I have been doing headshot photographer for some time now and I would like to share with you some of my experiences and also technics I use to make a good picture. Every time I have a new client in the studio I start simple. Most of the time with white background and nice soft bright light I always play good music for them and take lots of pictures to worm up the clients and to relax them a little bit. Being a headshot photographer in London it’s not easy coz there is a massive competition and you have to do everything to stand out from the crowd. The key to success is good lighting and expression you can pool out of your model. If one of them is not right there will be always something missing in the image. Here is my favourite set of lights for headshot photography. I set two lights in clamshell position, on the top I put softbox or beauty dish and on the bottom softbox of the reflector. To make light nice and soft I place them as close to the model as possible plus close lights give you beautiful catchlights which are an absolute must in headshot and portrait photography.
I’m shooting wide open to create great depth of the field but remember when you shoot 2.8 or 2.0 make sure that your focus is perfect other ways you will find lots of soft and blurry pictures. I focus on the lower eyelid and most of my pictures are ok. I shoot full-frame and most of the time I use 70-200 F2.8 lens, for some reason, I feel like that is the best lens for the job. Its nicely compressing the background behind the subject and it helps to get read of all the distracting things in the pictures. I always place my model far from the background that the key light does not affect the background. I just like to have full control over the lighting.
Here are some of the pictures I took using clamshell lighting set up.
