Illuminating The Face

Lighting for Headshots and Portraits

With Peter Hurley

This tutorial is not a lesson in camera settings or ratios. Instead of teaching you to mimic light and camera settings, Peter teaches you to see light in a new and detailed way. After watching this tutorial you should be able to view images taken by other photographers and be able to understand exactly how that image was lit simply by looking at the shadow angle, depth, sharpness, falloff, and catch lights. Instead of teaching you to recreate Peter's shots, Peter will teach you how to sculpt the light and notice subtleties so that you can create your own unique images and personal style.

Download this 4 1/2 Hour Tutorial
$299

An Obvious Progression From Peter Hurley's First Tutorial

In 2011 Fstoppers teamed up with Peter Hurley to produce the 4 hour video tutorial: The Art Behind The Headshot. Many people have claimed that The Art Behind The Headshot is the single best resource when it comes to coaching your subject and making any person in front of your camera look their best.

4.5 Hours Of Technical Lighting

3 years later Lee Morris and Patrick Hall from Fstoppers traveled back to NYC once again to create a completely unique 4.5 hour video tutorial named: Illuminating The Face. Peter's first tutorial only touched on the technical aspects of lighting but Illuminating The Face completely focuses on every detail that goes into lighting the human face.


4 camera angles

Filmed With 4 Cameras and Proportional Modeling Lights

Peter and the Fstoppers team spent 3 days planning and testing, and 6 days filming this detailed video. By using flash heads with proportional modeling lights, Peter is able to spend the first 3 hours shooting without strobe which allows you to clearly see every subtle lighting change he makes. The Fstoppers crew recorded the entire process with 4 cameras running simultaneously so that you will be able to see the shoot from every angle, including a video camera that mimics Peter's still camera. Every time Peter moves a light or changes a power setting, you will be able to see that change on the models face.


proportional modeling lights

Lighting Modifiers Tested On Male And Female Faces

Flattering light differs on men and woman and so it was important to have both a male and female model. By using the same models for the entire 6 day shoot, Peter is able to compare images side by side that were taken days apart. You will be able to study these models faces and by the end of the tutorial you will have a completely new outlook on lighting cast on the human face.


male vs female

Learn Different Genres Of Lighting

For the first 3 hours Peter goes over the basics of lighting and individual lighting modifiers. You will be able to compare hard light to umbrellas to softboxes to beauty dishes to ring flashes and other light shaping modifiers. Once you have an understanding of the available tools, Peter designs 6 completely different images using all of the modifiers at his disposal. By the end of this tutorial you should have a solid understanding of classic, beauty, fashion, and edgy lighting.

illuminating the face

Learn To See Light

This tutorial is not a lesson in camera settings or ratios. Instead of teaching you to mimic light and camera settings, Peter teaches you to see light in a new and detailed way. After watching this tutorial you should be able to view images taken by other photographers and be able to understand exactly how that image was lit simply by looking at the shadow angle, depth, sharpness, falloff, and catch lights. Instead of teaching you to recreate Peter's shots, Peter will teach you how to sculpt the light and notice subtleties so that you can create your own unique images and personal style.

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64 Comments
Previous comments

Truly awesome tutorial! I have to admit that I was a little put off by the cost initially. But frankly, you get what you pay for! I think these are easily worth the cost if you are serious about wanting to either review and refine your already existing skills, or just plain simply learn something new you were always wondering about. Kudos to Peter and the team that put these together! Love your style!

Absolutely worth the money. Something for everyone from seasoned shooters to newbies. PH's style is no BS straight forward and clearly he knows what he's doing. Destined to become a classic 'go to' vid for anyone who seriously wants to learn about illuminating the face. The only critique I have for it is the lack of chapter markers. Inconvenient but not a deal breaker.

wonderful

Great article!!! Very usefull thank you for sharing!!

I just purchased this, but I didn't get an email with the download link. how long does it take until they send this email? I'm waiting for 30 minutes now and nothing!

waiting now 10 hours?? is that normal?

Guys this tutorial looks seriously beneficial and presents a real topic of interest for thousands of amateur and hobbiest photographers.

There is no doubt in the value both given and received by purchasing this training. However, and I guess you guys need to consider selling hundreds of thousands units versus selling thousands.

It's my opinion based on the network of photographers I know from my studio that the price point is prohibitive to most at $300. Not that it's not worth it, it looks like it definitely will be.

I think you would sell this many times more effectively at a price point of $99. You have already created the cost that's not going to change. This product would sell by the truck load at that price, probably creating you more long term profit than the $300 price point.

Only a personal view point from a professional marketing dude......

Thanks for reading.

Lighting is crucial for great photography, and buying gear is not going to get you the results without the knowledge of how to us the gear.
From what I saw in the trailer video this course shows you how to light the face, and shows exactly what the lights do.
Looks great

Call Bernie, the government should get this for me.

putting this on my "to-buy" list. Thanks guys for producing such a great informative tutorial.

Illuminating the face is, without doubt, the best video training on light - ever. Hurley explains it all perfectly, well worth the money.

Also Hurley looks like John C. Reilly and I can't look at him without thinking of Step Brothers, so it made me laugh all the way through too.

Value. For. Money.

Great shots.

I just bought this tutorial. I'm so glad they finally have a tutorial thats like screw the camera settings and its basically lighting for dumbies. I am only n the first video and he just dumbs it down so much that its easy as hell to understand lighting. After watching this i am like did i even really understand the inverse square law. Such a great tutorial.

Got this in the recent 5 Day Deals, I'm about halfway through and it is great, Peter explains lighting really well and is very entertaining throughout, I will be getting Perfecting the Headshot at some point based on how informative this series is. Also great job on the production by the FStoppers team, I also have Mike's WAMA series so I knew that I would not be disappointed.