Actor's Headshot's with Speedlight(s)

MindofMel

MindofMel

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Mel
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Hi all,

I have a job to shoot some actor's headshots on sunday. Going to turn my living room into the shooting space. Doing some research, I want to replicate this look:

ttp://www.headshotlondon.co.uk/actors_headshots/gallery/

http://www.headshotlondon.co.uk/pages/galleries/actors_headshots/act1.jpg
http://www.headshotlondon.co.uk/pages/galleries/actors_headshots/act2.jpg
http://www.headshotlondon.co.uk/pages/galleries/actors_headshots/act3.jpg
http://www.headshotlondon.co.uk/pages/galleries/actors_headshots/act4.jpg

I can see for the majority two 'white' lights in the eyes... so does that mean it's a two light setup? If so, any ideas how?

Is it a black backdrop (bedsheet) and then 2 shoot through's directly infront of the subject? Any ideas on settings? Going to spend friday - practising. Ideally, I want to keep it as simple as poss for these 'formal' shots and then express my creativity in some location ones I have planned. If similar results are achievable with one light etc rather than two - even better. My philosophy is very much K.I.S.S

I have a D300, 85mm f1.8 and a 70/200 f2.8, 2x Jessops Flashes and triggers and 1 white umbrella and 1 reflective black umbrella.
 
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You can do that quite easily with what you have. Shoot through umbrella above and slightly to camera right with a silver reflector from underneath, very simple beauty lighting. Use your 85mm and sit the lighting stand just in front of you and to your right, pointing 45deg down to the model, sit a silver reflector on their lap
 
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Thanks Danny,

will give that a try on friday morning with my housemate as a stand in!

the background of the shots in the first 3 - is it just a white wall? and then the subject is far enough away that light is falling off and making it look darker/grey? or is there a backdrop? if so, it doesn't appear to be black... so maybe like a mid-gray?

i reckon the first 3 is a better idea, as the actor is black and I don't want his ears/really dark hair to fade into the bg.
 
Looks like a beauty dish with a reflector on the subject's lap, or held at chest level - fairly standard.

Beauty dishes are smaller, 50-70cm, and give a harder more directional light than brollies, with darker shadows. You'll probably get too much spill with a shoot-through, which will make a low-key look difficult, but a softbox would be fine. A boom is handy, especially for the symetrical lighting of the first one, but you can usually work around that.

There's a second light on the background, probably grey. The last shot really needs a hair light to stop the subject disappearing into the background, or a lighter background.
 
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Mel - 1st link not working, you've chopped the h off http.
 
Mahoneyd187 said:
You can do that quite easily with what you have. Shoot through umbrella above and slightly to camera right with a silver reflector from underneath, very simple beauty lighting. Use your 85mm and sit the lighting stand just in front of you and to your right, pointing 45deg down to the model, sit a silver reflector on their lap
Click to expand...

Hi Danny,

tried your suggestion..

- 85mm on f1.8 / ISO 200 / 160thSS
- reflector on lap(cardboard box folded out covered in foil)
- umbrella 45degrees to camera right - up high - flash @ 1/8
- silver umbrella at subject feet and got the below...

to get a gradient on the background should i stick a light on the floor behind subject - shooting up parallel to the background?

also are the catch lights not popping up inhis eys because the light is simply too high / too low power?

also - f1.8 is too hard to get both eyes in focus, so i think ill drop to f4ish next time around and just decrease my SS

would have done more experimenting on him - but he was shattered after work! lol

hshottests1.png


hshottests2.png
 
The light is too high and too far to one side for the catchlights to show, and his chin is down. One of the problems shooting with hot-shoe guns is you get no modelling light to guide you.

The reflector isn't doing much because it's probably too low and again you can't check the angle without modelling lights. The angles are very critical with silver, white much less so and softer, also not so bright, but for a head shot you can stick it right under the chin if needs be. The big reflector-under-chin technique is a beauty treatment though - not sure you want that.

I think the dark background suits the mood, but it needs a bit of hair light.

If you raise the f/number, you'll need to increase flash power or raise ISO. Dropping the shutter speed won't help with flash :nono: With the flash at full power recycling will be painfully slow.

Seems like you might be looking for some studio lights soon ;)
 
Cheers Richard,

- I was at 1/8th power so ill try 1/4 or 1/2 tomorrow and increase f/number
- Will get him to hold the reflector higher at chest height - rather than it just resting on his lap
- Will bring the light lower and nearer in

Will do those points and then post results!

Argh more money? don't do this enough to be buying studio lights! lol
 
Go to f4-5.6 and increase your flash power rather than lowering the shutter speed, SS will only effect the ambient as has been said. You're not getting catchlights because the flash probably isn't close enough, and too high. In the examples you posted, the lower catchlight is strong, I would suggest it probably is a silver reflector, beauty lighting or not, if thats what you want, then that's how to do it. It's essentially a clam shell set up, sure you could put a flash on the floor and angle it up at your model, but a reflector will surfice.

Re:background, it's too dark. Try to adjust the background for the sake of seperation, rather than adding a hair light IMO
 
You are also too high, and are looking down on your subject - and as said before, stop down to around f5.6

get your light lower until you see a "catchlight" in the subject eye... and I would suggest sitting your subject at a table and put the reflector on the table...

You might want to try outdoors to get the hang of posing and reactions with your client before worrying about getting lighting right - loads of headshots are done outdoors too...
 
If you look at the images in the first link you posted you will see two catchlights in the eyes - one above the other. The top light is the main light and the bottom light has more of a fill role to control shadows under the chin etc.

This implies that clamshell lighting was used. You can see examples http://www.lighting-essentials.com/clamshell-lighting-for-a-glamourous-headshot/

Different modifiers on the main light have the effect of making bone structure more or less prominent so it is well worth experimenting with soft/hard light, beauty dishes etc.
 
Hodders said:
If you look at the images in the first link you posted you will see two catchlights in the eyes - one above the other. The top light is the main light and the bottom light has more of a fill role to control shadows under the chin etc.

This implies that clamshell lighting was used. You can see examples http://www.lighting-essentials.com/clamshell-lighting-for-a-glamourous-headshot/

Different modifiers on the main light have the effect of making bone structure more or less prominent so it is well worth experimenting with soft/hard light, beauty dishes etc.
Click to expand...

Great link! Thankyou - will play with this and post results.

Thankyou all, confident ill be able to knock these out by Sunday!
 
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