AnOldGuy

The blur in this portrait of the Russian president is in no way obtained via a lens. It is a post-processing blur in Photoshop or similar.

 

While they probably is some PShop on the front cover of Time magazine you could achieve this exact effect with a 50mm f1.2.

Get the film plane almost flat to his face, focus on the right eye, sorted.

I spent thirty years working as a fashion photographer and I, like all the other photographers I know, learned lighting technique as an assistant. This is the "standard" route into the industry and the best one. Get a job as an assistant to someone whose work you like, or just to someone who is working a lot and learn everything you can. Or freelance as an assistant and advertise yourself to all the local professionals. It helps if you live somewhere like London, New York, Milan etc but there are pro photographers everywhere - and don't be choosey - catalogue photographers produce boring "middle of the road" work but they know a LOT about lighting and you will learn all the fundamentals.

Without access to pro kit and studios (which you will get for free as an assistant) it will be difficult for you to produce results like you see in magazines and ads etc. As someone said earlier, it's one thing watching someone skilled use things in a video, quite another to try to do it yourself with little or no training. As an assistant you will be asked (told) where to place lights and polys, reflectors and wind machines - and WHY. You'll learn the subtleties of a flash meter, why we sometimes over expose things, sometimes under and why you sometimes use the white side of a poly and sometimes the black. Lighting is technical and there is a lot to learn even for a basic butterfly portrait on a white background.

Personally I wouldn't take on a paid studio gig until you know at least the basics because you may well alienate what could turn out to be a long term client.

You won't find any "good" tutorials on studio lighting for two reasons: 1) most of them are just long adverts for equipment which won't really teach you anything and 2) having spent all that time learning as an assistant and then working as a pro not many people are just going to give away their secrets ! (and we all have secrets)...

Lastly a note on kit. I know a lot of photographers and I've worked in a lot of studios. I don't know any photographer or studio who don't exclusively use Elinchrom kit (and I wouldn't either). Learn on whatever you can get your hands on but if you go to a pro rental place or half decent studio it will be Elinchrom and little else.

Best wishes

An Old Guy