Some Useful Tips for Lighting Bald People in Video

Lighting bald people can present some difficulties, as the extra exposed skin can create additional hot spots that take some care to prevent, while separating them from the background often takes a bit of a different approach than when working with someone with hair. This helpful video will show you a proper lighting setup for someone who's bald.

Coming to you from Caleb Pike of DSLR Video Shooter, this video examines the unique challenges of lighting a bald person and the solutions. Though the channel and tutorial above are geared toward video shooters, the tips readily translate to stills shots as well. The problem with lighting a bald person is that the skin on the head and face tends to be rather shiny, which can produce a lot of unwanted highlights and hot spots in your videos and images. However, the skin on the face all occupies roughly the same plane, making it easier to position and angle lights in a manner that avoids the creation of those hot spots. Because of the roundness of the head, however, the normal vector is constantly changing, making it far more difficult to create a lighting setup that doesn't create a hot spot somewhere, which is where the tips in the video come into play. Check it out above for the full rundown. 

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Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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2 Comments

Good stuff. And thanks for chopping the hair off. Its so annoying when people hold on to the last strands, they look like Gollum. I think I only have a few more years till mine has to go too 0_0

Tip I learned a few months ago for a bald (or other facial) highlight: Dupe your entire layer, sample next to the highlight, and paint over the highlight using "Darken" instead of "Normal." It will look funky but then play with the layer opacity and at 30% - 60% it will look pretty good.