On Assignment: Employee Head Shots
A few weeks ago, I took the photos of about 30 employees for a government contractor in Fort Collins, CO. These were to be simple head shots for the company’s use on the web and in an employee directory. Nothing special.
Here’s a diagram to show how the lighting was set up for the employee photos:
The camera was about 15 feet from the subject, set to 70mm with a shutter speed of 1/250th to kill the ambient light. Aperture was set to 6.3 to throw that background a little out of focus (helped by the longer focal length). This also let me choose a low power on the flashes to use less juice and recycle quickly.
The key light was a Canon 430EX set to 1/4 power, and shooting through a translucent umbrella. I feathered the light forward to soften it and direct a good portion of the light across the subject and onto the reflector.
The gold reflector bounced the light back into the shadow areas and warmed them up, giving the subjects a nice glow.
The background light was a Vivitar 285HV, set to 1/16th power and zoomed out all the way to give a tight light pattern. It was up about 8 feet off the ground, and placed about 6 inches from the wall. The light was pointing down at about 45 degrees. This made the light sort of “skip” or “scrape” down that wall, adding lots of shadow to the rugged stone. Had I pointed the light straight at the wall from a distance, it would have come out looking flat and lack interest and shadow.
This was a very quick throw together shot. I got to the hotel about ten minutes before the employees, picked the spot in about a minute, and threw everything up in a hurry. Two test shots to get the lighting nailed and I was off and running. Bang bang bang, 30 people in about ten minutes. Each person was literally less than 20 seconds. They sit down, a couple posing instructions, *click*, “Next”.
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September 6th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Very helpful post – thank you!
September 7th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
What kind of Triggers do you use?
September 8th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Thanks for coming back to the land of the living! I’ve been checking with bated breath…
Nice shots. Great color, razor sharp, looks great.
I haven’t used my 430 in months, and I’ve been looking to get back to it. I have a 20-something inch shoot-thru umbrella, a lightweight light stand, and a cord, all packed into a neat little bag. It’s so easy to use, but I’ve been spending most of my time in-studio.
This encourages me to go back to the 430. Thanks, Tim!
September 9th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Jenny – you’re welcome
Peech – I use Pocket Wizards. Love em love em love em!
Scott, my man – It’s great to be able to occasionally post these days. Life is so crazy I hardly have time to think. I won’t promise any full time, regular appearances, but I’ll do my best to be more active with the posts. The funny thing is, traffic to the site keeps building!
Of course if you want to see what I’m up to regularly, you can check out my photowalking blog at photowalkingcolorado.com. That blog doesn’t require much time commitment, so you can always see my latest non-portrait work there.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
There is a huge amount of wasted space in these head shots. It’s almost as if you have used a horizontal format for what really should be a portrait (framed) shot.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Stephen,
You’re right, there is a lot of negative space in these shots. But that was as designed. Just because it’s a portrait doesn’t mean you have to fill all the space in the frame. Here’s a shot I came across that also uses a lot of empty space:
http://www.adareimages.com/photo_233747.html
October 6th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Absolutely Tim. There’s a way of using space creatively, and there are others shots like your man in the orange shirt, where it looks like a mistake.
October 6th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Sorry to hog the message board space. I wanted to add that my shot (that you linked) is of a Band called Monoband (former Cranberries Guitarist Noel Hogan gone solo – the name implies “one man band”), so it was important to show him alone, and so I left the space to his right empty. There are also other shots on my website that use space in portraits. You might like this one of Irish actress Francis Healy that shows graffiti on a wall in the town where she grew up. Space is good, but not when it looks like an error – and I usually combine it with “the rule of thirds”.
http://www.adareimages.com/photo_1340706.html
October 28th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
The spaces doesn’t bother me at all, very nice and helpful post for me, thanks
November 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Gee Tim, its been so long since ive seen a post! And i dont know how i missed this one off the RSS?
Just wanted to add, that i think there may be some truth in what Stephen is saying, i too kinda thought the background, or the negative space was, imho a bit much.
But then again Stephen, not that im any authority, but i dont think the pic of Monoband quite cut it, and as pointed out, the negative space indeed looks like a mistake, by virtue of the fact that you see the big blaring reflection of the softbox on the wall, which to me is something i hate to see.
Hmmm, just my two cents, more just to say HI again
Keep em coming mister Solley. (and i cant wait for the day the pocket wizards are so expensive, do you know i could buy a car for the price of 4!!!! bloody conversion rates, customs and shipping!!!)
January 8th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
I like how you used the negative space. I do Corporate head shots also, so I know how important the Quality versus Volume dilemma can be. Nice work . Sometimes the most important thing is to “Kill it and Bill it!”
Thanks for sharing.
Larry
December 30th, 2010 at 11:04 am
Hi Tim,
Just want to say thank you for being so wonderful regarding explaining light in such a lucid manner.
I admire you for sharing your knowledge such as “Juza” the Italian photographer. His website is http://www.juzaphoto.com/eng/photo_galleries.htm. Just fantastic!
I would be very grateful if you could answer a question please; is Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM Nikon fit lens is a good one for landscapes?
Take care
Pat
UK
December 30th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Thanks Pat. I have the Sigma 10-20 for Canon. I absolutely love that lens for landscapes, even portraits (with some key restrictions). It’s a great lens and a great value. Colors and contract are nice. It’s a sharp lens. Color saturation is spot on. I give it a thumbs up.