Leah - Headshots
My niece asked if I would take try head shots of her as she's been in a few productions now and want's some pics to pass around. She couldn't tell me what type of 'character' she wanted to pursue, so I just told her to bring along a few tops and a jacket. Since I'm still not confident in doing this, my M.O. is to go stalk 'yalls sites and see what I can learn, then try to apply it. And I only have the one background at the moment. This was this afternoons attempt, so any input on considerations for next time would be very much appreciated.
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Don't worry about one bkg. There are many things you can do to change it. Keep your subject as far away as possible from the bkg and using less power on your subject will make the bkg go darker, reverse everything and it will be brighter. Try lighting it from behind then add colored gels for different effects both behind the bkg and behind your subject but aimed at the bkg. Skim the bkg light across the bkg and you will get a gradient effect. Don't forget to go to fabric stores and get some 4 by 5ish clothes that can be used cheaply for bkgs and look very nice.
Keep posting and I love that empty room for portraits. You have that gorgeous window light to try and use also.
PS With dark jackets try to use pastel colors that are darker to keep the attention on the face. Turn some of your images up side down and see if the bright spots grab you eye, if they do that is bad.
www.cameraone.biz
First, take what I write with a grain of salt, or maybe pepper even - I'm not really a typical headshot photog.
First off, you want your subject as good as is humanly possible. What's more, you OWE this to your subject. So - hairdresser, MUA, stylist are absolutely necessary. Set your priorities right. Subject comes first, then lighting. The rest is more or less meaningless trivia. This is something I can't stress enough, whenever someone asks me about my portraits - the subject is paramount. You have to like your subject, and you have to let the fact that you like her show on the photo. Stop worrying about stuff. Worry about the human in front of the camera.
That said - few words about lighting - start with one light setup. Instead of making generic, shadowless, flat lighting, try and do something to create some depth. Shadows are good. Shadows are what gives the image threedimensional feel. So ditch the softbox, ditch the second flash. Try something with more character - small beauty dish, or simple PAR are good for start.
Also, go easy on the photoshop. It's a young gal, there's no need to blow her skin to a smooth plastic
And keep it up, the only way to get better is trying
First off, Marcin, while I wholeheartedly agree with "Subject comes first", I think styling etc needs to be clarified: for an actor you don't want to be AWARE of what the HMUA/stylist has done; they need to be familiar with "make the subject the best THEM they can be", not trying to do it like a model shoot where the subject is merely the vehicle for the hair, makeup and styling. I do use a HMUA, but 1. opera shots can edge over into a little bit of glamour styling 2. she knows how to make it very natural (we always do some super-natural sets at the beginning before moving on to something more glamourous and dramatic). Sometimes, I've found that subjects who do their own hair and makeup give more of themselves to the shoot. Not always, but sometimes. Again, this is for actor shots, NOT for model shots, where obviously what you say is absolutely true. I will say that HMUA can save the photographer hours in photoshop cleaning things up, and is definitely as much of an ally as the right lighting choices!! Where I do agree is that you focus on the SUBJECT. Try to draw out her personality.
You've made a great start here - keep at it!! You're on the right track; take the time to look at lots of current actor shots and absorb the "cinematic" style that's quite popular (although the hikey white background is coming back into vogue again, too). My detailed impressions below.....
Too much bg and not enough subject. Feels more like a senior portrait to me.
The cross lighting, as Hack mentions. Also this seems to draw attention to a slight anomaly between her eyes. Square-on shots typically won't be the most flattering for them, and you may do better with more at an angle (my husband has a very visibly and seriously turned eye, so it's something I've had to figure out). Another thing to do is to underlight the "bad" eye with a split or Rembrandt pattern.
Be careful with this kind of jacket/shirt combo for actors - it tends to automatically look corporate. If they want a "lawyer/doctor" shot for their portfolio, then it can be useful, but it's typically not as strong a look for a general headshot.
This is my favorite - it's still too much about the bg and not enough about her (get in tight!), but I love the pink shirt which is youthful and flattering, and she has an adorable expression on her face here. Did you do any without the glasses? I think she needs to have a few without them (even if she wears them all the time).
Nice expression, but under-exposed, and comments about jacket etc stand as per above.
This is adorable!! It's not really a shot for an actress, but it's super-cute!!!
You don't even NEED a backdrop with that! Pull the subject away from the rafters, stick on a telephoto, get as close as is practica, use the windowlight, and watch that background melt into warm, yummy, nothingness!! You can also use the window as a backlit background - put subject in front of window then add light to the face (I just did this myself yesterday in a shoot I'll post when I get a chance)
Perhaps I was not clear enough, so let me restate part of what I said before. You need the stylist, hair and makeup artist to make your subject, especially if your subject is of female persuasion, really shine. Pardon me if I'll sound sexist here, but most of the women don't have a good dress/hair/makeup sense. Look at the girl here. I don't mean no offence, but this hairstyle isn't doing her any favours - she needs something different, with more shape. Same goes for makeup. Ditto clothes. And I don't mean anything drastic or overtheboard. Just more, I don't know how to put it, flavour, if you will.
Hope this didn't turn out offensive
Charles,
For most of the shots I had that 20x20 soft box camera left and the umbrella camera right and to her side. I tried to use a reflector but wasn't having much success with bounce, so I tried the umbrella on a much lower power. Definitely still learning basic light setups, and I understand the concept better now about the double reflections in the eyes and competing light/shadows. I had her about 7' off the background for most of the shots, but I think at F5 I could have gone for more DOF to blur it more. And thank you for the tip on the colored gels for illumination of the BG. That window is pretty nice, thus the white sheet on it. It does however have an 'eyebrow' on the outside that really reduces the light coming through. I thought about setting up my speed light outside the window to experiment. Maybe that will be my next project to see how that works
Marian Wuu
I've seen your work and it's light years beyond where I'm at in my journey. You really do some amazing work on the creative side and I totally understand where you are coming from with the H/MU comments. It's a requirement in what you are doing. Me? A student at a community college asked for some head shots which I've never done before so while I understand the importance of going to that level for what you are creating, I think there's some good lessons learned but for this exercise not necessary to that extreme for me. Re: the Photoshop and plastic face thing, that was the first time I've used LR's skin smoothing feature. I suppose I need to better learn how that works and apply it sparingly if these look like plastic.
Diva
I'll be honest, I spent a LOT of time at your site looking at your work. Although I really tried, I can see how I do need to get 'CLOSER'. I was shooting my 24-70 f/2.8 but felt a bit uncomfortable, so I switched to my 70-200 f/2.8 to get some distance from the subject. But I still kept the same amount of BG which is wayyyy too much. I had the capability at my fingertips to roll that lens in tighter, but didn't. Looking back at these, I have a lot of room to move in as compared to your works. So thank you for that tip as well. And yes, she has a significant wandering eye that proved to be problematic. I tried all sorts of things like right and left facing to no avail. I tried moving in close or having her look just over my shoulder at something on the wall wayyyyy behind me, again to no avail. And both eyes wandered depending on the side, i.e.: the nearest eye would track to the lens but the other would wander regardless of which side I tried. As for the attic, I have that space which is still just framed out at the moment. I also have some old wooden shutters and a couple old wooden 6 panel window white weathered doors to use. I'm thinking of picking up some 8' tall tin sheets to string three or four together to have a BG about 10' wide for a somewhat industrial look too. Any ideas on how you'd shoot that space would be appreciated!
Again, thank you all for ALL the comments. There's just soooo much to absorb and apply but with your help I think I can move in the right direction.
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..... i did. :cry You can see in the last shot the computer in the lower right on the table. I got a little tripped up on 'how' to keep conversation moving while posing/adjusting, shooting and then looking at the result on the screen, thinking of what needed to change and repeat. I need to work on that part as well. But seeing it on the monitor is a LOT better than the back of my camera. That much I learned in this exercise.
PS I HATE shooting tethered; I just find it sooo restrictive. I tried it because I love the idea of seeing the shot full size, but it just doesn't work for me. YMMV
PS Below are all gals who did their own makeup. I freely admit that not everybody who does their own does it as well as this (and there have definitely been times I wished I'd insisted on a HMUA to do it for them!!), but it can work. It helps if the photographer is very pro-active about it - I always send the diy-ers a sheet of tips and makeup tutorials so they can practice (and know what I want), and I also have learned enough about it myself to be able to guide them during the shoot.
By the way, in these first two shots, the gals were wearing (at my suggestion and request) false eyelashes. Yup.
(I think this may be the best self-done makeup for photos I've ever had in front of the camera - as good as any MUA could have done!)
Also on the pull back I noticed something in your umbrella setup..your flash is too close to the umbrella. When you flash is so close..you are only lighting up a small portion of your umbrella. You might as well have an 20 in umbrella as that is all that is being lit up when the flash is firing. Move that umbrella shaft out while taking some shots and you can see light pattern change and get bigger. You can even pull down the wide angle diffuser grid on the flash to get max spread.
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85 and 50 1.4
45 PC and sb910 x2
http://www.danielkimphotography.com