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Learning paths

Assignment-order sequences — Strobist-inspired progressions plus portrait, product, cinema, and location lanes.

Woman in a black tee with long wavy hair on grey, soft wrap light on her face with twin rectangular catchlights in both eyes.

Strobist Lighting 101

Photographers learning off-camera flash from zero

One flash, and every way to shape it before you buy a second — distance, restriction, spill control, and the room itself as a modifier.

5 steps · open step 1 in Light Builder

Smiling woman in a cream sweater and jeans on a grey seamless, soft frontal light wrapping her face with almost no hard shadow.

Beginner portrait lighting

8 steps

New to studio strobes

Build from one umbrella to a single-key dramatic portrait with an optional rim — each step adds one idea you can recreate on set.

Curly-haired bearded man in a black bomber jacket, magenta spill on camera-left of his face and cyan on camera-right against a dark grey field.

Strobist Lighting 103

6 steps

Photographers who finished L101 or the subtractive path

Colour as a lighting tool — gelled backgrounds, opposing RGB rims, neon rooms, and projection that carries a picture. Continuous interior balance lives in Cinema & continuous light, not here.

Matte black over-ear headphones leaning on a black box beside a case and coiled cables, soft light from frame-left on dark grey.

Product tabletop lighting

7 steps

Product and e-commerce photographers

Packshot fundamentals — tent diffusion, strip edges, reflections, and one-variable control studies.

Young man in a dark crewneck sweater in a dim room, keyed by a warm glow from a pleated lamp at frame-right with a framed landscape on the wall behind.

Cinematic mixed light

7 steps

Portrait and interior photographers moving into film-style lighting

Practicals, windows, and strobes in one frame — learn Kelvin contrast, interior motivation, and night exteriors.

Man with curly hair in a black zip jacket against a pale wall, hard front-left flash casting a sharp silhouette shadow behind him.

Speedlight on location

8 steps

Event, wedding, and run-and-gun portrait photographers

From on-camera flash to bounced event light, gridded OCF, and high-speed sync in daylight.

Young man in an open black shirt over white tee at a desk, soft front-left light on his face with a monitor and plant soft behind.

Cinema & continuous light

13 steps

Filmmakers, hybrid shooters, and interview lighting

LED panels, practicals, mixed Kelvin, and Fresnel motivation — video-friendly exposure and ARRI-style interior recipes.

Woman with green eyes in a black V-neck near a bright window at frame-right, soft light wrapping her near cheek with gentle falloff opposite.

Natural light, in order

7 steps

Photographers with no lights, or none they want to carry

One window, then one sun — learn to read light you did not create, and the four things you are still allowed to change. Where the subject stands, what you put opposite, how big you make the source, and how hard you let it stay.

Blonde woman in a black tank at sunset, warm light on her face and a bright sun rim on her hair against orange sky and hills.

Creative flash & camera craft

7 steps

Photographers chasing expressive flash, not just correct flash

Not recipes — ideas. Shutter drag with flash freeze, HSS motion stops, light-painting trails, projection graphics, and beams you can see. Each setup shows one technique you can bend on your own shoot.

Bearded man in a black shirt against near-black, lit hard from camera-left so the near cheek is bright and the far side of the face falls deep.

Subtractive lighting: flags, cards and V-flats

6 steps

Photographers whose light is soft enough, and flat because of it

Contrast you build by taking light away — the one lighting tool with no power switch. From a single flag at a cheek, up to a full V-flat, out into daylight you cannot dim, and onto food and glass where a black card stops being a shadow and becomes a reflection.