Good communication with your subject, posing, and post-processing are all crucial skills as a headshot photographer, but you also need to have a strong grasp of lighting to make great images. This comprehensive video tutorial will show you how to create lighting setups for portraits and headshots.
Coming to you from Yaneck Wasiek with Westcott Lighting, this excellent video tutorial will show you how to build lighting setups for portraits and headshots. If you are new to artificial lighting, it is generally a good idea to start with a single light first. This will allow you to more easily build a strong foundation and an intuitive understanding of things like relative light source size and fall-off without having to manage more complicated setups. On top of that, it is important to remember that you can absolutely create great headshots with a single light. Once you master the single light, then it is time to start adding more sources to your setups. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Wasiek.
If you like to continue learning about how to light headshots and portraits, be sure to check out "Illuminating The Face: Lighting for Headshots and Portraits With Peter Hurley!"
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Yes, generally women's lighting is flatter. If you introduce (more) shadow to your headshots, that's a more masculine look. There's still plenty of depth to his lighting on her face.
Do people consider this to be good lighting for a portrait?
It may be ok for someone with very good bone structure but to me it looks sort of sort of forensic.
I definitely wouldn't, but the guy who wrote those two paragraphs and somehow considered it an article sure seems to after glancing at his headshot..
The lighting looks horrible... Who would recommend this?
People who know how to light a headshot.