Playing around with headshots

Mike J

of my kids... Inspired by diva, I wanted to do some practicing plus I was itching to use several newer toys. I recently picked up the Nikon 85mm f/1.4, some cactus triggers, and a Sekonic L-358. So...upstairs everything went for a lot of experimenting.

After lots of playing around, the set-up I ended liking the most was:

• Old sheet tacked to wall for backdrop
• Natural light through window camera-right
• Camera-left: fill light from SB-800 on stand through a Lightsphere AND bounced off ceiling. I played with the SB-800 in an umbrella but ended with the lightsphere. SB-800 was on manual triggered via the cactus

All of these were at a SS of 250 and f/2.0. I've been outside shooting sports so I have not spent a lot of time doing these type of shots so any suggestions/critique would be most welcomed...(especially on the lighting!)

The first 3 were run through portrait professional to remove some blemishes. Do they look too overdone?

#1


#2


#3


#4 Processed in LR with an edgy look preset. I think it works on this shot


#5

kingmamaof2

I think you did an awesome job! The lighting looks very natural. Lovely shots!

D'Buggs

You've got some hint of 'coon-eyes' happening - Watch the placement of your fill light... If you're lighting from above (bounce from ceiling), fill from a lower angle than what you did here. And/or, more from the front of subject.

From what I can tell, the bounced light over powered all other sources....

adbsgicom

Cute kids and nice shots! Only thing that I'd add and it is personal taste is that I'd lessen the dark line under his eye in 3. I usually use the patch tool for this task. Thanks for sharing.

D'Buggs

D'Buggs wrote:

From what I can tell, the bounced light over powered all other sources....

Correction; The bounced light is over powering the light, lighting the front of the face's.... Main seems to be coming from the side.

Better placement of the fill would have helped out on the creases too.

divamum

I inspired somebody?! Whoaa....

I think these are very nice! #1 is my favorite of the bunch - most personality, and cleanest technically. Nice job!

Mike J

kingmamaof2 wrote:

I think you did an awesome job! The lighting looks very natural. Lovely shots!

Thanks. The whole studio lighting thing is so foreign to me. I'm much more comfortable kneeling in the snow taking shots of ski racers.

adbsgicom wrote:

Cute kids and nice shots! Only thing that I'd add and it is personal taste is that I'd lessen the dark line under his eye in 3. I usually use the patch tool for this task. Thanks for sharing.

D'Buggs wrote:

Correction; The bounced light is over powering the light, lighting the front of the face's.... Main seems to be coming from the side.

Better placement of the fill would have helped out on the creases too.

The fill light was placed too high and I had nothing reflecting light back up into the face. Duh - makes shadows under the eyes.
When using a fill light, where do you position relative to the eyes? I will also play with reflectors to bounce some light back up.

What creases are you referring to? In the BG? Those are actually light coming in through the window behind the sheet.

divamum wrote:

I inspired somebody?! Whoaa....

I think these are very nice! #1 is my favorite of the bunch - most personality, and cleanest technically. Nice job!

You did, you did. I really like #1 too except the funky face misalignment caused by his glasses.

adbsgicom

Mike J wrote:

What creases are you referring to? In the BG? Those are actually light coming in through the window behind the sheet.

In the 3rd one only, there is hard dark line under his camera-left eye -- about 1cm down.

Mike J

adbsgicom wrote:

In the 3rd one only, there is hard dark line under his camera-left eye -- about 1cm down.[/quote
Sorry about that. Meant to ask D'Buggs what creases he was referring. I do see the line you are referring to. I'll play with that a bit...

adbsgicom

Mike J wrote:

adbsgicom wrote:

In the 3rd one only, there is hard dark line under his camera-left eye -- about 1cm down.[/quote
Sorry about that. Meant to ask D'Buggs what creases he was referring. I do see the line you are referring to. I'll play with that a bit...

Can't speak for d'buggs but having the fill down a bit would also help fill the shadow in that line under the eye, which is what I thought he was talking about. I'm sure he'll pop back and clarify.

D'Buggs

Mike J wrote:

The fill light was placed too high and I had nothing reflecting light back up into the face. Duh - makes shadows under the eyes.
When using a fill light, where do you position relative to the eyes? I will also play with reflectors to bounce some light back up.

Typically, fill is used to counteract the shadows created from main light(s). The simple way is to place the fill opposite to the main. Another way, is, "on the nose" of the subject, depending on wanted results.

In this case a simple bounce from a reflector that was positioned just outside of frame, on the bottom of image, would've been a cure (opposite). Another one would have been the use of a bounce card, tied onto the flash itself (on the nose).

Or you could have forgotten the notion of lighting up the ceiling and just used a flash to fill in the shadows from the window light (or vica-versa). Opting the 3rd source for some form of highlight, light (kicker).


Playing with and controlling light is FUN. Enjoy this new 'path' of photography that you're on.