Turn an everyday subject into gallery-ready wall art.
Get professional results at your kitchen table with the gear you already own. Turn everyday subjects into eye-catching wall art!
Why use a fried egg? Because it’s the ultimate test of your lighting setup - and because the result is stunning.
Most people just see breakfast, but we’re looking at the geometry: the highlights, the shadows, and how the light wraps around those curves. It’s a masterclass in control that yields a high contrast, minimalist piece of art. It’s clean, it’s bold, and when you get the lighting right, it stops looking like food and starts looking like high-end gallery work. Master this, and you’ll stop guessing and start creating pieces you’ll actually want to hang on your walls.
What you'll take from this project:
- The Goal: A minimalist, gallery-worthy image.
- The Method: Master the light, not the specs of your camera kit.
- The Result: Create something people will want to hang in their homes.
First, see how light behaves:
To get that clean, minimalist pop-art look, you need a delicate balance: just the right shadows, controlled reflections, and perfect exposure. It’s harder than it looks to get it just right.
Can You Solve the Setup?
Photographers constantly blame their gear for flat, uninspiring images. They assume that buying a more expensive strobe will magically fix their inability to see shadow gradients. It won't. Equipment does not define your results; your visual understanding does.
Studio Strobe (Bare Bulb)
Office Desk Lamp
Standard SpeedLite
Drag the light to change the result.
Have a play with our lighting diagram below. As you move the lamp, you’ll see how quickly the scene can go from under-exposed to over-exposed. But getting the "perfect" balance for wall art? That’s all about the details and this is exactly what we’ll be mastering in this project.
Studio View
Drag the light again to see the shadow change whilst retaining exposure
← drag light →
?
Camera Result
Exposure: Balanced
Beautiful, controlled
image-forming reflection
image-forming reflection
Controlled exposure across entire scene
Adjust Background
Light close. The reflection is large and bright, and the shadow is broad and soft.
Join the project: We'll do this together
I’m Karl Taylor. I’ve spent the last 30 years shooting commercial campaigns and teaching photography for brands like Adobe, Specsavers, Hasselblad, and Broncolor. I’ve seen every lighting mistake in the book, and I know exactly what keeps your images from looking professional.
I’m not here to bore you with a two-hour lecture. I’ve stripped away the fluff and distilled this project into a simple, flexible system.
Short, tactical modules (5–28 minutes each) designed to give you the answer you need so you can get back to your camera. You don't have to watch every single one - just pick the path that matches your gear, master the technique, and start creating. You’re here for the result, not the theory.
When you join this project, you aren’t just watching classes. You’re getting my eyes on your work. This is the difference between guessing your way through a project and having a veteran show you exactly where the light breaks.
Your Project 3 Roadmap
We’ve designed this to be flexible. A straight forward path to a stunning final result. Follow the stops at your own pace - this is your creative journey.
Kickoff: The Live Launch | Thursday, 11th June*
Free We break down the goal, discuss the theory, and show you the target. Join us for the live event.
Stop 1: The Starting Line
Members Upload your raw, unpolished shot. This is your baseline, not an exam. You can replace this later as you grow.
Stop 2: The Modules
Members Pick your path (Lamp or Strobe). Bite-sized, 5–25 minute tactical classes to get you ready to create.
Stop 3: The Experiment
Members Your practice area. Upload, adjust, experiment. This is a lab, not a competition.
Stop 4: Mid-Project Discussion
Members Stuck? Dive into the comments section. We’ll discuss your work, answer questions, and keep you moving. Thursday 9th July 2026 (15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT)
Stop 5: The Project Review
Members The finish line. We’ll celebrate the final photos, the prints on your walls, and the journey from start to finish.
Members Get Full Access
| Feature | Free Viewer | Full Member |
|---|---|---|
| Training Modules | ✕ | ✓ Full Access |
| Live Events | Attendee | ✓ Participant |
| Gallery Uploads | ✕ | ✓ Yes |
| Personal Feedback | ✕ | ✓ Yes |
| Project Badges | ✕ | ✓ Yes |
| 1,000+ Existing Classes | ✕ | ✓ Included |
Join today and get access to every project, class and live event.
The Badges you could earn:
Badges are about marking your journey. You’ll earn your first badge the moment you upload your first setup - no matter how rough it looks. That’s your first milestone. As you keep experimenting and refining your lighting, you could unlock more badges to show exactly how far you’ve come.
Upload your setup or early tests (no perfect shots needed!) Please don't wait until you have a polished image to participate. This project is about learning to see the light, so your rough behind-the-scenes setups or quick phone snaps are incredibly valuable. Upload whatever you have tried so far, claim your badge, and I’ll look at these real-world examples in our project talks.
See you in the gallery,
Karl Taylor
Project Gallery
Comments
Can you still upload into the gallery? If so, how?
This was a fantastic project. To achieve the graduated crescent highlight was a pretty tough exercise.
I forgot to include my point highlight egg. Like you said Karl, I was concentrated on the final product and not the exercise so I sort of screwed the pooch on that one. Although I did do the point highlight with the hard shadow. I didn’t upload it.
Thanks for learning how to controle the highlights.
And on the side, how to fry an egg properly 🙂
🙂👍
After reading the comment about the review date I am confused. The dates I see are 22nd July for closing and review is on 28th July. Is this correct? I do not see the 30th July anywhere.
Hi, the list of the upcoming live shows and dates can be found here: https://visualeducation.com/live/ the date may have moved recently due to scheduling but we try to keep this page updated as soon as possible.
Thank you Karl
Frying an egg without dark edges is, mildly put, a major challenge! Besides that, the exercise proves to be incredibly instructive. It is a lot of fun to play with various shapes to create the reflection – nice task, Karl.
Now I still have to add an evenly lit background with the exact same saturation all over, including a hard shadow without using PS … maybe the midterm review will give a clue 😉
Thanks for challenging projects, and great site overall.
Thank you, glad you’re enjoying it and yes frying a good egg is actually quite challenging.
https://youtu.be/42dbuhteL4o?si=1kGLeLse0mKDbi25 I saw this on YouTube from Chef Steps years ago. How to make an emoji egg. (I’m late to the table for this project and am just digging into it now, but perhaps this will be of interest.)
He cooks a good egg!
Just wanted to say thank you. All of your projects and classes are great. I learned quite a lot by doing the egg project fun too, and the best part was eating the egg. I did what you did, Karl; I used a paper egg cut out. As I got the lighting right, I used the real egg
Great and thank you.
Great exercise. I would like to see a more easily accessed request for download images rather than plowing through all the available information to find the answer—just makes life more easier.
Hi, thank you for your question. Please could you explain what you mean by ‘more easily accessed request for download images’ I don’t quite understand do you mean the location where you upload your images? What image download is there?
The images that you expect from our work, image s showing that we understand the instructions.
Hi, I still don’t get it I’m afraid? What we require from this project is talked about extensively in the video classes. Once you’ve completed this you upload up to 3 of your images and we review them at the end of the project (see live show schedule for review show date). We also provide a mid project review show to give people any more guidance they might need. The area to upload your images is very clear, it’s on the project page. We also provide you the opportunity to replace your images if you decide to try again before the final review show.
Hello! Enjoyed this project (as I got to have fried egg /s for lunch ;)) and really taught me how to get the highlight I want to achieve. I followed the lighting setups as per the video – although I used a vinyl backdrop and placed a cut-out paper towel underneath the egg so the grease didn’t seep too much through to the backdrop. I didn’t have a small softbox and used my 60×90, so I presume that would also affect the size of the highlight – as well as the distance it’s placed from the subject. I know this session is more about highlights, but I couldn’t figure out why the shadow in my 3rd shot is super subtle – I followed the same setup; strobe on the floor and bouncing light off a white foam board to create the gradient highlight…?
Great lesson otherwise and loved the slider function explaining the lighting/highlights, really clear visually!
Hey everyone,
I have two quick questions about gradient lighting for the shot.
My Setup:
I’m using a speedlight (with and without a diffuser) positioned below the object surface, bouncing onto a white reflector disk above.
1. Yolk Highlights:
As I understand it, the lower part of the reflector cardboard should create the brighter highlight since it’s closer to both the light source and the object. Naturally, I assumed this part of the cardboard needs to be closer to the side of the egg yolk where I want my highlight to hit. However, I’ve tried several orientations and just can’t seem to get that crisp, bright highlight on the outer rim of the yolk. Any tips on adjusting my angles or modifiers to get this right?
2. Gradient Artifacts:
The reflector is creating an uneven gradient with some noticeable ripples and artifacts in the reflection. Aside from just using a larger, more rigid piece of cardboard, does anyone have recommendations for materials or techniques to get a perfectly smooth gradient?
Thanks in advance for the feedback!
Thank you for the projects, they are very informative. I need to improve my egg frying, the yolk is not smooths causing the reflection to be irregular. The gradient light is not defined enough because the yolk is uneven and I think I must move the reflector board higher above the egg’s plain to get more of an edge to the gradient. I will try again.
👍
Hi everyone!
Just wanted to say thank you 😀 I’ve learned so much from this project, and actually had lots of fun taking part on it.
My final image was a combination of a bare speedlight shot, and another one with the same speedlight but handheld bounced in a round reflector.
I think my biggest challenge was making the yolk look more even in the final look (mine had some darkspots from the frying), also I only have one 50mm lens and sometimes I just feel like i’m not close enough to the subject and I end up cropping in post, I need no get used to working with it. Anyway.. love seing other’s results too! Thanks for this community!
Awesome, glad you are enjoying taking part in the projects! It’s certainly the best way to learn when you are faced with the problems and have to figure out how to overcome them. 🙂
Hello, I need to work on getting my egg not having so many pock marks and had trouble getting that rim edge of light on the yolk. My white card was only a little bigger than a meter. Wondering if a bigger card would help with that. Curious, when I click on my image on the website the exposure looks a little darker than when I view in Lightroom. Should I adjust for that?
Andrew
Hi Andrew, a bigger white card will usually be better as you have more space to throw the gradient light across and therefore more area to get the reflection of the white card in the correct place on the egg yolk. I don’t know why your upload is looking darker as I have uploaded my own image and it looks as expected to me.
Really enjoyed the project. Being able to actually walk through the specific work with you is a game changer for me. Being a kinesthetic learner occasionally makes online learning Challenging.
Glad you’re enjoying it.
I had difficulty using the white panel to get the gradient light. Probably because I used an A1 format reflector I had a hard time positioning it so that I didn’t have the reflection of part of the white panel in the acrylic sheet. Do you have any suggestions on how to position the light and reflector so that we don’t have that reflection?
Hi, I’m not quite sure what you mean. In this class we DO want to see the reflection of the white panel with the gradient light on it? We just don’t want to see the speedlight or studio light reflecting in the egg so we make sure the light is in a low position and the white reflector board is higher and leaning over just as demonstrated in the video.
Currently I am unable to use tethering and its a bit annoying taking the images the best I can, then uploading the files to the computer and then finding faults, such as focus or the egg doesn’t look that good.
My mobile garbage disposal unit is enjoying the extra eggs, when I am finished or stuff up the cooking part.
Hi, what’s the reasons you are currently unable to shoot tethered?
I enjoyed the practice. I set up using a matte pink card from art supply, and decided to save the card by putting the egg on a plate in tests. I don’t have a small rectangle softbox but a strip softbox, so the reflections show that. In later tests I covered half of the strip box and the reflections honestly showed that. So it is image forming reflection! Gradient reflection is a bit small using a medium size white card. Will upload new images without the plate.
Hello, I tried photographing the egg this weekend and I posted the result of this attempt (Alica attempt1 is the name of the file). I have a question regarding the egg yolk – why is it out of focus?! I set the focal points on it….
I will try again probably on another colour, but I would like to know what I did wrong regarding the focus. I took 183 shots and was quite tired at the end, so I know my highlight is not perfect, but this was actually the first time I tried something like this, so…
Thank you very much.
Alica.
Hi Alica, from what I can see your egg looks perfectly sharp and the result is good. If you lost focus on some of your shots then make sure you were in manual focus and leave it set at the correct position once you have established that it is sharp, if it lost its focus then sometimes the weight of the lens when pointing downwards can make the focus change unfortunately. If this happens then it may be better to use AF and check the focus on the highlight for each shot.
Thank you very much!
I did use AF, but I had a problem with stabilizing my tripod, so I thought that might have been the reason.
Anyways, I will try again, since this poses a great challenge for me.
Hi, try using AF to get it sharp first and then when you’re sure it is switch it to manual focus and if your lens is a good design it should hold that position.
Hello, my name is Frank Garcia and I’m new to photography. I am leaving a comment because I have been encourage to do so through email. I just bought a camera on June 10, so I’m learning that. I’ve done the lighting course once, plan on going over that again. I look forward to posting my egg soon. Thank you for this site, I love everything on it. Sooo much info.
Hi Frank, we look forward to seeing you taking part.
Is the Is the project review for the project 3 on the 20th of July or is it on the 30th of July? I noticed on the page above (https://visualeducation.com/projects/eye-catching-wall-art/) it does say that it’s on the 20th here. But when you go to your other webpage https://visualeducation.com/live/, it actually says the 30th. Thank you.
Hi Leon,
Apologies for that, the project review is on the 30th July. I have updated the date here on this page to reflect that.
– Emma