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lee arthur's picture

"cinematic" headshots

What exactly is the difference between a "cinematic" headshot and a regular headshot?

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3 Comments

In a nutshell, it is meant to too more like a still from a movie...cinema. The look is one a blurry, yet also very compressed background, and slightly dramatic lighting.

Lee,
Take a watch through Gladiator & Exodus Gods and Kings. Ridley Scott is very intentional with headshots (aka Closeups) during important conversational scenes, such as Maximus and Proximo discussing the arena. Stop the movie and take a good look at what he uses as a background, and how in or out of focus it is. Also, the tight crop he uses with the actors. Although it is standard fare in cinema, many photographers don't capitalize on it in their work. The compressed background Joseph importantly alludes too is achieved with a good zoom lens, usually around 135 - 200mm, fstop in the f2.8 - 6.3 range. Hope this helps. -Greg