Retouching Academy Go Pro

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.

The lighting set up for the image below was inspired by the basic lighting setup in the Retouching Academy Go Pro instructional videos. I have been working with Studio lighting for a few years now, so the standard lighting setup for a basic portrait is not new; There is a main light, a fill light and an accent light. However, I decided to try things a little differently after watching the Retouching Academy Go Pro videos. For instance, I tried paid very close attention to the highlights before settling in on the exact configuration. I paid closer attention to how close or how far the light was and looked closely at the amount of highlights, shadows and mid tone to add dimension to the portrait, i also made the main light a little harder than usual to get those specular highlights to be just the right size. I’m happy with the result, but I am more happy to know that I am placing my lighting more carefully and not just checking exposure with a light meter. In the image below the location of shadows and highlights was very deliberate and not just an afterthought. I’ll post the lighting diagram later.

Julia Kuzmenko makes amazing images and her work is inspirational. I’m glad I purchased the Go Pro series, but I dont know if I would recommend it for the price to everyone. It has helped me to refine my lighting and preparation, but I didn’t watch some of the more exotic setups described and I’m just not sure I will ever need them. There is a lot more than lighting that goes into her results, she has a great team and near perfect models. The lighting is one part of that puzzle, the other is the post processing, I’d like to see an indepth video on her post processing, however given the price of the Go Pro set I wonder if the post processing guide would be cost prohibitive.

The set of videos is now available at a 50% discount.