For a portrait look that puts the subject in an almost glowing light, I use two large rectangular softboxes.
The subject is about 1 m in front of a grey background. I then place the two softboxes so that they are parallel to each other, almost to create a tunnel into which the subject is about to enter, but he stands just outside of it. I also incline the softboxes so that instead of an edge, close to the face, I only have a corner.
To improve the overall look and adapt it to the softness of the light, I used a relatively large aperture: EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM wide open at 127 mm.