Fleet Maker

Shooting Portrait Head-Shots at Home - Made Easy With Simple Step-By-Step Instructions

The ultimate expectation of shooting Portrait Head-Shots at home or in a hired studio, is made easy with these step-by-step instructions to help you.

Getting Started It’s really quite simple and after having read this article and with some experimentation, you’ll be shooting like a pro…

What You’ll Need, To Start From a Simple Beginning:

1. CAMERA, 35mm. SLR., (single lens reflex), will be fine if possible with a 28-80 zoom lens, or separate prime lenses 80mm., or 100mm., for head shots and 50mm., or wider for fashion shots.

EVEN BETTER, a ‘MEDIUM FORMAT CAMERA’ such as:-

Bronica SQAI, or Hassleblad 501CM, or Mamiya 6, (format size 6×6cm.), with a 150mm. or 200mm., lens for head shots and a 80mm., lens for fashion shots. NOTE, using a medium format camera, will give you a better IMAGE Quality, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, it will slow you down and:-

MAKE YOU THINK LIKE A PROFESSIONAL!

2. TRIPOD, use a solid heavy duty one. Check out the second hand market.

3. FLASH. (Studio Flash), a separate studio flash unit. Start by checking the used photo equipment stores, trying to find good second hand studio flash units.

4. FLASH METER. Visit your photo suppliers and check out the new and second hand stock. Ask for advice, it’s better to find one that you feel comfortable with.

5. DIGITAL or FILM STOCK: If your using film then 100 ASA, film speed, will do just fine in most situations. At this stage you have to decide if you want to shoot with color print film, color transparency slide film, or black and white film.

SIMPLE LIGHTING SET UP For Head Shots.

SEAT YOUR MODEL: On a stool, one or two meters in front of a plain background, talk to her, she’s nervous too. (Read that line again!) It’s Important. Keep a good ‘rapport’ with your model, she will work much better with you. Did she fix her hair and her make up OK. If possible it’s a good idea to have a make up artist and hairdresser on hand to help you, the more attention to detail the better will be the results.

SET THE CAMERA: On a tripod, at the same height as the models head, borrow a stand in model to sit in for a few minutes, while you ‘GET TO GRIPS’ with the lighting set up. At this stage, you will realize what an advantage it was, you spent your ‘hard earned cash’ on a new or used studio flash unit, with built in modeling lights, to give you some idea of your lighting effects.

REMEMBER YOUR STUDIO LIGHTING: Should be set up and ready to use, long Before your model walks on the set.

POSITION YOUR ‘BROLLY’ FLASH: About 45 degrees angle to one side of the camera position and also about 45 degrees angle above the models head. The distance between the Flash and the subject’s head, (for head shot’s), should be about one meter flash to subject distance.

PLACE A LARGE WHITE REFLECTOR: To the opposite side as your flash unit, as close as possible to the subject. Sometimes it’s a good idea to place a flash unit bounced into the reflector as fill in, taking care not to over power your ‘Key Light’. Next, place a small white reflector under the models chin, to bounce light up to the shadow area under the chin.

FLASH METERS: Now, check out what exposure you should use and set the f. stop, (aperture), on the camera. The shutter speed is not so important in the studio, as long as it’s no faster than the camera’s recommended flash sync’ speed, or slower.

IT WOULD BE a good plan to do a test run the day before, allowing you time to process your test shots and check your exposure and lighting. Many professional photographers use a medium format camera in the studio, which can be fitted with a Polaroid camera back, allowing them to make instant tests on the spot. Also there are some Pro Photographers that use medium format cameras in the studio which have been fitted with special Digital camera backs, allowing the images to viewed on screen immediately.

OTHER LIGHTS: It’s also a good idea to add two or three other lights to your studio set up, (if the budget will allow).

A HAIR LIGHT: At the back of the set and to one side, fixed about two meters high, clipping the models hair. This should have a ’snoot’ or ‘honeycombe’ fitted to the front of the light, to prevent stray light falling on the camera lens.

BACKGROUND LIGHTS: Can also be put to good use, to light up, or create effects with the background.

IT’S REALLY A MATTER of experimentation to develop your own technique, until you have perfected a pleasing effect and you are more or less satisfied with your results. In the meantime you can drive your friends and members of your family crazy in trying out your new found skills… And then…

SET UP YOUR own small portrait studio in a spare room or garage at home.

JUST KEEP ON TESTING untill you have mastered the art.

To learn more about Portrait Head Shots, go here: Pro Portrait Head Shots

Roger is from London and started out in the days of the Swinging Sixties when London was quite a place to be. Roger says that In those days he use to shoot catalog fashion shots with a 10X8 inch View camera, so the transparency images would be the same size as the image on the catalog page. “I have to tell you right now that took quite some doing. Now I spent most of my time with my website: Pro SECRETS of Money Making PHOTOGRAPHY writing and teaching photography, shooting the occasional assignment”.


To learn about Shooting Pro Fashion Photography go here: Pro Fashion Shoot

A Digital Photography Tip - The Secret Of Clear Digital Images

Recently I’ve been getting a lot of questions about clarity. This leads me to the answers about lenses. You know if you do not have a good lens you do not have a good photo- generally.

The reason I say that professional SLR is much better than a prosumer camera or a point and shoot is not because of my desire to look “pro” when I take photos its because of the amount of control you have over the photo. You can control the light so much more; you can control the exposure and the general aspects of the image. And with this freedom comes the choice of getting the clarity via the lens. To gain the ultimate freedom in picture clarity first of all you need to know what lens does what.

Fixed focal length lenses

A fixed focal length lens is a lens that is on most point and shoot and prosumer cameras. They are normally an average wide angle lens. It’s kind of like a “mid range quality” lens. If you then take a zoom lens and compare the two, a fixed focal lens is smaller and often has a larger max aperture. This is good, because they work pretty well in low light situations. These lenses appear clearer than zoom lenses. The only problem here is that your person or subject can appear smaller than you would like unless you move in closer.

Zoom Lenses

And what of a zoom lens? Without going into overly technical details, zoom lenses often have more practical focal lengths for digital photography. They can give you a good angle perspective for filling the frame for example. These lenses are great if you need to take shots closer when it’s impossible to get closer to something.

Optical zooms lenses are the best. My advice to you would be to forget digital zoom altogether. Digital zoom is not a real zoom, in other words it’s not a true representation of what’s there. You’ll just get more noise on your image which can’t really be edited.

The problem with zooms is that they loose light the closer you get. They have lower apertures and this can be difficult in low light conditions. In some situations it’s possible to use the flash and have adequate lighting, but other times you use the zoom because you are far away from the subject and the flash is only effective a few meters away.

There is no general answer to “What lens should I get?” The answer is it depends on what your camera can do and what you want to do yourself. But the more you understand what lenses do what, the better off you are of making an informed decision and get the right lense for the job.

Best wishes,