p.1 #1 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
I'm going to shoot a large number of headshots of middle school student actors next week for the school's annual production (over 40 kids, believe it or not). For the kids, I'm going to use a Qflash fitted with a Kacey beauty dish with diffusion and a silver reflector underneath, a technique I'm very comfortable with. I know I'll get a bright, snappy, and fun look for these kids. Background will be all white, or all black, or gray (haven't decided which).
Now here's my problem/question: during this same shoot, I'm also going to be doing headshots of a handful of adults, too: teachers, administrators and parent volunteers related to this production (probably seven or eight of them, most if not all will be ladies). These folks will be "normal", with all of the features we would expect from "normal" people (if you catch my drift). My working assumption is that the beauty dish setup I'm using for the kids may not be the most flattering setup for the adults. I'm thinking I may need to set up two distinct shooting sets where we're doing these.
So I'm interested in any feedback you care to offer in terms of the best lighting mod to use for these "normal" adults, as well as key light position. For example, basic loop lighting with an umbrella? Loop with big softbox or octa? Butterfly, etc. etc. "Universality" and "forgiveness" are probably my two key priorities, as these headshots will all be done in one afternoon, so I don't have time to tweak everyone's individual lighting grid. At the same time, I'm not looking to create a substantially different look than the look of the kids, so I'm not going for a dark, moody, portrait of the adults. So, do you think I should stay with the dish? Or go with a different approach?
p.1 #3 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
I looked at your site (nice work, BTW). I found some photos of adults and it looks like you did a fine job. I'd go with your gut instead of what might be posted here by folks with far less practical experience.
If you feel the need to change patterns, as you suggested, I think short lighting in a loop pattern with a big octa as key would be a good way to go. Maybe you could use the same setup as for the youth, but with a softer white reflector instead. Whatever you choose, good luck with your shoot!
p.1 #4 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
Steve,
I use my Qflash's extensively for headshots. Here's a recent example of my set up. I use the 26" Quantum softbox for key and the 12" softbox for a kicker. The only thing I wish I had of done on this shoot is to have added a reflector for fill on camera left. Be careful of the reflection coming off eyeglasses. There's a number of ways to do this, but I just keep my key light higher coming down at an angle to avoid the reflections.
For this shoot, I did headshots on over 100 people in a little over a 3 hour period and the Quantums kept up the whole time.
Jim
p.1 #7 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
It's difficult to beat butterfly lighting for a full face portrait (key light overhead with nose pointing directly at it) because the symmetrical pattern of the highlights and shadows which complements the symmetry of the full face pose. There isn't a sideways nose shadow to deal with, which with a sideway pattern can vary with the size and shape of the nose. With butterfly the regardless of nose size and shape the shadow falls below and the nose blends in with cheeks making the eyes and mouth contrast and become stronger focal points.
It is a logisitically simple strategy because key and fill are together at the shooting position out of the way of full traffic. When I use butterfly with the studio lights I mount both lights on a single stand with the key on top and the fill attached using a Super Clamp + 6" extension arm about chin level with the subject.
Keeping key and fill the same incident strength results in a 2:1 reflected ratio with no harsh unfilled shadows anywhere. It creates a look very similar to what is seen on news sets on TV. Depending on the look I'm going for I'll sometimes place reflectors to the sides slightly behind the subject out of frame as "kicker" accents. I usually use a 16x22 SB with a circle mask and 40° egg crate grid as my hair light. But for bald guys and whenever I want a softer look I use a 10° metal grid and aim spot of the light at the ceiling between the subject and background rather than directly at the head.
p.1 #10 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
Ronny, I just bought this last week. What a tour de force! When you boil it down, the key messages Peter Hurley conveys are pretty straightforward, and there aren't that many of them. But boy, does he deliver. In the end, it isn't so much a revolutionary or difficult lighting concept, it's the expressions he coaxes from his subjects. Rocked my world!
p.1 #11 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
He uses 4 lights on the subject. Clamshell with lights plus each side of the womans face. Same with men except one side in shadow. With actors, age doesn't seem to matter to him.
The lights are both about 7-8ft from the subject. That mades the front > back rate of fall off very gradual so the shadow stay light in tone all the way back to the ears. That differs from how butterfly is often used in fashion and glamor, just a foot or so away from the face, which creates the opposite effect — very rapid fall-off that frame (and works to slim) a full face view with darker shadows, which on a white background will make the sides of the face contrast with it.
I keep the fill is about chin / nose level with the subject so it stays "neutral" in the sense the camera sees no shadows from the fill, just a flat lit subject. That's where I keep it most of the time in my portraits, even for short lighting, for a couple of reasons: it puts the nose physically closest to the fill source which puts the lightest tone shadow on the nose, and the shadow gradient rolls off smoothly front > back on the face, not back > front as when fill is placed to the side.
When it comes to fill you always need to be aware of the "spill fill" factor. In my case my basement studio is so small I get wrap-around fill effect from the light bouncing off the ceiling from the key light's footprint similar to an overcast day. So its not just the light at chin level providing the fill.
These are typical of the results I get with that configuration in my space:
I'll typically start most sessions that way, especially with kids who I let goof off and relax before getting down to more serious posing. The low-ratio (key and fill equal at 1+1:1 = 2:1 reflected ratio) is very forgiving and allows a lot of freedom of movement without needing to worry about distracting shadows because they were looking away from the key light.... http://super.nova.org/TP/MM_action2.jpg http://super.nova.org/TP/MM_2299S.jpg http://super.nova.org/TP/MM_2045S.jpg
It's not dramatic or glamorous 'cause that's not my "style". To the extent I have one my pretty mundane and conventional with the goal of making people look "normal" in flattering light.
By the time I've exhausted all the posing options with the butterfly strategy I've got a better read the subject's facial symmetry and whether to face them right or left oblique / short lit poses. It the face is symmetrical like those kids it really doesn't matter which way they face because both sides are similar. But more often than not faces aren't naturally symmetrical like my wife's niece...
Notice the difference in the jaw line? That can be minimize with an oblique view... http://super.nova.org/TP/Ann/0520_Screen.jpg http://super.nova.org/TP/Ann/0535_Screen.jpg
It can also be minimized in full face views by putting the key light on the narrower side of the face, which creates an optical illusion of balance because the highlighted side seems bigger.
But in a production line situation you don't have time to be moving the key light from right-to-left to accommodate the subject's "best" site so the most expedient strategy is butterfly with low ratio to keep the shadows light, which will work to hide any asymmetry and wrinkles.
The beauty of digital is that if you fill for the shadow detail, and set the key based on highlight detail — which fits range to the sensor — you can alter the look of the lighting ratio on the face in Photoshop with a minor tweek of the middle slider in Levels or brightness / contrast in ACR.
As for "Clamshell"? As I understand the term, it is a butterfly variant where the lights are placed above and below the face so close they envelop the head like PacMan eating a power pill as done in fashion and glamor shooting... http://super.nova.org/TP/Clamshell.jpg
That puts the fill under the chin aiming upwards which result in canceling the modeling of the key coming down at the opposite 45° angle. It's not a matter of good or bad, but for my tastes fill from below comes off looking unnatural because in nature the fill from the sky comes from overhead most of the time; exceptions being situations like the beach where the sunlight bounces up off the sand.
So by virtue of keeping my fill up at nose level the variation on the centered key light butterfly strategy I do isn't clamshell...
p.1 #14 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
"The beauty of digital is that if you fill for the shadow detail, and set the key based on highlight detail — which fits range to the sensor — you can alter the look of the lighting ratio on the face in Photoshop with a minor tweek of the middle slider in Levels or brightness / contrast in ACR."
I was shooting like this last Thursday at the jam session. I used one key light on my right on a stand on an existing table with a small silver umbrella and a Nikon SB800 flash triggered by a PW Plus2 at the camera. I was using the various room lighting as "fill" instead of a flash for fill as I did the week before. I was carefully watching my "blinking highligts" indicator on the Nikon D300 camera body so as not to blow out facial highlights with that key flash in the umbrella. I adjusted my ISO and my flash power to give me what I needed on the faces while maintaing a background that did not turn dark. Minor tweaks in LR therefore, were adding a slight amount of fill if necessary or toning down the highlights slightly if LR gave me the blimking highlight signal. I had to be careful to let the flash re-cycle properly and even with multiple musicians, it all seemed to work.
p.1 #15 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
Photographers in the studio, using butterfly lighting, ask the models to hold a bounce flat under the chin to bounce up a little light to eliminate or soften shadows.
p.1 #16 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
williamkazak wrote:
Photographers in the studio, using butterfly lighting, ask the models to hold a bounce flat under the chin to bounce up a little light to eliminate or soften shadows.
If they're only using a key light, maybe. When we're using a key over fill setup, there's no need for the model to hold a reflector because the fill light (often a soft box or three-panel reflector) is already "filling" that role.
p.1 #17 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
cgardner wrote:
...As for "Clamshell"? As I understand the term, it is...where the lights are placed above and below the face so close they envelop the head like PacMan eating a power pill as done in fashion and glamor shooting...
That's pretty much the way I use the term, as well.
"Butterfly" always refers to the pattern of shadow on the subject's face, not to the way the lights are set up: a butterfly-shaped shadow is cast under the subject's nose.
"Clamshell" always refers to the way the lights are set up, not to a pattern on the subject's face: two lights are placed one above the other, like the two halves of a clam's shell.
Now, butterfly lighting is often created by using a clamshell setup, but there are other ways to do it. Likewise, a clamshell light setup can create butterfly lighting, but it can also create other effects depending on how the subject is facing, etc. That holds true for other standard terminology as well; you can describe the effect -- short lit, broad lit, butterfly, Paramount, Rembrandt, etc. -- or you can describe the setup -- clamshell, key-over-fill, ringlit, oblique, etc. Sometimes one way is more precise than the other, or is just better for describing what one is...well...describing.
It's easy to get hung up over terminology, so over the years trying to communicate concepts I've found it best to frame discussion based in cause and effect on various levels: the technical physics driven behavior of the light source, how it will reflect off the surface shape and texture it is illuminating, what 2D pattern of contrast that will create in the photo, how the brain will react to that pattern of contrast to move the eyes in the photo (eye path), how the 2D pattern will be interpreted as 3D shape, what will make it seem "normal" or not, finally arriving at what is really important and the broader goal of the exercise of taking and sharing a photo creating the emotional reaction in the mind of the viewer .
The challenge and craft in the exercise is understanding how the technique winds up triggering the emotions. That's what informs you what pattern, light distance and modifier size is the best choice in an any given situation. Start with a clear idea of the desired reaction in the mind of the viewer, then work backwards through strategies to find the techniques and tools needed to produce it.
You train your brain to make those associations by trying a lot of different things with the same set of tools and observe how it changes the look of the lighting on the face and how you react to it emotionally. That's usually done more objectively when looking at the work of others because we always tend to like what we did to create the look in the photos we take.
p.1 #20 · Advice/Suggestions on Headshot Lighting Mods
cgardner wrote:
Start with a clear idea of the desired reaction in the mind of the viewer, then work backwards through strategies to find the techniques and tools needed to produce it.
+1 @ "What's the point?" and "What do you want to convey to your viewer?"
Might seem like a little overkill for this application, but I find that there can be a lot of answers revealed by doing so.
To me, you've presented that the point of shooting the kids is XYZ, while the point of shooting the adults is ABC. If the point happens to be the same (i.e. a "glam" experience vs. the "comp" card), but you want one to convey "fresh" for one and convey "soft" (or "character", etc.) for the other, that'll clue you one way. But, if a "glam" experience is NOT what you're point for the others, then what IS the point ... that'll clue you otherwise. Before figuring out how to most efficiently transition ... clearly define what your objective is, so that you can decide how to play toward it vs. away from it ... then evaluate your transition options.
It could be that you just use the same setup ... i.e. if "the point" is to differentiate how a "headshot" differs from a "portrait". If you are trying to produce a portrait for the adults and headshots for the kids, then that will also clue you ... i.e. clear idea.
Me ... I'm leaning toward "Headshot" for all ... as I get the whole "point" of the shoot is to emulate / experience real world theatrical personnel "Headshots" in the business world of theatre ... i.e. different from "portraits" ... let the adults experience it also. Then the adults also increase their understanding of how a headshot differs from a "pretty" portrait and can help the kids get a better grip on the concepts involved. You might have to "coach" the adults with what to expect ... but I find it a key aspect of knowing the difference between a headshot vs. a tightly cropped portrait.
"What's the point?" and "What do you want to convey to your viewer?" ... i.e. educational/business tool headshot vs. pretty portrait vs. business portrait vs. etc.
