The Soft “Window Light” Setup That Actually Holds Up

A clean “window” look in a home studio usually comes down to one thing: how you spread and soften flash before it hits your subject. In this video, the entire setup revolves around a big diffusion wall, and it answers a question you’ve probably wrestled with after a few too-contrasty test frames.

Coming to you from Jiggie Alejandrino, this practical video walks through a go-to lighting layout that aims for soft, classic portraits without turning your space into a maze of modifiers. The core is a large scrim acting like a fake window, with two Profoto B10 heads placed behind it and pushed through umbrellas. That “double diffusion” idea sounds simple, but the placement choices are where the look gets controlled. One light is set up to wrap, the other is there to add shape, and the scrim becomes the steering wheel that decides how gentle or how directional the result feels. If you’ve been relying on a single softbox and wondering why faces still read a little harsh, the layout here gives you a different path.

The gear list stays tight, but the decisions are not casual. Alejandrino shoots on a Sony a1 II with a Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II, then locks in settings that keep the flash doing the heavy lifting: 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100. f/5.6 is a choice you’ll recognize if you’ve had couples drift out of the focus plane during small movements. He also shows a simple way to preview in black and white while still capturing color files by recording raw+JPEG, which can clean up your decision-making on set when you’re judging light instead of wardrobe colors. If you’ve ever second-guessed exposure while staring at a color preview that keeps distracting you, this approach can make the session feel more controlled.

Where this gets more useful is the way the scrim is treated as something you move and aim, not a fixed panel you set once and forget. The video points to how the wrap changes as you shift angles and distance, and how a slightly stronger key can still look gentle if it’s effectively turned into a larger source. You also get a look at the working flow around client viewing and capture: a small wireless monitoring setup, plus recording to an Atomos Ninja V while files are also saved to a CFexpress card. That combination changes how you direct a session, because you can keep momentum while still letting someone else see what you’re getting. The posing direction is also more specific than the usual “turn a bit” guidance, with small head and chin adjustments that pair with the side light and keep faces clean, and the video shows the timing and cadence of those micro-corrections in real time. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Alejandrino.