Portrait Photography and Lighting
Working with a person, and shaping the light around them
Created by Yusuf Demir
What you will learn
- Light a portrait with one window and a reflector
- Build up to two- and three-light studio setups intentionally
- Direct a nervous subject into a natural expression
- Choose lenses and distances that flatter rather than distort
- Run a shoot to time, including a shot list
- Retouch with restraint
Course content
12 sections · 74 lectures · 11h total length
- What this course covers, and what it does notPreview03:00
- How to get the most out of itPreview04:00
- Setting up and downloading the exercise files06:00
- Light quality and modifiersPreview05:00
- Light quality and modifiers in detail13:00
- A closer look at light quality and modifiers14:00
- Worked example: light quality and modifiers09:00
- Where light quality and modifiers goes wrong12:00
- Exercise: light quality and modifiers08:00
- Light quality and modifiers in practice09:00
Topics covered
Requirements
- Comfortable with manual exposure
- A camera and one light source — a window counts
Description
A portrait is a collaboration under time pressure. This course covers lighting setups from a single window to a three-light studio, alongside the direction skills that get a real expression instead of a held smile.
Your instructor
Documentary and portrait photographer
Yusuf shoots for magazines and NGOs and teaches the craft as a way of paying attention rather than a gear checklist. Most of his exercises can be done with the camera you already own.
Learner reviews
- 5 star74%
- 4 star22%
- 3 star3%
- 2 star1%
- 1 star0%
- DWDmitri W.3 May 2026
Genuinely well structured. I have started three courses on this topic and this is the first one I finished.
- DLDmitri L.12 January 2026
Clear explanations without the usual filler. I watched most of it at 1.25x and still followed everything.
- WOWei O.14 November 2025
Worth it for the section on common mistakes alone — I recognised two things I have been doing wrong for years.
- GSGrace S.10 January 2026
The pacing is right. Nothing is padded out, and the exercises are short enough that I actually did them.
- JRJonas R.16 February 2026
Genuinely well structured. I have started three courses on this topic and this is the first one I finished.
- OLOlive L.6 April 2026
Content is fine but it needs updating — a couple of the tools shown have changed since recording.
- ZAZoe A.10 November 2025
Worth it for the section on common mistakes alone — I recognised two things I have been doing wrong for years.
- IDIngrid D.10 October 2025
The pacing is right. Nothing is padded out, and the exercises are short enough that I actually did them.
- EWElena W.27 May 2026
Not what I expected from the description. The first half was too basic for me.
Showing 9 of 1,421 reviews.
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