DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> Techniques for taking actor Headshots
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 5 of 5, (reverse)
AuthorThread
01/10/2007 07:41:28 AM · #1
Hey. As a photography student (well, film student technically) I've recently been asked to do a number of headshots for some students from the Theatre side of the department.

I Have looked through most of the many portrait threads a number of times, and have found some Great information, but I'm wondering what I need to know more specific to headshots for actors. Mostly the students are wanting standard 8x10 b+w. Although I'm not incredibly experienced, most of the students are coming to be because they've seen what I've already done for Other students that they've liked.

I am familiar with basic lighting setups (from my film training and photography tinkering with my D70), and recently I've been using our film soundstage's Cyclorama as a giant 40'x40' reflector/soft box by aiming the entire lighting grid at it and facing the subject towards the wall, to fairly nice effect.

Any suggestions for posing, or thing I should be watching for, or lighting setups that work particularly well for actor headshots specifically? Or anything else? Thanks!
01/10/2007 08:04:36 AM · #2
I like what this guy does: Kevyn Major Howard

I don't see it on his website right now, but he used to have a video demonstrating how he did some of his headshots.
01/10/2007 12:08:43 PM · #3
I watched that at some point - yeah, he's really incredible. I tried replicating it (something close to it) for the first shoot I did and it turned out really well, including getting good pictures of a girl who says she's Never liked a single picture of herself. Problem is that the sunlight that day just happened to be perfect, and I don't know that I could do it again.

Looking at those again reminds me of something I was looking at earlier - everyone is always ("always") leaned forward tso you get this very prominent but kinda strange curving shoulder-line in many of the shots I've looked at. It's not always the case, but often.

I've also been frustratingly told that LA headshots and NY headshots have a very different style to them, and actors will often get different sets for both cities. I'm not really worried as much about that since I'm smack-dab in the midwest, but it's a good illustration of this being kind of complicated.
01/10/2007 12:10:45 PM · #4
Originally posted by elsmacko:

I watched that at some point - yeah, he's really incredible. I tried replicating it (something close to it) for the first shoot I did and it turned out really well, including getting good pictures of a girl who says she's Never liked a single picture of herself. Problem is that the sunlight that day just happened to be perfect, and I don't know that I could do it again.


I seem to remember the whole point with his style was that it worked equally well on cloudy or sunny days - his house faces the northern (i.e., non-sunny) sky, so he's just getting a huge soft box (sky) behind the camera and a big reflector under the subject, to make effectively a huge beauty dish sort of lighting. Add in the fact that he was shooting in a garage (which removed the overhead sky lighting and the style is relatively easy to reproduce.

The forward lean tends to help people's features, thin them out, make them look more engaged and also gives a much faster DoF fall-off to the shot that works well for that style. I'm sure there's more to it, but I've seen some people copy it pretty well spot on, without too much effort.

Message edited by author 2007-01-10 12:12:29.
01/10/2007 12:20:53 PM · #5
These were some shots that I took of my daughter immediately after having watched Kevyn Howard's video:

- - - -

I used my garage (the light in her eyes comes from the garage door being open) and a big reflector sitting in her lap.


Pages:  
Current Server Time: 09/08/2025 02:13:20 PM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 09/08/2025 02:13:20 PM EDT.