Decided to update my personal headshot. Nice modern, clean commercial look.
Used some old ass Speedotron brownlines - I got from craigslist a while back. 400 watt pack and three heads. Not a lot of power control so I had to use some ND gels to shoot with this low of an F stop - f/4 in this case.
Two bare strobes behind for edge lights - 3 stops of ND gel
Key light was a strobe in a 41 inch black/white bounce umbrella and 2 stops ND gel on the reflector. used a silver reflector underneath for some fill.
Hasselblad 553ELX // 180mm f4 // Phase One p45 - tethered into C1
Triggered all with some pocketwizards.
A lot of ingredients but all to the good in a very well lit shot. I always find self portraits tricky to focus but this is very well executed.
You honestly think this is well lit? Would you care to explain how you came to that conclusion I would be interested to hear your rationale.
For me it highlights the facial features while being darker towards the rear of the shot and under the chin. My assumption is that this is not for art but for a clean light shot of the photographer for use in marketing. As such I don't see anything wrong with it. It sounds like you are of a different opinion. What are your thoughts?
You feel the two hot areas that appear to be pinching the sides of his head gives a clean look? Again I’m only commenting on what’s there but the combination of the very shallow dof and the lighting create quite a strange elongated head effect.
Brownlines will last forever, a friend is using a set he bought used 30 years ago :)
IMO it seems over lit. But that's just my opinion.
Not sure why there is an edge light from both sides. Pick one side, but if you use them I would go higher to light the hair, not just the cheeks. The edge lights seem to have a odd color cast seen on the skin and the shoulder. They really bring out the ears.
How far away from your head was the umbrella?The forehead is the brightest area so maybe the key was too high and too frontal? Silver fill cards have bugged me forever LoL maybe ok in a glamour shot with jewelry but not my first choice.
The blue shirt is a bit overwhelming but that is an easy fix in PS.
So in my normal business head shots I typically only do one edge light. I wanted something a bit more sporty, modern and edgy and I had a more direct symmetrical look in mind for this. This look with only one edge light looks unbalanced. Good point though about maybe raising the edge lights so its gets my hair more rather than my ear area. I appreciate the feedback.
In all honesty I hadn't noticed the two highlights on the sides. The left being more noticeable now, could be reduced and provide a more balanced image - thanks for teaching me something.
Thanks. Being tethered helped. Then just manually tweaked until it was about right. After a few shots you gain some muscle memory of about where to be.
I think this is a good example of kit excess totally defeating the point. If we leave the overcomplexity of the kit to one side and just look at the shot. The subjects head appears to have been caught between the compressive jaws of two of the lights giving it the appearance of a bearded jellybean. I think the photographer needs to think about what he was trying to achieve, use as much kit as possible or create a meaningful headshot.
I think a much more effective headshot could be achieve with just one light and a lot less faff.......and a reflector if required.
I think this is lit relatively well. Personal preference on the edge lights is to have them extend to the top of your head to help separate your dark hair from the dark background, but it looks like you had some NDs on them already. My biggest knock is that the color on your face feels off.. just a little too yellow for my taste
Good point about extending the edge lights. Not sure if even using some striplights would help since hair and skin tend reflect light differently. Usually hair needs a bit more intensity but that would really amp up the highlights on my skin. I will have to double check the shots I took with the edge light 1 stop brighter and see how those looked.
Center of the face seems like a decent color to me you are right the edges as key light falls off does seem to have a greenish yellow cast.
Thanks for the feedback.
Agreed about the center of the face appearing fine with color, it's definitely towards the edges of your face where it turns greener. I do think the image would benefit using strip lights or some larger modifier to help extend the highlights