Perfect Lighting Setup for Model Headshot

[Music] so photographers let's see how good you are at identifying lighting in images in this particular shot of model alex kelly i used a particular lighting setup that may be hard to identify at first there are a few little nuances if you like with the lighting i'm going to run through the entire lighting setup and lighting diagram let's see how good you are at spotting what's there thanks to squarespace for sponsoring this video use coupon code carl to get a 10 discount okay let's take a look at this image so we have the beautiful alex kelly here um i was very happy with this shot shot this live actually um an event in front of a crowd which is always difficult because you really have to prove your lighting skills and your ability to do it live which we do regularly on our education platform and uh here in this particular shot there are quite a few clues and giveaways as to the lighting but there are also a few smaller details that you might not appreciate or might not have spotted so just taking a look at the image there for a moment let's have a look in close-up detail take a look around from the hair lighting on the face and then on the body and etc etc and see if you can figure out what i did to achieve that lighting okay so let's take a look at the lighting diagram and run through each light individually and exactly how it was shot okay so i've opened up my lighting diagram and i've got the picture of alex on the left now let's take a look step by step here is my background paper roll which was a dark gray i think may have been a granite or a charcoal dark gray colorama paper background and um the model wasn't too far away from that background maybe just two meters i think and then we have the model here um so there's the model and then there's the camera and the camera was very close to alex because i was shooting just an upper body tight crop shot and i think i was shooting with a 100 mil lens medium format which would have been about 85 mil on a 35mm full frame camera and as i say i remember i was being i was in quite close we have the background light which was a standard 70 degree reflector p70 on a bronze studio light that's creating that graduated glow that you can see up the background here the lighting stand and the light is hidden behind alex's body just creating that lovely soft graduation that's vignetting out to darker grey at the top the key light is this a para one three three and you can see that in the catch light in the eyes you can see that clear defined sort of ring light if you like of the periphery of the para133 illuminated with those beautiful 24 separate little hard lights that create that very unique sculpted lighting look and if we look at the lighting glow from the para133 you can see that coming in there and of course remember with the para133 or as in previous examples i've shown you with beauty dishes that light is not here it's up here at a 45 degree angle above the model and again you can work that out from looking at where it is in the eyes you can see in this case it's actually a little bit lower down so rather than ride up high coming down the model this one's coming down a little bit lower and i do remember that because i was shooting really quite close underneath it with my camera almost touching the edge of the para 1 3 3. let's go back to the lighting diagram now we have the p70 another 70 degree standard reflector shining in from the back illuminating the side of our model here however that would have been far too harsh in its standard form now it had a blue gel on it as you can see i've put in here but further to that it had a sheet of diffusion material in front to soften that blue light a little bit because that blue light needed to be softened and scattered through that diffusion material as you can see there otherwise that light from that gel would have been very much more directional very much more harder and i wanted a more softer sort of graduated lighting feathered look to the lighting there just on the edge of the cheekbone and i intentionally lit this in such a way that almost the key light is coming from my camera right onto the model's face so the shadows would be on camera left and i've used a blue lighting there so that it doesn't feel like lighting in the shadows it almost still feels like the shadows themselves to some extent but it just gives it that little bit more three dimensionality by having the warmer light on the right and then the colder light on my left and then that just gives it more form i think and i really like that effect so as you can see from the lighting diagram that takes care of three lights three lights taken care of there but there is actually another one and if we look closely at the image you may if you've got a discerning eye you may be able to spot it you may not it's quite a hard one to spot but it is an important light source in this shot and that fourth light is a strip box here a 130 by 120 strip box level with our model's head and upper body and in the vertical shape so 120 up and down 30 centimeters wide and that's throwing light towards our model like so and that is just giving me a gentle bit of extra light here on the side of the face just to create a little bit more three-dimensionality a little bit more form just another little feature of the lighting that i like to use so the key light is lighting the forehead the face and sculpting these beautiful shadows in here around the nose and under the jawline here and over on the left-hand side of my position and on the left side of the forehead then the blue light is throwing in that light on that side here and it's softened with some diffusion material the background light fairly obvious behind our model and then that very subtle but important 30 by 120 strip light just defining a little bit more on the edge of alex's face so there is the entire lighting setup for that shot it was shot live in front of an audience and we've also done this same shoot on carl taylor education so if you'd like to see these shoots live all the replays then head over to our platform where we go into great detail on how they're executed thanks very much for watching you

Channel: Karl Taylor

Views: 27,654

Keywords: karl taylor, karl taylor photography, karl taylor education, beauty portrait photography, beauty portrait lighting setup, beauty portait, beauty portraits, beauty portrait poses, beauty portrait lighting, beauty portrait masterclass, beauty portait photography, beauty portrait light setup, beauty portait lighting setup, beauty portait light setup, beauty portrait photography tutorial, beauty portrait tutorial, beauty portait lighting, beauty portait photography tutorial

Id: 4ecPKH_rCVg

Length: 8min 3sec (483 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 03 2021