Headshots
A simple mobile studio setup for capturing employee headshots or formal portraits. I’m using a main light, a reflector for fill light, a hair/rim light, and an old master’s hand-painted background.
Headshots for any size business
Have you ever been walking down a hospital corridor and seen all the photos of the doctors and nurses? Those are considered headshots or formal portraits. Businesses can use headshots or formal portraits in many different ways. Here are a few popular ways that businesses can use headshots. They can feature their employees in-store or online, promote their business with social media or website and use them for email signatures. Any size business can benefit from using headshots.
I was recently approached by an individual that needed a headshot. I could set up my mobile studio at his place of business for the convenience. I asked his workplace if they could also use headshots of their workforce for social media promotions, their website, or email signatures. They replied yes. This one person's job just turned into a small job which equaled a big win for me. Since I already had my equipment set up for one individual, I could easily add the rest of the employees while I was there.
What is a headshot?
Most people ask for a headshot when they actually mean a formal portrait. What’s the difference you ask? Mainly, it’s the way the photo is cropped. A traditional headshot is cropped in a way that it just shows the shoulders and head and can even be cropped into the head. Usually, the background is white, black, or not distracting and the subject is looking into the camera lens. This type of headshot was very popular with actors and models, who would then have comp cards made to leave at managing agencies. With the invention of the internet, actors and models now use websites to promote themselves to agencies.
What is a formal portrait?
The formal portrait is cropped with more of the upper torso showing and the entire head. The subject can be looking into the camera lens or away from the camera lens. The portrait can also be cropped to show 3/4ths of the body. Portraits can be photographed in a studio or out in the environment, so the background can be anything. There are certainly many more options that can be done with formal portraiture.
Below are two images: the one on the left is a basic headshot, and the one on the right is a formal portrait.
The techy side of the photoshoot
My small mobile studio is considered “old school” in this day and age. I still use a Profoto Acute 1200 power pack with a 2 light setup. The main light (positioned camera right or left) is used in conjunction with a soft white umbrella and then bounced off a silver reflector (positioned opposite of the main light) for fill light. The second light is the hair/rim light up to the top left side of the background pointed down at the shoulders. I triggered the lights with a set of Pocket Wizard remotes. As for the background, it’s an old hand-painted master's canvas. What makes this setup “old school” is that it’s bulky and heavy, and power/extension cords run everywhere.
I use a Sekonic light meter to meter my lights. Using an ISO of 100, the main light was metered around f/8.5 and the fill light was right around f/5.6 or maybe a little lower. The combined average was around f/8.3. I set my camera for ISO 100, shutter speed at 125th/second, and the aperture at f/8. After the photoshoot, I imported the images into Lightroom. I did very little to “tweak” the images. I white-balanced, set a small tone curve, added some vibrance, cropped, and then added a vignette. That sums up my easy mobile studio setup and workflow.
Modern-day equipment is much smaller and lighter
My “old school” setup could drop about 25 or more pounds just by getting modern equipment. The Profoto Acute 1200 kit with 2-D4 lights, reflectors, cables, and adapters in a Tenba AirTravel case weighs a little over 30 lbs. A Westcott FJ400 twin light backpack kit comes in a little over 16 lbs. That’s an incredible weight difference. Not to mention the case sizes. A backpack-sized bag compared to a Tenba AirTravel case, which takes up half my luggage area of my Tiguan. My canvas background is 6’ wide and fits in a fishing pole tube for travel. That takes up a lot of room in a car/truck/SUV. I could replace that canvas background with a Denny Manufactured Twist-Flex background that would fold up to about a 28” diameter footprint about 3” thick. Now that’s even more room and weight saved. I can’t trade out my background stands because good heavy-duty ones still have some weight to them. I already use a carbon fiber tripod to save on weight too.
Overall
I had a great time photographing the employees. Since I had not taken portraits in a long time, it was good to get my old equipment out of storage. I am glad it still worked. You can’t beat Profoto for making equipment that lasts. If your business needs some formal portraits or headshots please feel free to contact me. Below is a selection of formal portraits taken for the small business.
