I’ve been thinking that I need a quick go-to lighting solution for doing head shots. I wanted to devise a KISS (keep is simple stupid) set-up to make it a no-brainer anytime someone needs a head shot. Unfortunately, this is not that tutorial! That one is hopefully coming soon. So, actually, this is more an exercise in making the light you want when you’re in not the most ideal available light conditions.
This time I was going to shoot a head shot for my friend, actress and model, Melanie Jean. We decided to do it late in the afternoon for that soft natural light feel. We were going to shoot it in my back yard, but the way the house and trees are situated, the sun still had to be a bit high in the sky to get any direct light into the back yard. So much for that magic hour light I was hoping for. I had a choice of shooting her facing the sun, which was still too harsh, or shooting her facing away from the sun and towards the house where there was already pretty dark shade. I opted for the latter.
So, instead putting her just out of the sun or in the shade and bouncing some light on to her face, I decided to complicate things, because that’s apparently what I like to do! That mere bounce wasn’t popping enough for me and shooting into the shade gave me no hair light or separation of her dark hair to the background.
So, here’s how I tackled it with a single Canon 580EX Speedlite and a few modifiers:
I positioned her so her face did not have direct sunlight on it, but her hair did, so it got a nice rim light on it. But it was still pretty bright on her hair. So I decided to cut it 2 stops by using a 2 stop neutral scrim between her and the sun. This black mesh scrim doesn’t spread or color the light, it just cuts down the intensity. Knowing that that hair light would actually be the brightest spot in the picture, I needed to cut that down so I could keep a low F-stop for a narrow depth of field. That cut the light down do about a f/5.6 and I knew my F-stop for her face would need to be about a f/4.0. Her dark hair could take a stop brighter than her face without really blowing out.
Now to get some light on her face. One of my go-to pieces of lighting is always a 3×4 white foam core from the art store. I put that puppy on a stand with an articulating mount so I could position it at the angle to get the best light on her. That’s filling the right side of her face. You can see that reflection in her eyes.
Next was to put some pop into the photo, so I went with a 580EX flash, remotely triggered just to my left (her right). I countered the hair light coming in from the right with the key light coming in from the left, which also happened to be where she needed the most light. It was about 2.5 feet away from her and to get my f/4.0 reading I cut it down to -32 power. I had it mounted with a small 12×14 soft box to it and it made for this nice soft, even light while still giving me some pop to the shot. It also gave a nice catch light in the eye, which you can also see in her eyes.
Finally, since her dark hair had a nice rim light on it from the sun, I wanted to put a little bit of light on the other side to bring out the detail in her hair that was facing away from the sun. So I positioned a small, narrow silver reflector just to her right (my left) and slightly in back of her. That gave me that final touch to the hair that I wanted. I just finessed it, moving it forward and tilting it so it was just enough with out looking “reflectory”. I hate that look. The silver reflector on her hair gave just enough kick without being too harsh. I also find that using the white foam core on skin vs a silver reflector, gives me a more neutral, ambient light fill vs something that looks like a light source or like a reflector. But the reason I went with a silver reflector on her hair is that her dark hair ate up that bounce, but the silver gave me enough kick, and I also made sure to keep it off her face.
I shot this with a Canon 5D, ISO 100, f/4.0, 1/60th with a 24-70mm L lens focused at 70mm on a tripod. The reason for the longer shutter speed was to open up some light in the background where the shade was. I knew that the flash would give me my exposure on the face I needed and making a longer shutter speed would brighten up that background just enough to get some detail in it. My typical shutter speed of 1/125th that I like to use was making the background too dark. At 70mm and a 1/60th shutter speed, I didn’t dare hand hold that shot. I’ve tried that before with my 70-200mm and even the slightest motion from you can kill getting a tack sharp shot.
So that was easy wasn’t it!?! Okay, I’m sure it’s supposed to be easier than this, but I’m on my journey to figure out my go-to, perfect location, and time of day for head shots where I can just bring my camera, one reflector and maybe a Speedlite.
GEAR
1 white foam core board (available at stores like Michael’s or Aaron Bros.)
1 white foam core board holder
1 2X scrim
1 small silver reflector
4 stands to hold scrim and two reflectors, and Speedlite.
Bogen tripod
Canon 580EX Speedlite
12×14 PhotoFlex softbox with attachment for Speedlite
cheap Ebay, remote trigger/reciever for off camera Speedlite
LINKS
