Simple headshot

[texxter]

Here is a headshot I did this week. Technical info and lighting diagram included. Please let me know if you have questions or suggestions.

[texxter]

I meant to post this under the Lighting Diagrams threads. I one of the moderators would kindly move it and close this one, I'd appreciate it!

[lukehng]

very nice ... thanks for sharing

did you do a full length shot ?

[texxter]

Thanks, Luke. Yes, we did other shots in addition to the headshots.

[andyz]

This crop takes off just the very top of his hair.

That said, the lighting is excellent and the white shirt wasn't blown out in the process.

(If I lived in Plano I'd bug you for lessons. ) :)

[L Stegall]

Paco, looks like a nice, clean, white bg, beautifully lit and a good looking subject. I like this headshot a lot and the diagram is great. I had a few questions about your choices, really for my own education more than anything else:

1. Why did you shoot the into umbrellas to light the background instead of, say, aiming them directly at the BG and using barn doors, since you had the foamcore or bifold doors or whatever to block light from the BG?

2. I see what the reflector added in terms of a nice wrap and clean separation at his chin, but what did the light aimed at the ceiling fill in exactly and what do you think the difference would have been without it? While I might have 3 lights, I seldom have 4, so I'm curious about how much different this would look without that additional fill.

I always appreciate that you take the time to walk us through your work process.

My only nitpick is that he has a crease on the shoulder of the shirt - looks like he just unfolded a new shirt. White shirts are darn hard to keep wrinkle/crease free, though.

[The Philos]

A 4-light setup hardly strikes me as simple, but it looks good.

[texxter]

Andy, thanks for your comments, I sometimes crop part of the head on purpose, I know not everyone cares for this type of cropping.

Lisa, thanks for your kind words. Here are my answers to your questions:

1. I use umbrellas to diffuse the light and get the light to spread more evenly. A reflector will concentrate the light and create a hot spot. I want the same f-stop across the seamless to reduce or eliminate the need for postprocessing.

2. The bounced light act as ambient. I sometimes do without it, but in this case I wanted to have a very clean, well lit look, while still providing volume and dimensionality. I carefully set the light intensity to achieve a close ratio. The silver reflector added a kiss of light and a bit of contrast. If I didn't have the fill light I would have had to move the silver closer which would have given me more contrast. So the real fill was the bounced light and the silver was sorta like a rim light for the face if that makes sense, not contributing much to the exposure. Also, because the fill was bounced off the ceiling I wanted to pump some clean light under his eyes, which the reflector did without calling attention to itself. You can achieve a pretty similar effect with a soft silver or white reflector, no need for both a reflector and a fill head. One of the reasons I posted this was to show that fill is important and a careful placement can make a difference. BTW, I shot this with the door open, so I have plenty of light to keep the subject's pupils from dilating. None of this light contributed to the exposure, but it made him more comfortable.

David, thanks for commenting. I wasn't referring to the work required to make the image, but more to the overall outcome, it looks simple and the fact that four lights were used is hopefully not easily detected. In fact we shouldn't count the two background lights, as they do nothing but make white paper really white. There is a key, a fill and a reflector.

Thanks again.

[darock]

Very good and clean. Good work as always. Thanks for sharing and adding the diagrams. This really helps. Your work always inspires me.

[L Stegall]

Thanks for the response. I most curious about the umbrellas as opposed to just hitting the BG with your lights without a modifier (but with a barndoor to avoid spill), as having watched Zach Arias' tutorial on white backgrounds, he was setting his up directly hitting the BG, so I was trying to figure out what the difference was. In both instances, you want a nice, even spread of light on the background, eliminating as much post as possible. I'm going to have to play with setting up a 4th light for some fill - I think I have all the equipment for everything but that right now.

[texxter]

Lisa, the strobes without any reflector will work as well, but less efficiently than with umbrellas, as the light will go off in all directions. The barndoors will help, I just find the umbrellas easier to deal with. My cheapo Alien Bees barndoors are glued together, they are not strong enough for frequent use. Even with gobo's I may still have partial f/16 background light hitting my 8 ft ceiling and destroying my contrast. It could very well be that Zach doesn't have to worry about low garage ceilings. In fact, this is what he has to say about space considerations, from tutorial #1:

The more room you have the less bad words will come out of your mouth. A 20×20′ room with 10′ or higher ceilings is a great place to start. You can do it with less but you’ll have more challenges to face and make this more of a pain in the arse then it needs to be. Trying this in a spare bedroom with 8′ ceilings is going to drive you mad and you’ll sound like the dad in A Christmas Story as he worked on the furnace. You can do it… you’ll just use more cuss words doing so. A hard floor surface is desired. Plush carpeting will bring more cursing. If you are doing this on carpet, lay down an 8′x8′ foundation of 1/2″ plywood so you have something sturdy for your subjects to stand on.

My current studio allows me to have a space that is about 15′ wide by 40′ in length. I really wish I had 20′ in width. I would say 80% less cuss words if my area was wider. My ceilings are about 11′ in height and I wish they were 14′ but you do what you can with what you have. My old studio had a cyc wall that was 20′ wide by 40′ long with 14′ ceilings and I never ever said a single bad word when lighting a set.

[L Stegall]

Thank you for the info. You just answered a question I didn't ask, but now makes me realize I won't be ordering any Alien Bee barndoors. I do, however, have nice umbrellas to bounce my light in. I do remember Zach's comments about room to work in his tutorial and I wish I had more room than I do. I have a decent size room (our upstairs TV room, probably 23x23), but it requires rearranging furniture and has a very funky sloped ceiling, so while I may have 10' of height in the middle of the room, both sides then start sloping in, so I end up with 8' on one side and less than that on the other (think about a finished out attic type space. If I can back up down the hallway, I can get additional room to shoot in.

[texxter]

Lisa, thanks. Alien Bees flashes are a good value for the money, but accessories are not the best. Good luck!

[L Stegall]

Ha ha - that's why I have the Bees but nothing else they sell.

[texxter]

A single light is sometimes all that's needed for a portrait, especially a headshot. Here is an example of a portrait taken today with a single light - an Alien Bees B800 with a 20 degree grid on it. I placed the same silver reflector on a stand under the model's chest to get some light under her eyes. I had a white background, but that's inmaterial for this portrait, as any background would work. So it can be done with a single light.

As most of you know this is called "Paramount" or "Butterfly" lighting because of the shadow pattern formed under the nose. This is dramatic lighting without a strobe fill, just the reflector to add detail to the shadow on her neck. Makeup and postprocessing are really important, as harsh light like this is is unforgiving of skin imperfections.

C&C always welcome.