Head-shot How-to's

I thought I would do another little instructional series. This time on how to do a good head shot.

The basic ingredients for a head shot are obviously pretty simple:
1. A head (preferably attached to a body)
2. A camera with a long-ish lens
3. Lights/reflectors (optional)
4. A suitable background
5. Appropriate clothing
6. Image editing software (optional)

Putting them together just right can be the difference between an OK head shot and a great one.


1. A head
This is probably the second most important part of head shot photography. Although heads are fairly common, it is slightly less common to find a head that wants (or likes) having its picture taken. Most often this head will be in the form of a person needing a photograph, however it is not uncommon to go out and find consenting people who will agree to a head shot even if they don't particularly need one.

One of the first things you will want to do, should you be photographing someone who needs a head shot, is to find out how they will use the photo. Pretty basic. You don't want to photograph a gentleman in his workout clothes if he needs the photograph for an annual report. This doesn't really require much more explanation.

2. A camera with a long-ish lens
The camera/lens is the most important part of head shot photography. Although, arguably only slightly more important than the head itself. Without a camera there is no photograph!

Why a "long-ish" lens? This is because of the pleasing effect of a telephoto (or long) lens commonly known as "compression". Typically we think of compression in terms of backgrounds and the effect it has on them. However, if your subject should have a rather large nose, the compression of the long lens will help make it not as noticeable. Unfortunately this doesn't work for ears.

Whenever you watch a football game (or most other commonly televised sporting events) you will notice how when a player is on the screen, he/she is sharp and clearly focused while the people in the stands behind them are turned into a big blur of color. (See image for example) This blur is a direct result of a long lens and the compression it creates. This is especially useful in photography as you want the subject of your head shot to stand out and be the center of focus. You don't want the viewer to be looking at the background.

Another reason for a long-ish lens is that wide-angle lenses tend to make your subjects look un-realistic. Typically with wide-angle lenses, anything not directly in the center of the lens will be skewed or stretched a bit. If you ask photographers that do a lot of head shots what their favorite lens is, two lenses will pop up very frequently among the answers. They are the 85mm prime lens, and the 70-200mm zoom lens.
The 85mm offers razor sharp images because it is a prime lens (primes tend to be more sharp because they don't have as many elements as a zoom lens). It is, however, possible to convert any prime lens into a zoom lens. To do this, simply use the two appendages below your waist to move you closer or farther from the subject.

The 70-200mm lens is a great portrait lens because it allows the flexibility to zoom in very close to the person, while remaining a safe distance away in case they didn't take a shower that day. The 200mm end of that lens offers amazing compression which makes for very flattering portraits and head shots, but with the twist of the wrist, a wider shot can be composed for variety.
There are many other lenses that offer a farther focal length than 200mm, such as the 300mm or even the 400mm lenses. However, the drawbacks to using these are 1) super-telephoto lenses can cost upwards of $5,000. 2) The lenses are VERY heavy and cumbersome to use, allowing limited mobility. 3) In order to frame the subject properly, the photographer would have to be so far away that communication would be limited to smoke signals, walkie-talkies, and signal flags.


3. Lights/reflectors (optional)
Having lights and/or a reflector will help you to have more versatility. For example, a reflector is commonly used to reflect light into a darker part of the face. However, it can also be used to keep light off of the face altogether. Having lights means you don't have to battle the harsh sun light. Simply find a spot of shade, or use the reflector to block the sun, and you can provide your own light, however you want it to look - hard/soft, strong/weak, colored/neutral, left/right, from above/below, etc.

Typically, head shots are lit with soft light, either from a light source with an umbrella or softbox, or with light reflected from a large (white) surface. However, if the face is right or the client requests it, hard light can be used to make a much more dramatic portrait.
If the subject is a female, or if the subject's hair blends with the background, a hair light is typically used. The hair light will create a nice highlight on the subjects hair, which is flattering and also serves to keep the person's head from blending in to the background. (As illustrated by the painting/portrait to the left)

Help-Portrait 2009

I had the great pleasure of participating in the first global help-portrait day.

This video will explain it better than I could hope to:



I arrived at nearly 10:30 and immediately started setting up. The people there had provided us with a white seamless.
I borrowed my friend Mike McLean's dyna-lite kit and headed down there.
There were 200 people, in 69 groups!
I was at station 1 of 3 and shot about 35 of those groups, including a group photo of 30 people!!

It was a very interesting experience. Some people couldn't wait to get in there and have their photo taken. Some people just refused to smile, while some people wouldn't come near the camera.
In general though, everyone there seemed very grateful for the opportunity (either to serve, or to be served).

Some of my favorite moments and the photos that go along with them:

#1

This couple had just had a baby girl. The father would not smile at all, no matter what I did or said - as long as I had the camera to my eye. So I stopped shooting for a minute and started talking with them. After a very short while he was laughing and having fun and while he was looking at his wife and smiling, I really quickly raised the camera up and took a photo. The flash brought both of their attentions right back at the camera and really quickly I got off two more frames before the smile vanished from his face. He came up to me after we were done, while I was showing his grandmother the photo, and told me that I had "blind-sided" him. I thought that was pretty funny.

#2


This guy came with all of his grandkids. Only problem was, he wouldn't smile, and neither would half of the kids. After trying to get one particular child to smile by threatening to have his grandfather tickle him, I got the brilliant idea to have ALL the kids tickle grandpa. So I told them to tickle him, and watched through the camera for just the right moment. Finally they all turned back around and while they were all still laughing I snapped a few frames.

#3

This man was obviously not very comfortable in front of the camera. I got the impression he was trying to just look tough and get it over with. So I started asking him what he planned to do with the photo once he had received his print.
He started saying he was going to send it to his "momma". Amazingly, as soon as he started talking about his momma, his face went from serious to happy and I got the photo above on the right.

#4

This guy is pretty well known around the community, as well as the church ministry that works down there, who we were recruited by. His reputation was to never smile in any photos. So when I took a few photos of him, people started asking if he was smiling. I looked back through my files and sure enough he had not been.
So I had him and his wife sit in for a few more, and like with the first photo, I waited patiently for some people around us to distract him enough to where he forgot I was there, and sure enough, he smiled and started to laugh. I caught this moment and showed it to his wife. She begged me to send her a copy of just him (the original photo has her in it as well) so she could have something to carry around with her.


Its moments like those that helped make the day a memorable one.
Hopefully next year we can do it again!

More to come!

Babies - they make everyone smile (well almost...)

I agreed to act as "photographer" for a friend's "baby's first birthday" party.
Didn't realizing that there would be a whole pack of little rugrats running around! But I quickly settled in and got a few great photos.

Here is my favorite (ironically not of the birthday girl...)



Shot through a play house window.

Basketball Profile

My good friend Mike and I were speaking to a friend of Mike's who is the Journalism teacher at Richardson High School and he wanted us to come in and work with him on lighting up their gym for athletic events, and shooting games.

We were planning on doing a 3-light setup, with one light being on the wall behind the goal, and the other two either side of the gym aimed back towards the basketball goal. However, as we were setting up the light behind the goal one of the players came over and seemed very unhappy about the fact that a light was going to be going off in his face. So, we took it down so as to avoid being told we could not shoot at all.

After a few test shots with the 2 lights, we more or less had the light that we wanted, and the game started. However, after shooting the first quarter, we decided it would be better to have a 3rd light for fill. During half time we snuck the 3rd light back up to where it was originally, and went back to our shooting positions. Nobody said anything to us, and our photos were lit much more evenly.








Once I had tried to capture a few action shots I remembered why my camera was not necessarily the best suited for fast action sports photography! So I got a bit more creative with it.






One of the players is 17-year old Dominique Dorsey. At first you wouldn't notice anything about him that is different other than the fact that he is one of the team's better players. But you would quickly pick up on the fact that there is something amazingly special about this young man. He was born with meromelia (a medical term describing absence of part of an arm or leg).

When we heard that he was one of the best players on the basketball team at RHS, we had to set up a quick session with him. Unfortunately, it was between the JV and Varsity game, in the locker, and we only had about 4 minutes before all the players and coaches were breathing down our necks to get out of the way so they could change and get ready.
I did manage to squeeze this shot out though. And we are already working on getting Dominique for a more serious session, hopefully with no one waiting impatiently for us to get out of their way!

The Dallas Morning News came an visited RHS a few weeks ago and did an interview with Dominique. To read it, click here

Intermission

I have taken a little break between posts of "The Chemistry of a Photoshoot" but don't worry it will be back soon!

One of the reasons for the break was because I have been pretty busy over the past few days.
I threw together a shoot with a male model I met on a modeling website. Considering the time I spent prepping for my last few shoots, and the short notice of this one, I was rather pleased with the outcome.

We started with a few concept shots that I had seen on several different websites. These are great if you don't have a theme or need a starting point for your shoot. I sent Alan my ideas and he responded with what he liked and what he needed for his portfolio. From there we set a day and time and it all came together.

Here are a few of the images I've had a chance to edit:









Alan is probably one of the best models I have ever worked with. As soon as I said "action" he jumped right in and started giving me killer poses and facial expressions. That definitely made the shoot a lot easier!

I'll put more up soon!
Hope you all had a great weekend.
R>

Kicking Off a Personal Project

In a previous post, I mentioned how I covered a reunion of Neonatal ICU children.
This was truly an eye-opening experience for me as well as a moment of inspiration.
I met so many kids that day who had lived through unbeatable odds, or through incredibly difficult conditions and situations. It was really like standing in a room full of walking miracles. Some of the kids were probably barely out of the ICU while some were well on their way to having a normal childhood by now.

After editing some of the images from that day, I came upon the idea to do a personal project on some of the kids who have been through the NICU. The goal was to find out the story behind these kids and to take their photograph. Last week my idea became reality as I had my first shoot for the project. Now I was planning on saving these images until I had shot a few more, but the more I look at the images and the more I think about the story behind it - I just can't wait any longer. I know it is a lot to read but I want to share it with you.

I would like for you to meet Ryan Holliday.

Ryan is 2 years old. His parents noticed something different about him when he was born. His father thought his head was shaped a little differently than normal. They thought it may have just been their imagination but their fears were confirmed. They discovered something was wrong with him when he turned blue while the nurses were giving him his first bath.

They soon found out that Ryan had been born with Pfeiffer Syndrome. This is a genetic mutation which results in a fusion of the skull bones. This meant that Ryan would have to undergo surgery to open up his skull, allowing his brain to grow. This is a pretty rare mutation, occurring in only one out of every 100,000 children born.

Fortunately one of the nation's top specialists for this surgery is located here in Dallas and Ryan was able to get the surgery he needed and be on his way home after just a few days.
When Ryan was about 15 months old the tiny bones in his nose were so squished together that his nose quit functioning and he was forced to get a tracheostomy tube to help him with breathing normally.

Fast forward to today and Ryan has had 7 surgeries already. Every 6 months he has to go back to the hospital for an MRI of his skull. If it reveals that the brain needs more room he has to stay and get his skull cut open, an 8-10 hour surgery. This will continue until he is 18 years old and the brain stops growing.

When he is 5 or 6 years old he will go in for a midface surgery. The goals of this surgery are to move the midface out more helping him with breathing; to move the jaws out to help chew; to alleviate any teeth crowding; and to help his speech. After he has had his first midface surgery his nose should be open enough to support the consumption of oxygen and he can have the tracheostomy tube removed. When he is 14 or 15 he will have another midface surgery. After this second midface surgery his eyes should look more normal as well.

For every surgery Ryan has, it sets him about one month behind the development of other children his age. As you can imagine, after having 7 surgeries in 22 months Ryan is a little behind on the average toddler. However his parents have taught him to sign a few things so that he can communicate with them. He is also starting to say his first words which is a huge encouragement.

His parents have tapped into the amazing resources provided by the internet and have met other parents with children who have pfeiffer's as well as children who are dealing with this syndrome. One of which was a 19-year old college student. There is every reason to believe that Ryan will develop into a handsom young man with normal intelligence and normal life expentancy. All of this has helped to encourage the family quite a bit in their journey.

Despite the difficulties that he faces and the challenges that come with Pfeiffer's syndrome, his mother remains very optimistic. Ryan is as playful and full of life as any kid I have been around in my life, which is amazing when you think about all he has had to go through.

These photographs do two things to me every time I see them. First and foremost they make me want to go over to Ryan's house and give him a huge hug.
The second thing they do is challenge me to not take the little things for granted in life.

Thank you Ryan