Professional Lighting Techniques by Hakbong Kwon – Book 2
An advanced professional guide focusing on portrait lighting techniques in both studio and outdoor settings, combining theory and hands-on practice.
This volume offers a structured exploration of how lighting principles apply to human subjects across various environments—natural light, artificial light, and mixed light sources.
Packed with real-world outdoor shooting examples using compact strobes, it serves as a comprehensive lighting textbook for everyone from beginners to working professionals.
Author’s Note on Professional Lighting Techniques – Book 2
This book is not just a technical manual.
It is a record of a journey—of understanding people through light, and of reexamining the photographer’s own perspective through portraiture.
To explain why I photographed the way I did, I had to completely reconstruct how I photographed. In doing so, I was once again forced to confront the essence of light itself.
Many people say that portrait photography is all about intuition or emotion. And that’s not wrong.
But for those feelings and intuitions to be successfully translated into photographs, a solid foundation of technique and theory is essential.
Lighting is the most fundamental part of that foundation. A slight change in direction or intensity can completely alter the way a subject is perceived.
In this book, I didn’t want to simply show how to use lighting beautifully—I wanted to explain why certain lighting choices matter.
From the nature of light, its direction and color temperature, to the emotional distance between subject and light—I built each example photo from the ground up to illustrate these principles.
None of the images were pulled from my archives. Every frame was created specifically for this book—reworking compositions, relocating lighting equipment, and testing setups over and over again.
This process alone took nearly three years.
Models, assistants, and shooting locations all came together like small productions.
Despite the challenge, I decided to publish this book for one reason:
“I want to learn about lighting, but I can’t find any clear answers anywhere.”
—That was the voice of so many photographers.
I hope this book becomes that answer.
Anyone can start again from the beginning.
Anyone can learn to understand light, and use it to shape and express people.
Whatever gear you have, wherever you shoot, I want to help you build the ability to design your own light.
While Book 1 laid the foundation by focusing on equipment and product-based lighting,
Book 2 shifts the focus to how light interacts with people—and how to express that through portraiture.
If you master both volumes, I can confidently say that you will have built the strongest possible foundation in photographic lighting.
What remains now is your imagination and expressive vision as a photographer.
The light is always there. It’s now up to you to decide how to use it.
