Today on the Slanted Lens, we’re going to show how to get simple headshots with just one hour, one light, and one reflector. So here we are. We’re heading off to a friend of mine, Tanya’s.
She needs a headshot for her real estate business. She’s been asking me for a while to do this and I keep putting her off. So today we’re doing it.
I have one hour. We’re going to use one light and one reflector. We’re not going to have time to talk while we’re there. We’re going to roll in, set up, and shoot.
We’re doing it at her house so it’s easy for her to go in and change clothes. Her house doesn’t have a lot of grass or anything. So we’re going to have to keep the background out of focus.
It doesn’t take 4 hours to get a shot like this. Really to get a nice shot of somebody it only takes about an hour, hour and fifteen. That’s plenty of time. After a while people get impatient. They’re not going to want to stick with it that long anyways.
For those who say I don’t do simple things. Today’s the day. Tanya’s going to use this image for her real estate business. So in preparation for the shoot, I went online to look at her competitors and tried to get an idea of what they all had done. I wanted to make sure I did something that was going to stand out and be interesting for her and her business. It’s really important to know the market and how the image is going to be used.
She needs to feel happy with the shot so I am showing her the images as we go. You know some people are uncomfortable doing that but in the end she has to be happy. So I wanted her to see the images, see the process, and feel positive about it. When we’re done she’s going to be a lot happier.
Yes, I gave in and brought out a second Baja B4 for rim light. Her hair is just going to look nicer with a little bit of light and brightness. I just couldn’t resist.
I’m at 200mm on my lens. I just love how out of focus the background becomes. But the background can be light or dark so I’m going to turn her slightly to get her in the right place so I can make the background look perfect behind her.
When the background is not interesting I go to the 200mm lens every time. It gives me the shallow depth and feel that I need to isolate the subject and make that uninteresting background just go away. If the background is bad just throw it out of focus and no one knows where we’re at.
We’re going to color correct the image that we shot of her in the white blouse and bring some color back into it. This was a simple shoot but applied so many photographic principles. I hope you found it interesting.
So our one hour, one light, one reflector shoot turned into an hour and a half, two light, and one reflector shoot. So it was close. We didn’t use high speed sync. So getting pre-loaded was all we needed. We went to try it at one point and it wasn’t happening very easily so we just moved on. Keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’.
Jay P Recommends for this Shoot
Video Transcription
So here we are, we’re heading off to a friend of mine, Tonya. She needs a shot for her real estate business. She’s been asking me for a while to do this. I keep putting her off, and so today we’re doing it.
So I’ve got one hour. We’re gonna use one light, and we’re gonna use a reflector. And we’re not even gonna have time to talk while we’re there. We’re just gonna roll in, set up, shoot, and see what we can get. We’re doing it at her house, so it’s easier for her to be able to change her clothes. The house doesn’t have a lot of grass or anything, so we’re gonna have to kind of keep it out of focus in the background.
It doesn’t take four hours to get a shot like this. You really should be able to get a nice shot for somebody in an hour, an hour and fifteen. I mean, that’s plenty of time. After awhile, people get impatient, they’re not gonna want to stick with it that long anyway. For those of you who say I don’t do simple things, today’s the day.
Tonya’s going to use this image for her real estate business. So in preparation for the shoot, I went online, looked at her competitors, tried to get an idea of what they all had done, made sure we did something that’s going to stand out, be interesting for her in her business. It’s really important to know the market and how the image is going to be used.
A ton of… (laughs) We’ve been here for ten minutes. We got here late, didn’t we?
She needs to feel happy with the shot, so I’m showing her the images as we go. You know, some people are uncomfortable with doing that, but in the end, she’s gotta be happy.
Can you take a couple of more like that?
So, I want her to see the images, see the process, feel positive about it, and when we’re done, she’s gonna be a lot happier. Now, the light’s gonna have to go a little further over, and up just a little bit. Cause I’m seeing it in the frame, here. There you go.
Yes, I gave in and brought out a second Baja for rim light. You know, her hair’s just gonna look nicer with a little bit of light in it, a little bit of brightness. I couldn’t resist.
Okay, backing up. Backing up. I’m at 200 millimeters on my lens. I just love how out of focus the background becomes. But the background can be bright or dark. So I’m gonna turn her slightly to get in the right place so I can make the background look perfect behind her head. Yeah, let’s turn your whole body. Turn out…yep, a little more. Right in there. There you go.
When the background is not interesting, I go to a 200 millimeter lens every time. It gives me the shallow depth of field to isolate the subject and make that uninteresting background just go away. If the background’s bad, throw it out of focus. Then, no one knows where you’re at. We’re gonna color correct the images we shot of her in the white blouse and bring some warmth back into them.
This was a simple shoot, but applied so many photographic principles. I hope you found it interesting. So our one hour, one light, one reflector, turned into hour and a half, two lights, and one reflector. So, it was close. We didn’t use high-speed sync. The sun was getting pretty low, we didn’t really need it. Went to try it at one point and it wasn’t happening very easily, and so we just moved on. So, keep those cameras rolling, keep on clicking.
Don’t estimate alone. Don’t stand out in the cold all by yourself, trying to put together an estimate. Go to www.theslantedlens.com/estimating. I’ve got a digital download that will teach you everything you need to know. You don’t have to be alone any longer.
When I looked at the head shot—
In two miles, take the exit 20 onto…
In two miles, I’ve got to take an exit off the freeway. Anyway, what I did was I got on the—
