Taking my own medicine (headshots analysis/C&C)
C&C always welcomed!!
So, having been somewhat, uh, opinionated (!) regarding headshots lately, I thought it might be time to go through some of my own. I make NO CLAIM for thinking mine is the One True Way - while I'm familiar with styles and trends through being on the other side of the stage, photographically I still have light years to go to achieve mygoals, so please don't hesitate to comment, challenge my thinking or anything else in the name of good discussion - bring it on! :thumb
I've tried to outline my thinking as I go.
Mini-D needs a headshot for a project she's doing this summer - we could have just used a school picture, but she probably ought to have a "real" set and since I wanted to try out a lighting pattern I had in mind anyway, she agreed (only a little bit reluctantly
that we'd do a short shoot.
Shooting info:
Shot with the 7d+50mm or 85mm - 420ex in a gridded Cheetah 16" SB ~45* camera left, set as key, with 430ex in a 45" Softliter set behind me to camera right for fill. While there are large windows in the room CR and I feel like some of that ambient registered, I was shooting at 1/250, so not sure how much that could have contributed; maybe it was ETTL deciding it knew better than I did (and, sadly, since the 420ex is only ETTL, I couldn't go manual to see). On a couple of shots I turned off the Cheetah and used just the Photek (you can tell by the catchlights which those are).
I did do some with my background in place, but wanted to see if I could mimic the "NY loft look" in my living room and thus did most of the shoot without any bg at all. My space certainly isn't as adpatable as an empty, wood-floored room would be, but with a petite subject it was entirely possible to minimise the distractions of door, china cabinet and TV cabinet through careful positioning of posing stool and open apertures. Definitely possible for certain looks and/or quick setup (if the client isn't too tall! It wouldn't work with a 6' guy!)
Overall, I'd give myself maybe a B+ on these - they're mostly competent and mostly flattering (although I still seem to keep lighting her in a way that makes her straight nose look crooked - trying to figure out how to avoid that :scratch), although I'm not sure any of them have the "wow" factor. That's partly because she wasn't really that into it herself, but that's good practice for me to extract "wow" out of anybody at any time - I figure that as a headshot photographer that's my *job*, so it's useful to have to practice opportunities!
1. She picked outfit #1 of short-sleeved tee over thermal tee - it's not a bad casual outfit in teendom but (IMO) is WAY too casual for the kind of shot she needs, but it took us a while to negotiate that point :rofl Annoyingly, these first few test shots were probably some of the most interesting expressions from her; unfortunately, I don't think this series can be used for this particular occasion, even though I think it's a cute look from her.
(cropped, but only minor processing/editing - no retouching, sharpening etc etc)
2. I persuaded her to put on a denim jacket - still casual, but more even colour, fewer colour contrasts and (again IMO - ymmv!) a more polished look - still appropriate for a young teen, but not SO casual. I like her expression, it's flattering to her face shape, it's nice and bright (was pleased to note that I needed to do very little to most of these as far as toning/adjustments - some minor contrast/brightness tweaks, but not much at all), the wooden floor makes a flattering background and adds some nice warmth. However, while this was initially one of my favorite shots, it presents two problems:
2 Cropped
2 workaround: borders. Most headshots are setup with borders/name for printing anyway, so in a situation like this the photographer can set it up themselves and not have to crop the *image* as much. I have no idea what the dimensions of the internal image are, I just fiddled around with my margins in the LR print module until it looked ok! I can easily add text (ie name) to the bottom border in Picasa or PS.
3. Wardrobe change to something a little dressier and a hint of lipgloss, and I decided to play around with the lighting a little too. This is without the SB to camera left, so just the Photek; there's a white wall to camera left which obviously acted as a reflector and bounced light nicely back onto her face. Probably could/should have bumped up FEC a tad and might have raised the light a little for perfect catchlights, but I still like it, mainly because the eyes connect well with me; it captures a different mood than some of the others, even if it is perhaps a touch serious/over-mature - if I were preparing a client portfolio of shots I'd consider this is as one of a set rather than necessarily a stand-alone for a 12 year old. Probably should minimise the bg distractions CR as well.
4. And here's the one I think we'll use on this occasion, plus it also demonstrates just how much I rely on cropping. I have learned the hard way that my tendency is to shoot too tight - I love to crop in camera, and then get home to find that there were at least a dozen better crops I could have had if I"d just given myself room to get them. SO... I utlize every pixel the 7d gives me and often will intentionally shoot wide just to give myself options afterwards.
This shot got missed on the first pass - the messy hair and bg meant I barely looked at it. Second time through, however (I usually star one set of keepers immediately after the shoot, then sleep on it and go back through unrated shots the next day and almost ALWAYS find more that I like), I decided to play with it. What a difference a crop can make!
4A SOOC
4B finished - additional to basic processing included cleaning up hairline and stray hairs to camera right, minor skin-softening, cleaning up chapped bottom lip, eye-brightening/selective sharpening
All comments welcome!
So, having been somewhat, uh, opinionated (!) regarding headshots lately, I thought it might be time to go through some of my own. I make NO CLAIM for thinking mine is the One True Way - while I'm familiar with styles and trends through being on the other side of the stage, photographically I still have light years to go to achieve mygoals, so please don't hesitate to comment, challenge my thinking or anything else in the name of good discussion - bring it on! :thumb
I've tried to outline my thinking as I go.
Mini-D needs a headshot for a project she's doing this summer - we could have just used a school picture, but she probably ought to have a "real" set and since I wanted to try out a lighting pattern I had in mind anyway, she agreed (only a little bit reluctantly
that we'd do a short shoot.Shooting info:
Shot with the 7d+50mm or 85mm - 420ex in a gridded Cheetah 16" SB ~45* camera left, set as key, with 430ex in a 45" Softliter set behind me to camera right for fill. While there are large windows in the room CR and I feel like some of that ambient registered, I was shooting at 1/250, so not sure how much that could have contributed; maybe it was ETTL deciding it knew better than I did (and, sadly, since the 420ex is only ETTL, I couldn't go manual to see). On a couple of shots I turned off the Cheetah and used just the Photek (you can tell by the catchlights which those are).
I did do some with my background in place, but wanted to see if I could mimic the "NY loft look" in my living room and thus did most of the shoot without any bg at all. My space certainly isn't as adpatable as an empty, wood-floored room would be, but with a petite subject it was entirely possible to minimise the distractions of door, china cabinet and TV cabinet through careful positioning of posing stool and open apertures. Definitely possible for certain looks and/or quick setup (if the client isn't too tall! It wouldn't work with a 6' guy!)
Overall, I'd give myself maybe a B+ on these - they're mostly competent and mostly flattering (although I still seem to keep lighting her in a way that makes her straight nose look crooked - trying to figure out how to avoid that :scratch), although I'm not sure any of them have the "wow" factor. That's partly because she wasn't really that into it herself, but that's good practice for me to extract "wow" out of anybody at any time - I figure that as a headshot photographer that's my *job*, so it's useful to have to practice opportunities!
1. She picked outfit #1 of short-sleeved tee over thermal tee - it's not a bad casual outfit in teendom but (IMO) is WAY too casual for the kind of shot she needs, but it took us a while to negotiate that point :rofl Annoyingly, these first few test shots were probably some of the most interesting expressions from her; unfortunately, I don't think this series can be used for this particular occasion, even though I think it's a cute look from her.
(cropped, but only minor processing/editing - no retouching, sharpening etc etc)
2. I persuaded her to put on a denim jacket - still casual, but more even colour, fewer colour contrasts and (again IMO - ymmv!) a more polished look - still appropriate for a young teen, but not SO casual. I like her expression, it's flattering to her face shape, it's nice and bright (was pleased to note that I needed to do very little to most of these as far as toning/adjustments - some minor contrast/brightness tweaks, but not much at all), the wooden floor makes a flattering background and adds some nice warmth. However, while this was initially one of my favorite shots, it presents two problems:
- even though I was using a 50mm lens, I was close and by standing a touch too far above her there's some funky distortion going on - the more I look at it, the more it looks to me like she's a bobble-head doll and/or been photoshopped into another picture!
- this effect was badly magnified when the image was cropped to 8x10, and I just couldn't find anything I liked.
2 Cropped
2 workaround: borders. Most headshots are setup with borders/name for printing anyway, so in a situation like this the photographer can set it up themselves and not have to crop the *image* as much. I have no idea what the dimensions of the internal image are, I just fiddled around with my margins in the LR print module until it looked ok! I can easily add text (ie name) to the bottom border in Picasa or PS.
3. Wardrobe change to something a little dressier and a hint of lipgloss, and I decided to play around with the lighting a little too. This is without the SB to camera left, so just the Photek; there's a white wall to camera left which obviously acted as a reflector and bounced light nicely back onto her face. Probably could/should have bumped up FEC a tad and might have raised the light a little for perfect catchlights, but I still like it, mainly because the eyes connect well with me; it captures a different mood than some of the others, even if it is perhaps a touch serious/over-mature - if I were preparing a client portfolio of shots I'd consider this is as one of a set rather than necessarily a stand-alone for a 12 year old. Probably should minimise the bg distractions CR as well.
4. And here's the one I think we'll use on this occasion, plus it also demonstrates just how much I rely on cropping. I have learned the hard way that my tendency is to shoot too tight - I love to crop in camera, and then get home to find that there were at least a dozen better crops I could have had if I"d just given myself room to get them. SO... I utlize every pixel the 7d gives me and often will intentionally shoot wide just to give myself options afterwards.
This shot got missed on the first pass - the messy hair and bg meant I barely looked at it. Second time through, however (I usually star one set of keepers immediately after the shoot, then sleep on it and go back through unrated shots the next day and almost ALWAYS find more that I like), I decided to play with it. What a difference a crop can make!
4A SOOC
4B finished - additional to basic processing included cleaning up hairline and stray hairs to camera right, minor skin-softening, cleaning up chapped bottom lip, eye-brightening/selective sharpening
All comments welcome!
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Don't love the angle or crop on most of these, proportions in the frame look off except for 3, and 4.
Three is my favorite a bit too much off the top of her head in that one also. The crops off the top combined with her chin being down and the head being to far into the top of the frame and shooting from above...kind of all work against each other.
Try to get your catch lights up in the upper half of the eye not the lower third, that will put your shadows where they need to be.
As you mentioned I would clone over that bright spot on her shoulder.
Three is a nice shot, that is the one I would go with if it were me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21695902@N06/
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Of course I'm my own worst critic - part of the artistic condition, isn't it?
I often like a slight upward look, but it definitely didn't work well for me here - couldn't agree more. I think I need to find a way to get the shallower depth of field I like when I"m standing back a bit further; need to experiment till I find the right combo of FL/distance/height on a crop sensor.
Yeah, I should've moved it - I flicked off the CL light just as an experiment and didn't adjust the other one. One of the reasons I wanted to do an indoor lit shoot - I've been doing other stuff and am a bit out of the groove.....
I may try to persuade her to do another short session later this week - I'd like another crack at this to finish tuning my eye back up before my next client shoot. Like anything, it's use it or lose it, and my attention has been focused on other things the last few weeks....
FWIW, the reason I posted these as I did was as much to share how I'm trying to balance my (in-the-business, style-aware, high expectations) eye with my (still growing, not always consistent, need constant attention/practice) photographic skills. I can always see what I want in *others* work, but am still trying to put together how to consistently achieve what I want in my own. It's all a work in progress
Who is wise? He who learns from everyone.
My SmugMug Site
Also, a new (to me) name on the headshot scene in NYC - some friends had shots done by him and I went to snoop out his website. Some verrrry interesting "informercial" promo on his page, as well as some interesting marketing practices and very clear examples of different styles for actors.
http://www.seanturi.com/seanturi/Welcome.html
Va
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know." Diane Arbus
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Are your using that 50mm just because of the space? I ask because I think that is where the distortion comes into play. Looking back thru your set-up explanation I don't notice you mentioning the distances from Subject.
Also look forward to the others you plan on putting up here! I'd certainly like to see some different angles, perhaps ones that aren't so well worn (ubiquitously). Of course I recognize that may require another round of coaxing, and what not to the Mini. Still, she is a great Model!
[EDIT] Also meant to ask about the light splotches on that same photo upon her forehead. Is that Ambient or outside light peeking thru?
cheers,
Tom, the shorter lens is indeed due to necessity: SPACE is becoming one of my biggest problems. Round II (to be posted as soon as I get them done) really showed me this as I experimented with lighting placement and height and realised I can't GET my lights in the places I need them because I (literally) hit the walls. I'm not sure what to do about this - there's nowhere else in my house I can use, I certainly can't justify finding space elsewhere and the cramped quarters are becoming a major source of frustration. I'm to the point of trying to figure out some way of attaching a pole fitting to the back of my sofa (or behind the wall of my sofa) so I can stick a monopod or something in that and get lights 3ft further away from me! Yup, it's that bad :bash
I understand why people prefer #3 (and I agree it's the most flattering of this set), but I still say it's not really a headshot, but a portrait. I know this is sounding like a real hobbyhorse of mine, and I guess it is - I spent too many years semi-battling photgraphers who couldn't quite understand what I needed when they took pictures for me that now I'm exploring the other side of the camera I'm really trying to quantify what it is that makes the difference between "good picture" and "great headshot". There *is* a difference.
Anyway, more to come in due course...
PS Tom, I'm mortified to have to admit that those "light splotches" are bad clone work on my part (that I hadn't noticed until you mentioned it) - I got rid of some stray hair and obviously didn't do a very good job
I went back and re-looked at the SOOC photo with that 50mm and You are way too close to get a proper perspective. That perspective issue is not gonna change unless you can get mD a good 8 ft. from the sensor. I also suspect that is why you feel you give mD a crooked nose. I bet you cannot wait to be able to shoot outside again to get some perspective!
I usually do not notice things like this at all...it is such a lovely photo though that I dwelled....easy fix for ya though!:D
Yeah, I understand wanting that oh so narrow DOF...2 ft. or 4 ft. too close even with the fifty and this in only proper perspective I am speaking to. Creatively you can do what you want.
So, there's no way you can back up, lighting the same as before and use that 100 or 135 you have?