I am shooting a friends head shots for her acting portfolio this coming week. She is very aware that I have never done head shots before, so it is helping me out as well as her by giving me practice and her free head shots! I am still a little nervous because I want them to turn out nice for her....she is so sweet, and deserves to have some amazing photos. I recently bought a stater kit of sorts...a back drop stand with black and white back drops, and two umbrella lights. I am working with a Nikon D3100 (that i LOVE)....if ya'll could just offer up any tips, advice...anything at all really, I'd so appreciate it!! Thanks in advance :)
ok... first what lighting and mood do you want... look for the standards... butterfly... wide... short... myself for a female actor... I would using something sloppy like a Jup-9 at f2 with Rembrandt lighting(triangle of light on face) for a bit of a vintage look... remember not to get to crazy thin with DOF.... the eyes need to be lit very well and the focus spot on... use a tri-pod for head shots...
(google anything you don't understand... I just want to give you some leaders)
@icywarm thank you! a lot of that is so foreign to me...i REALLY need to read my books! but i am going to google all that, and i reallllly appreciate the help!!! :)
Hey Molly, not sure how helpful they are but I have several head shots taken with different lighting _ have a look through my albums and if anything "grabs you" and you want to ask anything please feel free. I am also on Facebook Michelle Gaynor ~ so you could PM??
Good luck. A great head and shoulders, portrait shot is lovely to have.
Lighting is def important. Decide on a mood you want to go for ahead of time (Serious? Silly? Happy? etc) then, setup lighting accordingly if you can. If you dont have strobes to work with, i highly recommend shooting outdoors during the "golden hour" (the hour right before sunset or right after sunrise) this will be when the natural light is the BEST for pictures.
As Jordan suggested, you dont want TOO thin a DOF (Depth of Field, which is the amount of blurriness in the OOF [Out of Focus] areas) BUT you still want to have a good amount of DOF (imo anyway). I would shoot at ~70mm and play around with your aperture (A lower number will have more blurriness, a higher number is less) to get a feel for how its going to work for you. Remember that the farther away the BG is from your subject, the more blurry it will appear as well.
If youre going for beauty shots, id find a local botanical garden or park to shoot at. You dont want the BG to be TOO noisy, but some good foliage is always nice.
Last but certainly not least, remember to have fun! Experiment with ideas, even if they sound silly, you never know!
@michellegaynor thank you! i absolutely love your work, especially the shots of your daughter....i will be looking you up on Facebook :) @eliserose781 those are wonderful! i love the angle on some of them, i wouldn't have thought to do that! thank you! @3nder i think we want a few serious, and then some happy ones! i want to really capture the beauty...a garden is a great idea...thank you for the points with aperture...very helpful!!!
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(google anything you don't understand... I just want to give you some leaders)
couldn't find the strobist blog quick... but this sums it up...
Good luck. A great head and shoulders, portrait shot is lovely to have.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.562880961382.2064998.150101495
As Jordan suggested, you dont want TOO thin a DOF (Depth of Field, which is the amount of blurriness in the OOF [Out of Focus] areas) BUT you still want to have a good amount of DOF (imo anyway). I would shoot at ~70mm and play around with your aperture (A lower number will have more blurriness, a higher number is less) to get a feel for how its going to work for you. Remember that the farther away the BG is from your subject, the more blurry it will appear as well.
If youre going for beauty shots, id find a local botanical garden or park to shoot at. You dont want the BG to be TOO noisy, but some good foliage is always nice.
Last but certainly not least, remember to have fun! Experiment with ideas, even if they sound silly, you never know!
@eliserose781 those are wonderful! i love the angle on some of them, i wouldn't have thought to do that! thank you!
@3nder i think we want a few serious, and then some happy ones! i want to really capture the beauty...a garden is a great idea...thank you for the points with aperture...very helpful!!!