Headshot advice?

NewCreation517

Hi all, I did a forum search looking for this but was unable to come up with anything. I am loking to take some headshots for a friend, but I really don't have a clue as to what a good headshot should comprise of. Nor do I know good lighting techniques ...

I shoot with a Canon 20D, EFS18-55, EFS 75-300, and a Speedlite 430EX.

I can round up some studio lights from friends, or use natural lighting.

How should I place lights? Should I shoot indoor or outdoor? Better to use the stock 18-55 lens, or back off and use the 75-300? Black & white or color?

I really appreciate any help ... even if help comes in the form of bouncing me to a different thread :dunno:):

illuminati919

Well definitely get those studio lights, if they are good then shoot inside but if not try using natural light where there is lots of light. Try investing in a 50mm f/1.4 or f/1.8. Creating shallow depth of field is the most important thing and a lens like that will give you great clarity in eyes.

As far as technique goes, look up headshots on google and you will get a bunch of results, look at magazines, other photographers who post things on here as well. Grab like a fashion magazine and just look at the photos, thats what I do when I need ideas because it I can see it visually and then I go from there. I've never shot a wedding and I'm gonna shoot one this November and I've been constanly looking at Shay Stephens site to see how he composes wedding photos.

I hope that helps sorta. I'm sure you will get more responses as well. Good Luck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you can also check out compostion on this site, theres some nude photos just to let you know but they're excellent photos, headshots, full body shots, etc.
http://www.prosephotography.com/photo/index.htm

Scott_Quier

illuminati has some very good advice. You can start just shooting with the light from a window and a little fill flash. I think that's the technique used by Yuri Pautov in many of his portraits. Some of the best advice I could give you would be to look at any one (or more, they are worth the time) of Yuri's posts (use the forum search with his name, a lot of his posts will magically appear!). For a while there he was posting a beautiful head shot every couple of days. Now, he expanding his work, of course, doing well with that as well.

athos

im new to this but i had success shooting this girl's headshots with a very similar setup.

dont use the kit lens. use your zoomer. the 75-300 is ok, i had the upgrade to that, the 70-300 which has better IQ. and the 430ex as well.

id use natural light at first, late afternoon in the shade. this way you can use a nice low ISO and still get good shutter speeds. i went to an open field with trees surrounding it. i made sure that we were far back enough from the trees so that when i filled up the frame with her in it wide open or close to wide open, i got nice bokeh in the background.

keep the camera in Av mode, if you are not used to M mode, and either way and the flash will be used as fill flash by the camera. i used 3fps, the 430 ex can usually handle 3 quick bursts and fill flash at once. i shot in bursts, and random 1-shotters even between when i told her to smile or look sexy etc, some of those come out the best. use fresh batteries.

have her turn her body a bit away from you and turn her head to look at you, should make her face look less flat.

shoot a lot of shots, i popped off a bit over 100 in 20 minutes and i got a lot of keepers.

the fill flash should create a catchlight in her eyes, which you need. i also have a small reflector that i have for backup that you can place leaned up against your bag and aimed right will also create a catchlight.