So just look straight towards where you really are beautiful. Now let’s relax let the rest seconds say. There you go. I could theoretically like a little tight. Beautiful.
When picking your location to shoot what is really important for headshots is always get your model to look out. So at the moment, if you turn around says Rosie, it’s me. We’re actually got this amazing seascape here. What we don’t want, we don’t want the seascape because that’s not going to help headshots. We want a very plain background. So instead, we shoot into a room or a building great things or our garages substandard. Open garage and you just have the guards in the back. We’re in the Bahamas. So we found this amazing room. And the model is looking out so, they’re getting this beautiful clean look on the light’s hitting them, it’s ready even. Though, we’re shooting into a dark space so it gives us that great contrast. In fact, I’m just gonna take a photograph here.
And then I’m going to take a photograph this way and I’m going to show you this with the same settings. I was on before so she’s pretty much going to be in silhouette but if I set up my settings so that she’s going to be exposed correctly. I want to show you the problems you’re going to get that image is going to come up on the screen now. I hope so, I’m actually going to have to go even further with this. What you’re going to see is the background is going to be completely blown out and white and useless and she’s going to look horrible. But it’s not going to look like it should actually look exactly. So always remember you’re looking into the light and you’re shooting in somewhere dark. Now something which is great and we’re going to do a few shots here.
If the sun is really high in the sky, it is today but in no way do we have the sunlight hitting her.
Always keep your model in the shot in the shade. So one way you can actually use a reflector to go like this. You can actually block out the light from her or another thing that we can do. So actually you can see with Lauren. It’s fine today but we’re going to do a few shots to show you there might be some shadows underneath his chin. That’s completely normal. What you can do is actually ask the model to hold one of these. This is a reflector. It’s just something shiny essentially you can buy them they’re really not very expensive and you get them to hold this. What you can do, I’m going to put my camera down. You going to say to them and hold the edges like this and you’re just going to hold it in underneath. You know when you see those videos of people that are tanning. Exactly like that but keep it down. There we go. So this is a big one or what we don’t want to do. And so the challenge here is we’re going to have this in the model. So if you’ve got an assistant, they would hold it but my assistant today is filming this. So you’re going to say exactly. I’m just going to take a couple of photographs. Let me reset my settings to the ones that we actually need. And you going to see that under the chin.
Actually , i would crop out your arms and you look great stunning. So what I’ll also do is I’m shooting directly at her eye level. What I don’t want to do is be shooting up and down a lot of people do that. It definitely gives a level of innocence but with a headshot. I want to deliver just her from shooting low, it’s like a hero shot makes a superhero. In fact, we are going to shoot like that with her later on and from above makes him look a little like way feel nothing about a headshot. We want to give exactly, She is because that’s how she’s gonna get hired. She’s an amazing dancer. And for me, you do musical theater and all sorts of stuff. She’s great. So we’re shooting headshots and I’m using a eighty-five mil today. My settings so that you know F 3.2. It’s a 1.8 lens but I don’t want to shoot with the aperture wide open. Because I want to keep her eyes super sharp and importantly with headshots or portraits. The most important thing to shoot is the eyes. That’s the only thing that you want to focus on. And if the model is slightly to the side you always focus on the eye closest to the camera. Sometimes when you switch the model, when you switch their side, you need to make sure that you actually change your focus points so that you switch from the left eye to the right. Since, it is the closest one to the camera because if you don’t the image is essentially unusable.
Now framing wise can you just step in for me? So when we actually crop it we’re going to crop off the top of the head here, here and here. But that’s not how we’re going to actually take the photograph. I want to give myself a little bit of leeway around the outside. In case, I need to straighten it. Or, I can manipulate the image a little bit more if I do that. So I don’t actually photograph the size that you want. Give yourself a little bit of movement because that’s a mistake that a lot of people start out with. They look through the lens and you’ll photograph “Oh! This is my framing” then move back a little bit and give yourself a little bit of leeway.
Also when shooting, it’s important that you don’t just keep clicking for the sake of it. You always wait for the model to change that expression. And usually, Lauren’s amazing at this. She will change after the click. So I’ll give a click and then she’ll change. If it’s a brand new model, it’s good. You can communicate with them you say great. And give me something else. Take a photograph and then oh try this and try and get them to change their face slightly or their motion each time.
Now this is a really great trick that we can always use and you don’t always use the photographs from it but you can say to the model. Face this side and then you’re going to turn your head back to me. So now I’ve got them to look to the side. Now even if you want a straight-on headshot. This is great to work with a model and talk to them like this because it gets them to free up and be a little bit looser as they work. Then you can put them back into the position that you want. So right now we’re doing standing headshots which are really simple. They feel really comfortable. And it’s always good for standing to look at their spine. It’s easy for somebody to be like this when they’re doing headshots always get them to open up their shoulders. We’re shooting a dancer. We don’t have that problem today. Awesome. So the twist slightly to the other side you know which is your best side now. That was just some people know that like cool. So Tricia’s shoulders slightly so face me here. Great. And then bring your eyes to me. We’re going to do exactly the same. So face me over here and then bring your eyes to me this way.
So we switch things up a little bit now. Now she’s in a full-on commercial look. And this is what’s really important is taking care of the wardrobe. A lot of the time as a photographer you think oh without that is going to show up and be fine. Fortunately, this guy knows exactly what she wants and how to do it. Rosie, who is recording now is also kind of my head of wardrobe. So she’s awesome at selecting things but is your job as a photographer to make sure. Figure out what the purpose of the photos is and also where they’re going to be shown. So she wanted a real commercial look. So this here for a commercial dance is absolutely perfect for right now in 2016. And this is what she needs. Still just a headshot. So we’re only worried about here up but. So we’ve completely changed the lock. And actually this time I’ve switched out lenses for this one. This is an icon 105 f2.8. I don’t, I often forget to get this one out but it’s actually probably my favorite lens for things essentially macro lens. You can get in super close to things. We’re going to use it headshots. The reason why it’s so great is, I can actually step further away from my model because the lens brings me in closer and it means that it’s going to crush the background even more. And you’re going to see with these photographs the model is going to look spectacular. This lens is crazy sharp as well. It’s amazing.
So if I look a little hot and sweaty. Now that’s because we just took about a 45-minute break because I forgot this little thing here which controls my life. Don’t do that when you shoot. So we just decided to switch it up a little and do some high fashion stuff what we’re doing now is we’re shooting with an Allen complex are a 500 speed light and not a speed light on a light.
Before we did headshots it was very relaxed and very not too many angles. Now, it’s the exact opposite. A step back towards the wall. Beautiful. I like that a lot. Scoot back a little bit for me. You be open forward and we head down. Just chin down, just a little look at the lens. That’s going to say I’m going to sort out.
Just going to pull it back. Want to get all of your beautiful necklines. Let’s go to the rocks. So now we’ve done inside. We’re going to go outside and there are some awesome rocks and this one we’re going to balance the Flash against the sky. We set the camera up to expose the sky which is really bright.
That would make the model really dark. And then we add in the flash, which is going to light her up and make her look spectacular. It’s going to be fun but we’re going to do all of this in about 10 minutes because it’s so hot to make sure the model does not get sweaty.
If you are looking for a headshot photographer in Fort Myers area, then contact ADM Photo and Video. We have a professional photographer who will be able to help you with your headshot needs. We also have a wide range of other services that we offer, so be sure to check out our website for more information. We look forward to hearing from you soon!