head shot lighting

rsparts · December 11, 2008

I've been asked to do some simple head shots for a friend of mine. Nothing fancy

I have very little experience with formal lighting - any ideas what I should be using and how? :dunno

thanks for the info in advance

Nikolai · December 11, 2008

rsparts wrote:

I've been asked to do some simple head shots for a friend of mine. Nothing fancy

I have very little experience with formal lighting - any ideas what I should be using and how?

thanks for the info in advance

what lights do you have? what the headshots are for? what's the location?

ziggy53 · December 11, 2008

If you just need a basic serviceable head shot, it doesn't get much simpler than this:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=92550

If you need more sophisticated lighting then, like Nik said, we need more information.

rsparts · December 11, 2008

Sorry.

I have a Vivitar 285HV, a white shoot through umbrella, and a 7' stand with a 15' PC cable. I have no backdrops, no set locations, and no clue what exactly he's using the head shots for. I suppose I'm just looking for basic info.

I fail at being prepared before I ask questions. haha

Nikolai · December 11, 2008

rsparts wrote:

Sorry.

I have a Vivitar 285HV, a white shoot through umbrella, and a 7' stand with a 15' PC cable. I have no backdrops, no set locations, and no clue what exactly he's using the head shots for. I suppose I'm just looking for basic info.

I fail at being prepared before I ask questions. haha

With one light you don't have many choices. I suggest nice outdoor location, model facing you with her/his back to the sun, and you light in a rembrandt or battefly position. With you equipment it means lightstand fully extended, and positioned directly in front of the nodel (Butterfly) or at 45 degree on the side (rembrandt/loop), fairly close, no further than 5 ft from the face. I don't reckon you have a lightmeter, so you would have to take multiple test shots. The idea is to have the background having the same exposure as the face and the sun on the hair being 1..2 stops brighter.

Another fun thing to do is to have "negative silhouette" indoors, with the light facing you and highlighting your subject directly from the back or from the angle.

HTH

rsparts · December 12, 2008

Nikolai wrote:

With one light you don't have many choices. I suggest nice outdoor location, model facing you with her/his back to the sun, and you light in a rembrandt or battefly position. With you equipment it means lightstand fully extended, and positioned directly in front of the nodel (Butterfly) or at 45 degree on the side (rembrandt/loop), fairly close, no further than 5 ft from the face. I don't reckon you have a lightmeter, so you would have to take multiple test shots. The idea is to have the background having the same exposure as the face and the sun on the hair being 1..2 stops brighter.

Another fun thing to do is to have "negative silhouette" indoors, with the light facing you and highlighting your subject directly from the back or from the angle.

HTH

great advice. thanks so much

MarkW · December 12, 2008

rsparts wrote:

Sorry.

I have a Vivitar 285HV, a white shoot through umbrella, and a 7' stand with a 15' PC cable. I have no backdrops, no set locations, and no clue what exactly he's using the head shots for. I suppose I'm just looking for basic info.

I fail at being prepared before I ask questions. haha

You can do plenty with your one light setup to get a great headshots. I actually put some videos together to show that all you need is one light (off camera) to create some great portraits. In the videos I also use a Vivitar 285HV and show how to use the calculator dial to determine your exposure without chimping. Take a look at the following links:

One light portraits and some basics on posing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RWmG9v1dhU

One light butterfly lighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00nY26l65CE

One light high key portraits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRIYWgHyqhs

I hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress.

rsparts · December 12, 2008

MarkW wrote:

You can do plenty with your one light setup to get a great headshots. I actually put some videos together to show that all you need is one light (off camera) to create some great portraits. In the videos I also use a Vivitar 285HV and show how to use the calculator dial to determine your exposure without chimping. Take a look at the following links:

One light portraits and some basics on posing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RWmG9v1dhU

One light butterfly lighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00nY26l65CE

One light high key portraits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRIYWgHyqhs

I hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress.

hey mark that's really great stuff. thanks so much. Since I don't have an actuation cable, i'll have to wait for my wife to get home before I can practice. She'll love that

thanks mark!

Nikolai · December 12, 2008

MarkW wrote:

You can do plenty with your one light setup to get a great headshots. I actually put some videos together to show that all you need is one light (off camera) to create some great portraits. In the videos I also use a Vivitar 285HV and show how to use the calculator dial to determine your exposure without chimping. Take a look at the following links:

One light portraits and some basics on posing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RWmG9v1dhU

One light butterfly lighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00nY26l65CE

One light high key portraits
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRIYWgHyqhs

I hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress.

Mark, good links!

Scott_Quier · December 12, 2008

ziggy53 wrote:

If you just need a basic serviceable head shot, it doesn't get much simpler than this:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=92550

If you need more sophisticated lighting then, like Nik said, we need more information.

I have to second Ziggy's recommendation - hmmmm maybe because he's referring you to a thread I started

rofl

head shot lighting

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