Corporate Headshots

 

The Setup; classic blue back drop
Rear: 8' x 8' calumet portable backdrop
Left: 42" white shoot through umbrella, SB900  shooting Manual
Left: camera on heavy tripod
Right:  42" Photoflex Multi-Disk and holder (silver/black/gold/gold-silver

White Balance, Light Meter
Sekonic L358 light meter and Grey Card

Classic Blue Backdrop
One shoe flash through white umbrella
Black negative fill disk to right

Black and white conversion
Color portait with blue backdrop converted
in Photoshop / Nik Silver efex pro

High Key Portrait
2 flashes reflected off umbrellas at white backdrop
2 flashes reflected off white umbrellas as key and fill

I shoot quite a few of these head shots for business folks.  These are used for business cards, media advertising, business publications and as avatars on social networks.  Two primary styles are shown; classic colored background and classic high key.  I use a Calumet portable backdrop which allows a much smaller foot print and only one light stand in a highly portable easy to setup package.  Once the setup is ready to go, through-put is fairly fast.  I allow 4 to 6 shots per hour but often move along much faster.  

The setup for the classic color background is usually shoe flash shot through an umbrella left, with a reflective 42" disk on the right.  The blue backdrop portrait above has a black negative fill disk to provide about 2 stops of difference between the light on the key (left) versus fill (right.)  I had to use a black disk and the wall to the right was reflecting too much light.   The key light is 30-45 degrees left ("Rembrandt") and 24" inches away to create a very soft key light.  I shoot manual to avoid shot to shot differences that TTL and other auto program modes create; this is caused by differences in skin tone and clothes.  Not a big deal if your shooting one image, but the difference is very noticeable to a client when reviewing a screen full of thumbnails.  

The high key portrait requires two flashes blowing out a white backdrop, one key and one fill.  I set the flashes to over expose the backdrop according to the highlight and histogram on the backdrop.  If I change any camera setting I recheck the white backdrop flashes to avoid a blue or grey cast in the backdrop that I will have to deal with in post.  Key and flash are flashes reflected off umbrellas 45 deg left and right usually same distance and setting.  

In both setups sometimes I use a hair or background fill flash; sometimes this is a single flash shot through a 1/4" grid, or a flash reflected off a gold / silver reflective disk.  

Flashes are hot shoe Nikon SB900s or LP160; flash power is set using a Sekonik L358 light meter; so very simple once you get the hang of it. I trigger the flashes using Pocket Wizard Plus II's; I trigger one light with the pocket wizard and the rest are set to fire using the optical sync ~ the other flashes fire when the first flash fires.  I want to shoot at 1/200sec and f5.6 most of the time, and the light meter tells me how much flash power to use.  A few test shots and your ready to go without much guess work.  Almost all lights are of in the room especially if they are florescent, but at 1/200sec they don't contribute much to the image.    

I shoot a D300 or D700 at around 100mm focal length.  The D300 crop sensor with at 70mm (using a Nikor 35-70 f2.8 lens) is a great combination that has become one of my favorite setups. I shoot a grey card once all is setup as my reference, and shoot it again if I change any camera or flash settings.  I shoot mostly TIFF, sometimes RAW if I am having a challenge with a huge mix of color and bright lights are on and I can't turn them off. 

This kind of portrait work is very enjoyable if you like meeting new people and chatting which I do.  The work can be very efficient if you are careful with your setup; many shots are just about ready to go out of camera.  A touch of color (or black and white,) crop and your ready to go.  

I have worked in many different types of businesses and this often leads to other work.  Recently a head shot job turned into a referral to shoot lifestyle portraits for a media campaign for a hospital cancer treatment center.  Fun stuff.