Over the last year I have taken many many headshots for students on campus here at Marywood. For the most part I’ve done some very standard headshots, similar to the photos you’d have taken for your school picture. However, I recently had the opportunity to take some more artistic headshots for some music therapy students, and I am very happy with the results!
When the students I was photographing asked if they could bring their instruments for their headshots I was thrilled and knew it would be an opportunity to do some more experimental work and push the boundaries of the normal 3/4 pose I normally pose my subjects in. I thought back to the portraits of musicians I had seen in the past, and decided a black seamless paper background would be best for the dramatic and theatrical theme that I was trying to reproduce. I did darken the background in editing via the background selection mask in Lightroom Classic to get the exact mood I was looking for.
For lighting I knew I wanted about a 45-60 degree angle, and for it to be very high up. My go to for lighting now is the Profoto flashes we have in the studio, as they are a great source of diffused light that produces great highlights and shadows. While incandescent and LEDs can be good to learn with as it is easier to see how the light will fall on your subject, now that I can clearly visualize light before taking the shot I have grown very fond of the benefits of flash. It is also incredibly powerful and allows me to shoot with a wider aperture when desired. These photos were shot mostly around f7.1, 1/125th of a second, and ISO 100. This shutter speed ensures a sharp image for a minimally moving subject, and the aperture keeps enough of the subject in focus while achieving a soft background.
While I did do some regular headshots with standard posing, the lighting and black background really helped add to the theatrical feel. As far as color correction and enhancement, I kept the colors pretty true to what they were in person, increasing the vibrancy and warmth to compensate for the camera. As far as editing otherwise I did sharpen the eyes as well as tune down some of the glare on the guitar where distracting. The eyes are considered the most important part of any portrait, so I typically sharpen to make sure they are as sharp as they can be while looking natural. Glare when photographing shiny objects or especially glasses can be a photographers worst nightmare, so I always make sure to avoid as much glare as possible when shooting so I can limit my editing time. Taking a few extra seconds to readjust your model or any subject you are photographing can save you hours of editing time and is definitely worth while.
For this student’s portraits featured below, he wanted to showcase multiple instruments and I was once again over the moon and very excited for the results. I used the same lighting but some different posing and angles to emulate his personality. I did little directing here and there, and had him move between shots to get some variation as I had done previously. I am very happy that in both cases I was able to capture the student’s respective personalities while still keeping them consistent in the style of more theatrical headshots. I’m looking forward to doing more work like this in the future and enjoyed the opportunity to push my work with these images.
