I keep a lighting journal. Every setup from every shoot gets a sketch - light positions, modifiers, approximate power ratios, what worked, what didn’t. It took me years to build that reference library, and it cost me real money in wasted studio time and blown test shots along the way. When I was starting out, the only way to understand what a beauty dish actually does differently from a softbox was to rent both, set them up, fire them, and compare. That is not a cheap education. Which is why I genuinely wish I had found these tools ten years earlier.
In this Tony and Chelsea Northrup tutorial, Tony walks through two virtual studio applications that let you place lights, swap modifiers, position models, and watch the light fall in real time - all without touching a single piece of gear. I am not affiliated with either app, same as Tony. I just tested both, immediately saw their value, and wanted to break down exactly how to use them. Watch the full tutorial on YouTube alongside this guide if you want to see Tony’s screen in motion. What follows is the walkthrough, step by step.
Step 1: Start With the Free Browser Tool - Virtual Lighting Studio
Virtual Lighting Studio loading in a web browser window
Go to sdp.io/VLS in any browser. No download, no account, no payment. The Virtual Lighting Studio runs entirely in the browser and loads a portrait subject immediately. On the left side you will find a model selection panel. Along the bottom sits the light control interface. This is your starting point for understanding light behavior at a fundamental level, and its low friction is exactly the point - open it now, not later.
The tool is intentionally simple. That simplicity is what makes it useful for learning. You are not managing a complex 3D environment. You are asking one question at a time: what does this light do to this face?
Step 2: Adjust Light Position and Watch What Happens to the Face
Light position slider being adjusted, shadow appearing under nose
Grab the position control for your main light and move it laterally off-center. Watch the shadow behavior on the face as you drag. As the light moves off-axis, shadows begin to define the nose, the brow, the jaw. This is the core lesson the tool teaches better than any diagram: light direction is not abstract. It is a shadow decision.
Then raise the light vertically. As it climbs, a shadow appears under the nose - the classic Rembrandt indicator - and then deepens under the chin. Keep raising it and you will hit a point where the catch light disappears from the model’s eyes entirely. That moment, that specific loss of specular reflection in the iris, is something photographers often describe in words but rarely demonstrate this cleanly. The app shows you the threshold in about 30 seconds.
Step 3: Add a Second Light and Apply a Gel
Second light added with purple gel applied to left side
Use the “Add Light” function at the bottom of the interface to introduce a second source. Position it to the opposite side of your key. Then locate the gel control and apply a color - Tony uses purple in the tutorial, which is a reasonable starting choice because it reads clearly against skin tones in the preview. The app renders the colored light hitting the subject in real time.
This exercise is less about gels specifically and more about training your eye to isolate the contribution of individual lights. In my own shooting, I label every light in the studio with masking tape - “KEY,” “FILL,” “HAIR,” “BG LEFT.” That habit came from learning to think of each source as a separate decision. The gel exercise forces that same discipline.
Step 4: Use the Solo Button to Isolate Each Light
Solo button engaged, all lights except selected one turned off
Find the Solo button in the light controls and click it with one light selected. Every other source drops out immediately. What you see is exactly what that single light is contributing to the image. Toggle through each light in your setup this way before you ever build a complex scene.
This is the fastest diagnostic habit you can build. When a setup is not working on set, I kill all but one light and rebuild from scratch. This tool lets you practice that workflow before you are doing it under the pressure of a model sitting in front of you and a client watching from the corner.
Step 5: Move to Set.a.Light 3D for Full Studio Planning
Set.a.Light 3D launch screen with demo set option visible
Go to sdp.io/SAL and download Set.a.Light 3D for Windows or Mac. A 14-day trial is available at no cost, and the paid version runs around $40 - less than renting a single strobe for a day. When you first open it, skip the blank room and click “Open Demo Set.” This loads a pre-built portrait configuration with a camera, five lights, and a model.
The demo set is not there to be imitated. It is there to be read like a lighting diagram. Spend five minutes just orbiting the 3D view and identifying what each light is doing before you touch any controls. Tony points out a key light from camera-left, a fill on the right, a kicker providing rim light on the model’s body, and two separate background lights shaping the backdrop. That is a professional portrait blueprint sitting there ready to be dissected.
Step 6: Explore Light Types and Modifiers in 3D Space
Five-light studio configuration viewed from above in 3D
Set.a.Light 3D lets you swap modifier types on any light source - softboxes, beauty dishes, standard reflectors, grids. Click on the key light in the demo set and cycle through modifier options while watching the preview update. The difference between a large octabox and a medium softbox becomes immediately legible in how the shadow edge transitions from hard to soft.
This is where the tool earns its value as a planning instrument rather than just a learning toy. Before a commercial shoot, I can load my studio dimensions, place lights where I know my stands can physically go, and check modifier overlap. I can also screenshot the top-down view and email it to an assistant so they can pre-position everything before I arrive.
What I Would Add From My Own Experience
The Virtual Lighting Studio and Set.a.Light 3D both treat lighting as a visual problem, which is correct - but neither tool teaches you to read light from the shadow side first. When I evaluate any setup, whether virtual or physical, my eye goes immediately to the shadow edge, not the highlight. The speed at which that shadow falls off tells me more about a modifier’s character than any spec sheet. Practice that in both tools: cover the lit side of the face with your hand (or mentally) and read only the shadow. That one habit will accelerate everything else.
If you take one thing from these two tools, it is this: you do not need a studio to study lighting. You need intention and repetition. Both apps give you a sandbox where mistakes cost nothing and every adjustment teaches you something you can carry into a real shoot. Build a setup, break it deliberately, then rebuild it better. Do that fifty times and you will arrive on set with a fluency that no single tutorial can hand you directly.
Watch the full tutorial on YouTube to see Tony walk through both tools live - his real-time experimentation with the controls is worth seeing alongside this written breakdown.
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