in today's video I'm going to teach you three ways to light a fashion portrait You can use soft light hard light or color gels So let's get started Welcome back everyone If you're new here I help photographers master studio lighting through videos where I break down real world shoots and the fundamental skills you need in order to be a successful portrait photographer In this video we're going to look at three ways that you can approach fashion lighting each with a different purpose and mood The first two full body setups can be done with minimal gear And the third look will require three to four lights And if you stick around to the end I'll share some post-prouction tips for finessing your shots to match your vision Be sure to check out the description for links to all of the gear that I'm using And don't forget to like subscribe and sign up for the bell We're starting with a classic soft painterly lighting setup This is great for full body portraits that need to feel refined and elegant For this look I lit Kyle from Camera Right using an Lenchrome 190 cm indirect octabox You could use any large modifier between 5 and 7 ft as long as it gives you soft even light Inside a vintage Hollywood style fresnel a Mole Richardson 412 I placed an Lenchrome 1 with two full CTO gels This trick makes it look like the movie light was turned on without the heat that comes from actually powering it up If I turned it on Kyle would probably be melting after about 10 minutes At ISO 100 the octabox metered at f8 and the frenel at 2.8 I originally had a Vflat world Vflat on camera left but it lifted the shadows too much so I pulled it out I also feathered the octabox to keep the light off the floor and I had to increase the power by 2/3 of a stop to maintain my exposure Later I brought the Vflat back but folded it in half to boost the shadows just a touch but without losing too much contrast While I started with a green gravity backdrop I switched to a cool gray painted canvas background for a more monochromatic feel I had to feather the key light slightly away from the background to make it appear darker in my frame I even used a 4x4 ft flag near the floor in front of the octopbox in order to dim the lower half of my composition The camera settings were 1/200th of a second at f8 at ISO 100 And I used my Canon RF70 to 200 millm F4 lens at 70 mm with a 1/8 black pro mist filter in order to make the light glow from the frenel And in case you're wondering the reason why I don't use the 2.8 8 version of this lens is because I did a test and I found that there really was no benefit to having that expensive lens if you're going to shoot around f8 or so in the studio all the time So I made a video about it which you can check out up here In post I also enhanced his abs darkened his left arm and his pants adjusted the floor color and matched the tone of his feet to his overall skin tone The result a moody sculpted portrait that showcases his denim outfit but doing so with style Now let's pivot to something a lot more dramatic This is a hard editorial lighting classic bold and perfect for fashion It's the kind of setup you'd see in a high-end magazine spread because it emphasizes texture structure and attitude For this look I used two strobes with grid reflectors The main light was placed on camera right and flagged with a Vflat and a 4x4 floppy I did so in order to create a dramatic shadow across the background Then I added a kicker in the back on camera left using a 30° grid to separate Kyle from the background The grid allowed the light to hit him but not the floor Both of these lights metered at 1/200th of a second at f8 at ISO 100 When you lower the ambient light in the room the only thing contributing to your exposure will be the pulse of light coming from your flash And the time it takes for that pulse to happen is known as the flash duration The length of that pulse determines how much of your image is frozen in time And it effectively becomes your shutter speed I started with both lights in standard mode which prioritizes color consistency across the power range of the strobes but that also stretches out the flash duration which can cause motion blur So I switch them into action mode also known as freeze mode or color mode off depending on the brand This shortens the flash pulse sacrificing a little color accuracy in exchange for freezing motion Here's a quick comparison In standard mode the main light had a flash duration of about 1454th of a second In action mode it dropped to 1 13,597th of a second And that made all the difference I was still shooting at 1/200th of a second which is my sync speed but now Kyle's feet mid jump were tack sharp To finish the image I used one of Capture 1's beyond film styles in order to tint the shadows blue and warm up the skin tone Now a lot of people assume you need high-speed sync in order to freeze motion in the studio but that couldn't be further from the case Highspeed sync is great outdoors when you can't control the light and want to use faster shutter speeds but indoors when the flash is your only light source or practically your only light source it's the flash duration not the shutter speed that freezes the motion The reason why is if you take a photo without flash it's going to be basically blank That means the only thing contributing to your shot is the brief pulse of light from your flash And the shorter the flash duration the sharper your image is going to be To dive deeper into this topic including the numbers setup and before and after shots check out this full video I made on freezing motion with flash It breaks it down step by step Finally let's turn up the color with some gels This is where fashion photography shifts from simply showing off clothing to crafting a full-blown visual experience I started this setup with three strobes each equipped with grid reflectors and fitted with Rosco calor gels I used cyan magenta and yellow I metered each one so that the output was f5.6 When combined their cumulative exposure measured at f8 and a third Now the overlap of these colors created some secondary colors blue green and red But the mix didn't do well on Kyle's skin and so I switched to red green and blue gels These colors create cyan magenta and yellow light where they overlap To make the most out of each color I positioned the red and blue strobes on opposite sides of the set minimizing their blend with each other Then I added a fourth light behind him to illuminate the crimson savage seamless background The backlight was mounted low on an Apple box and later a 20-in seaand The final result was essentially tetratic color harmony red orange green and blue It's a vibrant combination that adds punch without overwhelming the subject For styling we started with a dark jacket and transitioned to a yellow polo This change in wardrobe gave the same lighting setup a completely different tone The jacket seemed to make the image dark while the polo introduced a graphic almost pop art vibe and showed off his muscular arms If you're trying to set up this yourself my biggest tip is to meter your lights Balancing the brightness of each color is what helps you blend them to create a new color where they overlap Once everything is equalized you can dial in the look by eye But just know that when you combine blue and red you get magenta And when you combine green and blue you get cyan And when you combine red and green you end up with yellow And that's the way that this look works If you add a little too much blue or a little too much red you might not get the color you're expecting So having the lights equalized and dialed in with a light meter really helps but you could do trial and error It just might take a long time If you want check out this video I made that goes over color harmony and blending colored light together And I want to give you one more tip as we leave here today In order to refine my images almost all of the time in Lightroom or Capture 1 I use Capture 1 most of the time I will apply a new layer and apply a radial mask And then I will pull down the midtones on the outside of that circle and I will feather it fully In Capture 1 you have to grab this inner circle and pull it in But in Lightroom you can change the feather slider to 100 What this does is it darkens the edges of the shot just a little bit and it causes the viewer's eye to go inwards towards your subject This will just refine the lighting that you're already doing on set It's not a replacement for the lighting You're just making it a little better and bringing attention to the areas where you want to draw the viewers's attention So there you have it Three complete lighting setups for fashion photography A soft painterly portrait a crisp editorial hardlight look and a bold color-driven concept If you found this video helpful please give it a thumbs up and let us know in the comments which of these looks is your favorite And if you want to take your lighting even further check out my in-person lighting workshops or my membership site The Academy with John Gres which is full of in-depth online education including longer format tutorials than what you'll find here on YouTube Remember to like subscribe and sign up for the bell Thank you so much for watching I hope that you have a wonderful day and I will talk to you soon