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Chris Ingram's picture

First "cinematic" headshots

Hi guys, I've been shooting actors headshots for a number of years and have generally only worked with natural light, sometimes a reflector, and sometimes a bare speedlight with a 1/2CTO to replicate a sun/rim/kicker light from behind. After watching Dylan's headshot tutorial I finally decided to give his style a go on a recent shoot where the client wanted something a bit different and eye-catching. Their shots were predominantly for online use, and in promotional materials for speaking appointments etc, so the landscape format works well for them. I'm still not convinced how well local actors are going to respond to the aspect ratio / formal here in Perth...but we'll see. I can always try the style but in portrait orientation for them, which isn't as powerful to the eye, but still nice.

I'd love to get some feedback on this first attempt. I feel like the kicker was a bit strong. Perhaps it needed to be dialled down in power, or feathered across the back of their head more. I'm used to having a kicker roughly 45 degrees behind and pointing towards the subject...habit I guess.

Let me know what you think

https://fstoppers.com/photo/81447

https://fstoppers.com/photo/81449

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2 Comments

Chris
Great shots, love the backgrounds and lighting is very nice . The great thing about Dylan's style is the diversity of backgrounds. One suggestion is a little more time on skin retouching. I have been using Portrait Professional 12 which I love. On selling the landscape format tell your client that your eyes are horizontal, we read books, magazines and watch movies on a horizontal plane.
Keep up the good work.
Gaston

To be honest these had next to no skin retouching aside from a few spot removal stamps in LR. All edits were done in LR. The final images will have a bit more skin work done on them as per Dylan's tutorial I think.

Great advice about the horizontal pitch!