Hi, this is Vanessa Joy and today on AdoramaTV
we are going to look at what it takes to do
an easy headshot set-up.
Before my clients get there, I typically set up some
of the lighting that I know that I'm going to use
for the shot.
I don't always set everything up, because
I'd like my clients to see the effort that goes into
putting a headshot session together, after all
I want them to see the value of what it is that they
paid for, other than just the final product.
The very first thing I have them do, is to take pictures
with them, looking slightly to the left and slightly
to the right. The reason I'm doing this is
I'm trying to figure out what their better side is,
so that I focus on photographing their better side.
After the pictures are taken and tethered in to Lightroom,
I have the client come over and take a look at
the images with me. While photographically
I might know what side is their better side,
everyone has their own opinion about themselves,
and I want to be sensitive about that
and bring them in on the collaboration of figuring out
which side of their face is better for photographing.
With this client, we both agreed that
the picture on the right is his better side,
so we move forward and started setting up the light,
to compliment that side of his face. I ended up using
the light here as a reflector, not actually turned on
when I'm taking the shot. So I brought it in
nice and close so that the white part of the 3x4 softbox
could just act as a reflector for the main light
that was going to be on the right side of his face.
From there I directed my client to just stand
in a nice relaxed manner and this helps them feel
more comfortable in front of the camera,
just not standing awkwardly, and then I gave him
direction to put his hands in his pocket and to follow
what I was telling him to do.
With my chin by sticking it out, not up
not down but
out towards the camera so that he
didn't appear to have
a double chin, which he definitely didn't
but as we know in photographs,
if the head is
not positioned correctly it can appear so.
From there we just move on to shooting
and ideally I'm shooting fairly similarly
positioned photos but I'm just
having him move his chin up, down,
to the right,
to the left - only a little bit, very small
movements.
In headshots, photography can make a
big difference.
For this particular client he wanted all the
pictures smiling naturally
because he's a dentist.
So a nice bright smile is something
that we were
going for in the images.
Aftertaking a few shots
I do have the client come over
and look at
what we've got so far at the
tethering station.
I like to do this right away because I will
ask them
to point out shots that they like
and that they don't like
and hopefully I find a pattern of
facial expressions or
body positions head positions that will
tell me the things that they like, or
don't like about themselves on camera
this will also give me a closer look at
the image to make sure that the exposure
and light patterns are correct and the
way I want them to be, it's one of the
main reasons that I tether other than
being able to collaborate with my
clients on the spot, after that we're
ready to take a few more images and with
a better idea of what my client likes.
I'm able to pose and direct them better,
and at this point they're more
comfortable in front of the camera as
well because they've seen images that
I'm creating, and they understand the
direction I'm giving and why I'm giving it
They essentially trust me a little
bit more and loosen up in front of the
camera. The last little tip that I give
my clients is to have them look slightly
above the lens, like I'm telling him here
this is to help their eyes look a little
bit more open, appear a little bit more
awake, it doesn't make them look like
they're looking off camera, because it's
just a very slight eye movement upwards
I hope this behind-the-scenes look of
headshot photography helps you out
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