I do a lot of corporate and actor headshots around Washington, DC, and I wanted to share some of the simple but effective lighting setups that I use over and over, which you can easily copy and use yourself. My standard setup consists of a large soft light source to the left or right of the subject, a reflector under the face, and another reflector opposite the main light source.
I shoot hundreds of headshots per year using this simple setup. I use a Paul C. You can see this setup in the photo below, with my poor wife Karen standing in as a subject. She was just coming downstairs to make some tea and got ambushed! Once my subject is in place, I do some tweaking. First I will adjust the light source so it is slightly above their eye level. For most people, I think it looks best to have the light coming from above to cast subtle shadows under the chin, accentuating the jaw and helping to hide any double chin.
Then I will adjust the reflector underneath their face and bring it up to about their mid-chest level. This reflector helps fill in shadows on the face and provides a really nice extra catch light in the eyes. Some folks will use another powered light source down here, but I find the reflector to be much simpler to set up, and it also has the virtue of being idiot-proof. For example, if you have another light instead of a reflector below the subject and you accidentally overpower it so it is more powerful than the main light , you have created some horrible Frankenstein lighting!
It is physically impossible to do this with a reflector, which can save you from costly mistakes. Finally, we have the reflector opposite the light source.
For this one, I will often use a black-sided panel to create a darker shadow on that side of the face. This effect can be very dramatic, and has the added benefit of slimming the face. Often I will leave the basic setup in place with the black reflector, but a few examples where I might make changes are:. In the photo below, you can see a lot of detail in her hair on the shadow side. I use this to accentuate the jaw, especially in men, or to accentuate the hair in women.
In the photo below, I needed a way to separate this young man from the dark background. My kicker light did the trick!
In my studio, I use a strip softbox for this purpose, but you could also use a bare head with a grid or even an old speedlight with a paper towel roll taped to it to make a simple snoot. I use lights three and four to create a clean white background. You can either use one light fired at the background from just behind the subject, or two lights off to either side. The white background is my favorite look these days for a lot of reasons.
I think it looks super bright, modern, and happy. It also really pops on LinkedIn and other online profiles. It is also a great way to go for companies because it is easy to replicate and get a consistent look from shoot to shoot for example, when photographing a new employee months after the initial shoot, or replicating the same look with shoots done across the country by different photographers.
Whether you use one or two lights for the background depends on your budget and the space in which you are working. Client Portal. Make Better Photographs How-tos and inspirational stories that will spark your creativity.
Friday , August 11 th , Now I will say some women like that type of lighting scenario and will occasionally ask for it as in the following images Now if the client is using the image for lets say newspaper paper pre-production or other venues where the image quality is lower, then you should aim to fill in the shadows. Tags : business headshots , corporate headshots , photography , Portrait , portrait photographers , portraiture. This is great info.
What do you do for a female biz portrait if she wears glasses????? Hope this helps! Explore Current Photographer. Yes, I agree with the privacy policy. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. News and Reviews The latest photo industry news and product reviews.
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