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Other Lessons

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Basic Portrait Indoors

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Basic Product Shot

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Basic Product Up-Close

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Glamour Shot
with the HalfDome2

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Olympus C-740:
Depth of Field Portrait

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Olympus C-750:
Basic Start-Up

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Olympus D-560:
White Balance Indoors

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Olympus E-1:
Basic Start-Up

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Olympus E-1:
A Closer Look

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Panoramic

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Resolution

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Shooting a Basic Headshot

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Techniques for Shooting Jewelry

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Two-Dimensional Artwork

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Simple Tricks for Consistent Portrait Lighting

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Soft Lights for Dramatic Results

There are many decisions to make when creating a headshot. You can decide to shoot indoors or outdoors, to use available or artificial lighting (or a combination of both), or to position your subject in front of an available or custom background. This lesson examines some basic camera and lighting techniques for an indoor location headshot.

(Click on any image below for an enlarged view.)

We arrived at a local dance studio one afternoon to take a headshot for one of their dancers. We set up the lighting equipment in one of the dance studios that wasn't being used.

For the background we clipped a sheet of tan muslin cloth to a Boom and secured it to a LiteStand. This is very similar to a house painters canvas ground cloth that you can find at any paint or hardware store. We then set up a Small Starlite Kit and positioned it off to the right of the dancer to serve as the main light source (figures 1 & 2).

The dancer wanted to have a high-resolution 8x10" headshot that she could submit for auditions, so we set the camera to capture images at its largest size and highest quality. We dialed the Resolution setting to TIFF, which has a capture resolution of 2560x1920 pixels. While this setting would afford high quality print images, they would also take up a lot of SmartMedia card space. Consequently, we used high capacity SmartMedia cards (128MB) for this session (figures 3 & 4).

Since we wanted to have sharp focus mostly on the model's eyes and not so much on the background, we needed to open the aperture relatively wide to create selective focus. We set the Exposure and Focus modes to Manual, set the ISO to 80 (its lowest setting), and made a Custom White Balance setting to match the color temperature of the Starlite Kit. From the Main dial, we set the aperture to f/4 and then adjusted the Sub dial to change the shutter speed to 1/125th of a second to accommodate a good exposure. After checking focus, we took a shot (figures 5 & 6).

Figure 6 shows a natural-looking result that gives an effect similar to that of a window light. The light is even and diffused, and wraps around the face gradually. Notice the soft shadows cast from the model's nose and cheek. Next, we decided to fill in the shadow a little using a 32" MultiDisc with the Soft Gold side showing.

Our assistant attached the MultiDisc to a LiteDisc Holder and LiteStand and positioned it so that the light from the Starlite Kit would be reflected into the shadow side of her face (figures 7 & 8).

We kept the same camera settings and took another exposure. Notice now how the shadows are much less pronounced. By filling in the shadows, we have minimized the contrast, and yet there is still a sense of dimension to the shot (figure 9).

Next, we decided to change the lighting somewhat. We wanted to light up the background and pull up the texture of the muslin background, so we set up an Basic Starlite Kit and positioned it low between the model and the muslin.

For this set-up, the assistant pulled the MultiDisc out of the set while we concentrated on the main light source. We replaced the Basic Starlite Kit in front with a Medium Starlite Kit to create an even softer light for the main light. (Remember, the larger the light source, the softer the light.) This helped to minimize the shadows even more. We then swung the Basic Starlite Kit around to the side about 90-degrees to light up the right side of the model's hair. Once everything was in place, we took another shot (figures 10 & 11).

Again the result shows a nice transition from light to dark on the model while the background light helps to create separation from the muslin fabric.

Then, the assistant brought in the MultiDisc back in and used it to fill in the shadows and lighten the left side of her hair. Once everything was in place, we took several exposures from which she could choose following the photo-shoot (figures 12 & 13).