Very Soft Single-Light Portrait With White Background

Want to capture perfect portraits with minimal kit? Let two lighting masters show you how.  

Watch Karl and Urs demonstrate a simple, versatile bare-bulb setup that you can use in almost any studio, large or small.

You’ll learn how to achieve an incredibly soft light with absolutely no shadows, and discover why a white background is perfect for a high-key portrait like this.

You’ll also discover how to use negative fill to add shape and shadows to an image.

In this class:

  • Portrait photography using a single light
  • Using indirect light for portraiture
  • Photographing in a small studio
  • High key photography
  • Achieving a white background
  • How to use negative fill

Questions? Please post them in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Would the photographer’s image in the reflection of the eye be reduced if they were wearing white clothes or it that a silhouette shape created by blocking the light bounce from the back wall?

    1. Hi, yes in this instance it would have been but a quick swipe of the healing brush tool would also fix this quickly.

  3. Hello Karl

    Thanks for all the fantastic classes! On this very soft light and the closeness of the camera, the photographer appears very prominent in the reflections of the eye, even when using an 85mm. How can one avoid that not using a longer lens? Shooting through a small cut-out white board in front of the camera or post-production remove ?

    Thank you,
    Elmar

    1. Hi, yes a longer lens to be further away of shooting through a black blanket or card etc but a bit cumbersome.

  4. vperalta@gmail.com

    I noticed in the Equipment List that you use a Siros 800. If I could speculate, this is an 800 watt system. I don’t have anything that powerful, but I do have Godox 400 flashes. Could I use 2 of them to simulate what you have achieved? What kind of issues do you foresee with this? How would you suggest to setup the flashes?

    1. Hi, a 400J light is only one stop of exposure less than an 800J light so to compensate you could just increase your ISO by one stop from 100 to 200 and then that would simulate shooting with a 800J lights at 100ISO.

    2. vperalta@gmail.com

      Do you have an class explaining how to understand light intensity?

      Also, in your response you used ‘j,’ which I believe stands for joules. Is that the same as watts?

      Vic

      1. Hi, yes Watts = Joules in terms of what is written on the lights although one describes power per second and the other energy but you can think of them as the same. If you go to the Lighting Theory section what you are looking for is covered in there.

  5. Good refresher course for working in a small area. Love the control in manual mode in my Canon and Nikon camera when I work with a model in a rental studio. Really loving your commercial product photography section also. I will probably renew next year also since there are many courses.

  6. Hi Karl,
    Which UK supplier do you use for your foam board ?
    I’m looking for some of the large sheets, and the prices I’m seeing are very expensive !
    Thanks !

    1. Hi Matthew, I get them from my local sign service company. He gets about 6 full size sheets in a huge flat box but I’m not sure what we pay for them. I keep some full sheets for things like cars and cut other sheets up into smaller peices.

  7. “Try to look like an alien”…. gotta remember that one for my next shoot! I agree, what you do with lighting is pure magic.

  8. The set up is awesome, but what if I didn’t want the reptilian pupil ‘slit’ that the photographer’s reflection generates? How would I go about having more natural eyes? A 70-200mm lens might solve the problem but that’s not always easily accessible.

    1. Hi Anthony,You can’t break the physics of what you are seeing. Solve the physics, you just said yourself you are seeing the reflection of the photographer, so start thinking ‘how do I not have the reflection of the photographer?’ – The first thing i can think of is a light scrim roll of paper in front of the camera with a hole cut in it for the lens to poke through. If that blocks to much of the bounce light (which I doubt it would) then you’d have to revert to photoshop to break the physics.

  10. Hi Karl,

    This is an amazing lighting setup, I know that if I try this on my own i would find out myself. What I would like to know is if this setup would be useful for lighting up the full length image of the subject ?

  11. Hey Karl,

    Love our video thank you –

    How can you get this effect with a profoto since the light bulb is inside the lamp and it has a soft box effect on it.
    Also what happens if you get a light on each side reflecting on a white board ? Would there be just more diffused light ?

    thanks
    Gigi

    1. Hi, you can either fit a diffusion dome on the end of your light or you could use three lights, one at each wall.

  13. Such a simple method to achieve this soft light and something I wondered how to do. Sometimes in the tutorials I cant see the subtle differences where you can but in this example you can see how the shadows are almost non existent compared to the 100×100 soft box close to Eva. (She really has that big baby eyes look.)
    Hopefully I`m taking in the tutorials as I`m not even going to ask about the shutter speed 😉
    Just one thing though; I was told some models hate the 50mm for portraits. Can you think why?

  15. Well done guys.

    Which mode is the camera on please? On manual?

    I ask you this because when I use flash (on the camera) I need to take 3-4 photos to get the exposure right, most of the times, it is very over exposed. It is easier for a one person, whereas taking a group photo makes it harder since I aim to have everyone on focus.

    I use defuser, I face the flash at the ceiling, but it does not work as precise as I aim for. I get it right but I wonder why is it so hard to handle those issues!!!

    Any ideas to which mode the camera should be on, and the type of the flash that you recommend.

    Regards
    Darya Said

    1. Hi Darya, everything is done on manual and you should become fully competent at using your camera in manual first. If you are not already then check the ‘essentials’ section and work through these before moving onto lighting.

  16. Hi Karl and team. I´d like to know more about the white (or black) panels you use for this shot. What material are made of? I´m from Argentina.

    1. Hi Leandro, they are called foamcore and are used by sign making companies, very light weight and stiff. The bigger thicker ones are from building supplies companies and are often used as insulation.

  17. Hi, Karl.. Its an eye opening setup for me. .
    Sometime I do family shoots at clients place. Is this setup ok at there place for family shoots with one white background in front of single light.

  19. Hi Karl and tx for this so easy and flatering light. I also like yhe retouching of the final picture. would you show us how you retouch it and with wich software? Camera Raw? Lightroom? Any preset or effect? Thanks again for… sharing. This is so great 😉

    1. Hi Fred, I don’t remember there being any retouching on this shot. We have lots of easy to follow tutorials on retouching in our ‘post production’ section. Cheers Karl.

  20. Was that Stifanny’s hair? Lucky she doesn’t get jealous!

    I’ve got floor to ceiling windows down one side of my studio and a dark carpeted floor. I guess white sheets over them would do the job?

    1. Hi Kevin yes that would as long as they are not too opaque. If the sun comes directly through then you could stick diffusion rolls in front as in this example https://visualeducation.com/course_video_page/indoor-photography-part-1/ However that would be creating a giant soft-box which would give a nice light from the side or behind you but it wont be quite the same as bouncing a point light source from inside your ‘white box’ which will yield different qualities because of the inverse square law. If what you meant was put thick white cloth over the windows so you could bounce the light from the inside then yes that would be perfect.

  21. Karl, Urs. Since practically you shot in a “large softbox” how does the shutter speed affect overall? I saw you were in 1/160 sec. Would something change if you used a lower/upper speed? I can’t figure out how much the lightbulb affected the model directly and how indirectly. Something tells me that it would make no difference, but just asking to be sure. Thanks!

  23. ksporry

    This is friggin awesome Karl! Love the effect, and with just one light too!
    Evie is quite a trooper, I got to admit.
    I kinda like the black stripe reflection of Urs in her eyes. Gives her a bit of a cat-eye look.

    By the way, I noticed how you mostly shoot slightly from above. Is there a specific reason for that?

    1. Yes it’s a great simple and effective setup. Even though I’m short I still try to get elevation on a step or ladder to be slightly above eyeline or at least eyeline with the model. You generally don’t want to be looking up at the model unless you are shooting a full length wide angle dramatic shot (as you will see in many of the jumping/falling model shots). When it is more of a portrait looking down on the model makes them look a bit more innocent and wide eyed as the gaze/eyes have to open up to view you from above. There is also the aesthetic of looking down from the forehead through the eyes, nose to chin rather than from the chin up the nostrils etc. Also the closest part to the camera will appear bigger so it’s more flattering to have the forehead and eyes bigger.

  24. I use bounce light technique. Its a great light setup to create beautiful soft light on a subject. Easy to do also. Great tutorial.

  26. Hi Karl,

    At what power is the light ? is it at his max power ? the logical answer will be that it depends on the studio size but i just want to be sure.

    1. yes the power would depend on how far away the wall is to the model, Karl will always just take a test shot with his desired aperture and use roughly half the power of what ever light he is using e.g scoro or siros see what it looks like and adjust it from there, there is no set amount, it all depends on how it looks on the back of your camera or screen

    2. Hi Ziv, you are correct with the logical answer or also which aperture you decide to shoot with and then you simply adjust the power to suit that. See my chapter on ‘measuring light’ in this course.

  27. Im now starting a new game but instead of Where’s Waldo its called Where’s Ben 🙂
    Nice lighting thanks again!!

Leave a Comment