There is def no shortage of portrait lighting education in this world. At this very second, there are photographers teaching lighting in every major city, at conferences, in camera clubs, on YouTube, and through endless online courses. If you want is a diagram showing where to put a softbox, you can find one in about thirty seconds.
So why am I still teaching in [what seems like] such a saturated market?
Because I don't think photography is suffering from a lack of information. I think it's suffering from a lack of understanding.
I mean ok, of course I "teach lighting". I talk to stoked students about modifiers, focal lengths, depth of field, diffusion, composition, and all the rad tech stuff. But what interests me most is helping photographers understand why those choices matter. A lens isn't just a way to fit more into a frame. A light isn't just a light. A frame isn't just a rectangle.
The frame is the universe you are choosing to create and present for the viewer.
It's the only reality your viewer gets to experience. What you include, and don't include, makes such a massive difference. Where you stand matters. The focal length matters. The depth of field matters. The light matters. None of it is arbitrary.
Photography isn't really about memorizing recipes and repeating them forever, regardless of what you may have seen out there. It's about understanding the tools well enough to use them intentionally. That's what I try to teach. Not how to just copy my work. Not how to follow another set of rules. I want photographers to think more deeply about the choices they're making and to notice the nuance that most education never talks about because it's harder to explain than "put the light here."
You don't need to go apeshit and do avant-garde stuff. You don't need to break every rule for the sake of breaking them. But I do think you should question the conventions that get repeated so often they're accepted without thought.
Because real growth doesn't happen when you learn another lighting pattern.
It happens when you understand why you chose it in the first place.