sky or cloudy looking.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

I'm afraid I don't understand your question. Provide an example please.

[@icouldusemorecoffee]

@@VisualEducationStudio kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYrOaml4bJ6tabs. I just grabbed this video. Thanks so much for the response. In old pictures there does not seem to be any cloud formations or you know, sky. I know it can't be blue but it seems murkey, sorry I hope you know what I mean. It's harder than I thaught to explain 😅.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi that's likely to do with something called 'latitude' or 'dynamic range' and that is the amount of exposure from dark to light that a particular type of film can record and a particular type of paper can print. Our eyes have a huge dynamic range, for example we could be looking at the shadow side of a building and still see the clouds in a bright sky behind. But with older films that did not have a large dynamic range if they made the exposure correct for the shadow side of a building then the sky would end up too bright. This even happens today in many situations which is why we use filters to darken the sky. Check out my free course in the Essentials section on my education site.

[@icouldusemorecoffee]

Thank you for taking the time to go through it with me. I will definitely check it out 👍🏻😊

[@careverga8624]

⚡👉🤘👍

[@ChrisWhickerDesignerImages]

Wow I just learned something!! I’m assuming a “Polly board” is a Vflat. Didn’t know I could stop lens flare by using the boards that way.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Yes same thing. V-Flat is a brand that makes polyboard solutions. In the old days we used to get them from the hardware store as polystyrene boards for insulation but they're not as available anymore.

[@ChrisWhickerDesignerImages]

@@VisualEducationStudio Karl , thank you so much for your reply. Thank you for your content as well. Each video I learn something new.

[@ChrisWhickerDesignerImages]

What the distance with the vflsts from your background to where you have the opening? And what lens are yuh using?

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Hi Chris, if you're a member on Karl Taylor Education we offer all our customers full support so I can answer these more in-depth questions over there. We also have example videos of shoots like this one and many more.

[@ChrisWhickerDesignerImages]

@@VisualEducationStudio how do I join

[@krishnastudio1856]

sir your photoshop version name plz tell me

[@VisualEducationStudio]

I use CC

[@longliveclassicmusic]

Most KZbin Viewers: "I have a speedlight, a strobe, and three modifiers that don't fit either of them; what can I do?" Karl Taylor: "Here's a setup that uses four studio strobes and two poly boards (or v flats)" 🤣😅🤣😅🤣😅🤣😜 I love this! I get so sick of seeing "700 ways to use one modifier and one light" videos.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Amen.

[@daemon1143]

Bugger, you've ruined it for me now; I thought the steam was really coming out of the guy's ears. I've seen this light in a lot of commercial shots and it's nice to see how it was done, rather than just guess. Thanks.

[@VisualEducationStudio]

Cheers