I usually post on the Sports forum but I think this the place to ask for shooting headshots. My son's girl friend asked me to take some headshots of her that she can use to submit to pro sports organizations when she tries out for the cheerleaders.
I have no idea on how to shoot headshots, so I am asking for advice from all the professionals on this particular forum. These are some of my questions for now. I might have some more or if you think I might have left out something, please let me know.
1) Do I shoot different angles of her(left side, right side, front)?
2) What kind of background would I need?
3) How should I set-up my lighting?
4) Shoot indoors or outdoors?
5) What poses?
6) Out of what I have, what would be the best lens that I can use?
7) Manual mode, AV, or P, or TV mode?
My equipment that I use right now for shooting sports are:
I also have a white 10x10 popup with white panels that I was thinking of using outdoors as a softbox and then using one of the 580's as fill. Would that work?
I would say for a cheerleader tryout ( did some for a sport team a few months ago) you need emotion. Headshot with big smile and teeth. Not a fake look , it needs to be her real look. A lot of eye contact with the camera ( people looking at photo) and tight crop into the hairline about 1-1 1/2 inch. Solid background that does not mix with her hair color. Not much will show if tight anyway.
Also a 3/4 length as they will want to see her body and muscle tone.
If you have to ask about lighting then use natural doorway light. Place girl in a doorway or open garage door with sun on opposite side of home. This should be soft even lighting with just enough shadows to give balance.
I prefer the 85mm or 70-200 for the headshot. Stay away from too wide a lens for the full body as you do not want to distort any features.
Camera Mode...Please say you know how to use all that equipment. Manual only
Keep at least at F4 so the face and nose are in focus with slight OOF past the ears for the head shot.
It needs to be good. She will be going up against some nice photos and all the girls are beautiful so she needs to stand out. It will come down to eye contact and smile when looking at the headshots. If you don't get an amazing shot then I suggest hiring someone who can so you don't cut down of her chances of being picked.
nice solid vibrant clolor clothing that has a good contrast with the background , avoid clothing with patterns as it competes with the subject , sometimes white is not a good choice for clothing too/ i still preefer solid vibrant colors.
