Non Profit Headshot Session

Here is a quick download of a nonprofit headshot session I did in 2020.  I was photographing with a low ceiling and I didn’t want to sit people down.  So, I placed my Paul Buff  PLM and Einstein flash parallel to the floor.  I had to take a little more care to ensure the catch light in the eyes could be seen.  If the person lowered their head too much, the catch light would disappear and leave the eyes lifeless.  I turned the modeling light up quite high which helped me see if the catchlights disappeared.

Here is an example of some eyes that look lifeless due to missing the catchlights created by the flash..I had the flash set up the same way I did for the nonprofit shoot.  The only differences are:

1. The PLM and Einstein were set lower to the ground since the subject was sitting.

2. I had a lumedyne flash with a 25-degree grid to the camera left adding a little separation from the background.  (I wish I had turned the light up a little bit more.)

OMD EM5 II,  Olympus 14-42mm

You can see that her eyes, though they have some light on them, they do not have any catchlights.  In my opinion, it is not very complimentary.

Here are a few pictures of the equipment I used for the nonprofit shoot.

1. PLM and Einstein mounted on the boom arm parallel to the ground.  

2. 400 w/s Lumedyne

3. Westcott Mini Apollo used to light the background

4. A small tabletop mounted to a light stand covered with some white material. This gives subjects something to lean on.  Many subjects have told me they like to use it because it gives them a little separation from me.

5. The last picture is a crop showing how I created a problem while posing one of the subjects.  I had the tabletop adjusted too high and when her head was tilted to the camera right, it caused the skin to bunch up.  I adjusted her pose and continued shooting, but this is an example of how you can shoot yourself in the foot while posing people.  This was not a heavy woman.  The problem was created by me.

EM5 II and Einstein Flash

Here is one image from the shoot.  The lighting did not require any adjustments.  Just some skin touch up and contrast adjustments. The background was metered at about 1 and 1/3 stops above the main light.  The main light was metered at F 5.6, but I inadvertently bumped the fstop to F5 for a couple of images.