The Ultimate Guide to Portrait Lighting in Blender

[@PrinceWesterburg]

Off the bat, as a photographer of over 40 years, a portrait lens is 85-115mm, not 50mm!
So you know:
?-12mm - Fisheye
12-20mm - Ultrawide
21-30mm - Wide
35-55mm - General Purpose
85-115mm - Portrait
120-300mm - Telephoto
300-1,000mm - Ultra Telephoto
1,000mm+ - Telescope!

[@stana1980]

Really helped thanks

[@FlippedNormals]

Great!

[@gurratell7326]

A good guideline yes, but you can still use a 50mm for portraits :)

[@vn0ir]

@@gurratell7326 To be fair, you could use 12mm for portraits too, the subject will just look like a dog sniffing a security camera. ~85mm gives the ideal compression of facial features IMO.

[@Dhruv1223]

@@vn0ir but the question is if that is valid for CGI as well, where there is absolutely 0 barrel distortion (as the lens isnt like real lenses, something that needs to be corrected for in post)

[@loldemort1824]

One quick tip. You might want to add a tracking constraint on the lights and set the target to an empty. That way, you can use the empty as the light target and move around lights without having to adjust the direction every time you move them.

[@Kuziminski]

(Positive response)
You ever have that "I'm a fucking moron." moment? Picture the facepalm/forehead slap in the classic slapstick police movie Naked Gun. I always got bloody annoyed with moving lights because I had to re-aim them and Blender didn't have a 'piloting' option for lights..... Yeah, I just had that moment reading your comment. Years of dicking around in Blender and I didn't think of doing your tip. Sweet baby jeebus. Thank you.

[@loldemort1824]

@@Kuziminski glad to have helped 😅

[@salasart]

Great advice! Thank you!

[@rest_in_pain]

@@Kuziminski That so sweet :D
I have these moments also. Often xD

[@BlenderSecrets]

Interesting, and inspiring!

[@mr.potayto2131]

Can't wait for you to shred this to a 29 seconds tutorial😍

[@kleckerklotz9620]

Nice basic tutorial. One thing I would question: The sentence "Get the values right before you use colour." is more a guideline than a rule. That can help in most situations. But in other situations you can be way off the mark. The reason for this is the brightness of the colour itself or better known as luminance. It's a little counter-intuitive, and what doesn't make it any easier is that the RGB colour space is slightly different from CMYK print colour space because of the colour mixing of the three RGB LEDs. According to colour theory applied to RGB colour space, the luminance of fully saturated colours are in the following order:
yellow (brightest colour)
cyan
neon green
turquoise
green
pink
orange
antique pink
light blue
red
purple
dark blue (darkest colour)
The problem is that when setting the brightness values first, it can happen that after adjustment of a colour, the luminance suddenly no longer matches the brightness values from before. In other words the mix of equal luminance can be off. Usually, the bright colours in the shadow areas are incorrect and the dark colours in the light areas.
That is why you also advise against using this rule in the third scenario. Because a darker colour works here as a bright light.
So your rule or guideline of "Get the values right before you use colour." applies to any situation where dark colours are used for shadows and bright colours for light. Like daylight or standard lighting. But it does not apply when it is the other way around. Like in any situation with artificial coloured light or when you work with false colour.
Btw.: That is why "contemplation" is an important skill for painters. Don't know if this is a term in English. In German "Kontemplation" means: applied colour recognition or using the discrepancy between colour luminance and brightness value as a kind of intuitive ability. And it's a little bit more experience needed when it comes to achromatic colours.

[@FlippedNormals]

This is a great comment! Thank you for elaborating.

[@kleckerklotz9620]

@@FlippedNormals Most welcome. It's only fair to give back some knowledge. 😀

[@AntonioRizzatti]

Great coment, thank you Klecker.

[@KenalLouis]

Excellent lighting mini course and tutorial. The thought process behind lighting models and subjects. A lot of great ideas to keep in mind for future projects.

[@toapyandfriends]

For noobs after you watch this save this blender file in a special folder I call mine "BLENDER ASSETS" so anytime you want you could append the LIGHTING setup to any character you want and it will always be perfect as long as you keep your measurements right... Keep doing that and pretty soon you'll have just an awesome fast workflow!

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

So nice to see a tutorial like this. I took classes as a studio photographer and worked professionally as an industrial and commecial product photographer, and while I don't shoot as much with the camera anymore, all my lighting training and experience really has been a plus when working with Blender!

[@FlippedNormals]

Thank you Glenn! Theres SO much value in having a traditional experience when it comes to doing CG.

[@gurratell7326]

Good tutorial here! Just one small tip, instead of using a square area light it's better to use a circle instead since the square ones can give kinda ugly reflections in eyes, glasses, helmets etc :)

[@FlippedNormals]

Thats a great tip! For this video it doesnt matter much, since there materials are all rather dull, but it makes a big difference when dealing with shiny surfaces.

[@gurratell7326]

@@FlippedNormals Yupp, same with the stuff I generally do I don't care enough to change into a circle area light because there's mostly rough stuff, but when it comes to bling bling stuff you really have to think about what's in the reflections :)

[@Lilian040210]

@@gurratell7326 "bling bling stuff" 🤣

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

Or use a spot and set it large.

[@toapyandfriends]

That 1 with the colors that you did from the picture of the female with the Orange and the blue and the paint that is amazing art

[@NeonSlice]

I thank the recommendation Lords for bringing this video to me.
Thank you so much man, you are a real inspiration on so many levels, keep it up, you're amazing at explaining things!

[@sarahashemi6521]

Thank you very much. This tutorial is so helpful 💖💖💖

[@jellevandermaden]

Excellent subject and tutorial!

[@aydenmcfly1362]

I love how often you guys dog on blender but have so many tutorials for it lolol an epic flex 💪

[@MWSculpts]

Thank you I learned a bunch here 👍

[@dhruvsharma8788]

thank you so much to make it clear to use reference.

[@pianoatthirty]

This is SO helpful.. Thank you!!!!

[@BlenderUser1944]

Thank you for the info!

[@toapyandfriends]

you are really talented that one at the end with the colors

[@salarycat]

Great and fun tutorial, it shows how easy and satisfying it is to light objects in blender.

[@FlippedNormals]

Thank you! :)

[@aoibluevi]

You're helping me! tysm

[@obvsolutions]

Thanks, this video really helped me get inspired about how to think about lighting.

[@FlippedNormals]

Glad I could help! Lighting is so much fun once you 'get' it.

[@facundomileo502]

love your work guys!!

[@FlippedNormals]

Thanks so much!

[@pZq_]

this is great!

[@user-fv8do5fv4n]

With your help, I was able to understand what lighting was.

[@pjos6406]

Really enjoyed this one, thanks

[@FlippedNormals]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@renlaidao]

Good tutoria thank you

[@brandonjacksoon]

Thanks for your high quality tutorials and content! ;)

[@FlippedNormals]

My pleasure!

[@unknownclint1740]

@@FlippedNormals do you guy do compositing too, I’d love to see how to light 3D object for real footage integration

[@gekidomikado]

Hi, an awesome tutorial !
Please tell how do you denoise an image in viewport so well
Thank you in advance !)

[@kaetsusstudio]

Great tutorial!

[@FlippedNormals]

Glad you think so!

[@Moonev_Fantasy]

Thanks for sharing such usefull knowledge in fundamental things. Appreciate that fact that you give me info in a short form and make an accent on base importance over tools value. By the way, do you use Cycles render engine during your work process in this video?

[@alextristan8768]

What app did you use for the reference images to stay on screen? Is that a feature from blender as well? Very nice tutorial. Worth the watch

[@manojlogulic4234]

Great tutorial, quick tip, did you know you can position light in Blender same like in maya "look through selection". Simple position camera, select light in outliner and you should press some key combination but I'm not sure what exactly, maybe CTRL + NUM 0 but i may be wrong, someone else will comment to confirm if this is right, but anyway it's great way to position light like in Maya. 😊

[@hyaki5383]

can you make Books recommendations to learn art please, love your videos

[@dragongaiden1992]

It's incredible friend, ask the lighting at the end can be achieved in evee or only in cycles ???

[@Gadderz87]

Amazing tutorial, thanks. I've read that values of 1.00 on value and saturation are bad, does that really matter too much? Would love to see more like this, really great!

[@FlippedNormals]

Thank you!
Honestly, it depends all on what it looks like at the end. Sometimes you just need the most intense saturation ever, particularly if you're going for something stylized. For realism, its a good idea to avoid the more extreme ranges.

[@mathewmatangi]

This is great!! Would you also recommend doing test renders with different lighting when doing a likeness sculpt, just to see if the likeness holds up? Been working on a sculpt for a long long time and i feel like viewing it only in the zbrush viewport is making me doubt if it’s even a good likeness hahaha

[@IGarrettI]

yes. DIfferent hdris

[@FlippedNormals]

Thats a great idea, for sure. Its really hard to do likeness in isolation, since you can really sculpt a face with lighting.

[@IGarrettI]

@@FlippedNormals and zbrush can throw you off too

[@armanchahal1]

Thanks

[@FlippedNormals]

No problem!

[@durvankurdama6364]

can you do blender vs maya comparsion regarding current status of industry requirements and future ? which software to use in upcoming future industry ?

[@dlalleman3874]

I just wish Blender had the light blockers Arnold/Maya has where you can give it a blend radius to control the soft shadowing of the blocking volume.

[@ruivam]

Nice tutorial. Blender is a totally new thing for me, as I've been a Photoshop worker for 12 years. I'm awed by Blender. Is that possible to change the lighting on people's faces from actual photographs on Blender? Or it works just on 3D models? Thanks.

[@fadianihsan7834]

yooo can you make a guide on blender - substance painter workflow that would be cool!

[@zillaquazar]

Thankyou, that's all I have to say

[@afterapio4014]

Nice tut! Did you make something to the David photoscan¿? Its like perfectly smoothed. No bad normals or anything. Also the material its simple and cool, its any magic on it? thanks again

[@FlippedNormals]

You can find the link to the model we used in the description. The only thing was to decimate it a little to make performance better, but no fixes per se.

[@sayaadadurian]

Nice tutorial! I have one minor thing to ask. My shadows do not seem to be as dark as the shadows in your renders. Is there a way to make it darker?

[@rest_in_pain]

It is 10 months later and I hope you still messing around with Blender, and you found your answer but if not I maybe I can help.
Try to go to the world properties (im the right panel) and there is world background colour. The default one is gray,. Set it to black and the shadows imidiatly should turn black. Eventually you can decrease the influencing of the background on the objects, there should be a bar for it.

[@bulusfrancis7925]

I need the link for the David head

[@Vertexvoyager]

The lighting with the blind lights is that cycle or evee?

[@stormk-1130]

So i was looking the courses in your web page, can i donwload the courses to watch them offline?

[@soutikrakshit794]

Sir.,Please make a ultimate guide video on Maya... Portrait lighting.... Like this video

[@freckled.science]

Hi.... what is the section on the right side? the black screen where Ican see the shadowing? Im trying to learn lighting but i dont even know how to open that shadow thing and see my model !

[@omarcastillo122]

How would you do a flaslight (terror like) lighting? This Is great btw!

[@FlippedNormals]

Spotlights are great for this

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

yse spot light and light it from below - UP toward the subject for that creepier effect.

[@omarcastillo122]

Thx!

[@Marcelmikael]

Very catchy Channel name

[@moonbiillust]

Hey i wanna ask .. i download the statue from the link you gave , but how to open it in blender ?? The statue .. i try to add to the collection but the statue does not appear . So how to solve it ?

[@aliabufarjad4588]

my shadows are not as dark as it is on yours? do i need to solve that? if so then, how?

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

10:10 Did you know about R-R for free rotate?

[@WackFPV]

What the flipper is that app @ 2:00

[@dougieladd]

My god... where has Shift T been in my life?? :)

[@PrilaRis]

hello, I'm beginner in blender. I tried to add Area Lightning & i already set it to 2000w but the light is still dim on the object. What am i supposed to do?

[@Sulthan52]

anybody know why my initial rendered view not complete dark like his?

[@REX-xe3st]

I want to know why I can't see the shadow
in second light

[@ahmedzeina6215]

How to make the enviroment dark

[@skippy0901]

Hi there actually i am.currently beginner but i know some basics of sculpting and modeling
I wanna create characters model like from a reference image eg. some cartoonish images from pinterest.
But i can't i have tried like more than 10 times while watching the reference image and trying to sculpt even tho the sculpt is easy,
But i can't pls help me out and give me some tips if u can

[@dant4774]

how can i have both viewport and render in the workspace like that?

[@FlippedNormals]

You can split the viewport in half, hit the Z key and Rendered in the one you want to be a render viewport.

[@dant4774]

@@FlippedNormals thank you very much!!! ♥️

[@EricOlorunfemi]

Beautiful video. I'm guilty of forgetting about the real world... lol.

[@FlippedNormals]

You and me both!

[@betoayala.youtube]

Once you go Rimlight you never go back to no Rimlight

[@FlippedNormals]

You can probably spend an entire career only using rim lights. They are so much fun

[@suhaibabdulsamadh8703]

Hey Henning, where's Morten and what did you do to him?

[@robinsalas6789]

How much do you guys charge for a portfolio review?

[@FlippedNormals]

It's not really a service we offer, unfortunately, but we have a mentorship service which might be starting up soon
mailchi.mp/flippednormals/mentor

[@GreenTea-Pose]

10outta10

[@FlippedNormals]

Nice

[@julio1148]

7:00 you can't stress this enough...

[@DoubleBob]

What did you do to go from 17:59 to 18:01?
It looks so much "smoother" than before. Did you just change rotation and intensity or more?

[@sinisters9237]

Believe that’s just because it’s the viewport render, the final render always comes out smoother

[@nurb2kea]

This is maybe good for stage item/product rendering, nothing else. That's really the basic, you learn 2 hours after opening a 3d software for the first time.
When materials and physical materials + other scene stuff comes into the scene, this is what you don't wanna do.
Anyways, for stage renering it's ok in quick cases.

[@raellex4289]

Can you do some animal crossing mod tutorials?

[@keiraxlicious4543]

off topic. found this video.. as you say if you're watching this in the future.. say 2020, retopo may not be an issue... ua-cam.com/video/s2CYuRxFUSI/v-deo.html .... my question to you is this.. I'm looking to understand why retopo is needed. what issues does it cause? why does it matter if the heads retopo, but the body isn't? what are the causes to retopo being needed.I'd love an in-depth explanation and if there are new solutions for retopo. please explain.. also... how do you bake high res work into a low res poly?

[@joshmanakajosh]

Waiting for hair tut F5 F5 F5

[@ajimumpung3530]

waiting for u to back to maya

[@FlippedNormals]

You can use Maya for this too, no difference between Blender and Maya here tbh :)

[@espressojoe]

First?

[@FlippedNormals]

First!

[@SupaKoopaTroopa64]

"We are going to be talking WAY more about fundamentals than just how to place the lights. We are gonna be giving a way of thinking about lighting, which hopefully is gonna help you way more long term than just knowing where to place the lights."
Finally! I hate how so many tutorials get bogged down in the technical details about lighting, which I could easily figure out on my own. I want to learn the fundamentals, since they are what will help me in every scenario, not just the setup in the tutorial.