Photography: Master Rembrandt Lighting

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OK, so one of my pet peeves is seeing all these professional head shots and profile pictures with double chins and weak jawlines.  Seriously people, we can do better and our subjects deserve better.  We want people to look their best and that doesn’t mean just Photoshopping everything in your image.  We can do this in camera.  In the next few lessons you’ll learn how to get head shots you can be proud of because they make your clients looks younger and engaging.  No more vacant looks in your pictures people.

You need to get your subjects talking and get their foreheads forward just a bit.  This will create that strong jawline.  Then, by getting the eyes just a bit closed your subjects will look engaged and make them seem as though they’re looking through the camera.

This isn’t as hard as you think.  Talk to them about… wait for it… things they are interested in.  This will loosen them up and make them feel comfortable.  What are a few good topics?  How about their life?  Where are you from?  Have family here?  What do you do for fun?  Those simple questions can open up wonderful conversation and get your subjects to open up to you.  Then, with your lights right, you can get them to stick their forehead out a little, move their shoulders, then you’ll make magic!

Now, some people will put their chin down, but that’s not exactly what you want.  You want to stretch the skin of the neck which means thrusting the head forward a few inches.  Also, if you put your chin down you’ll lose that strong eye contact you’ll need.  

Some people never really talk to their subjects.  Or, if they talk to them they wind up get this… talking about themselves.  Why?  Because that’s what they know… their life.  You want to talk to them about their life.  Now, as things get rolling many people think twisting the shoulders is the way to build should and head angle, but it’s not the best way.  The best way is to move the feet.  Once the feet move, the shoulders will naturally settle into the right place.

So, now you know how to get people to relax, open up, and look their best.  You know you want to move the head a little forward to avoid double chins and make a strong jawline.  You’re ready to dive into the next set of lessons where you’ll see all these points in detail and follow along as we do it for a male and female shoot.  Let’s go!

A quick intro into this head shot photography lesson. The link below is to inspire you to continue studying head shot photography.  It's a fellow photographer and friend Tracy.  Here work is amazing and I think it will inspire you to greatness.  I hope you enjoy it.

Let's talk about lighting your background to make it perfectly white (but not too white) and how far your subject should be from the backdrop.  Adjust your lights so your background is just white and your subject is as far away from the background as possible.  

In this lesson we also talk about depth of field.  This is a frequently misunderstood concept.  In the link below you'll find a depth of field article that may be helpful.

In this photography lesson we'll start filling in shadows with a reflector.  We can do this by putting the reflector under the chin.  Notice what a big difference small adjustments to the reflector distance can make.  Now, in this lesson we talk about moving the feet to move the body.  Here's a great concept I'd like to share with you, contrapposto, "Contrapposto [kontrapˈposto] is an Italian term that means counterpose. It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs." 

Read more at the link below.

Now we move the light over, fill from the side and introduce a kicker light.  We also talk about what lights provide.  Below is a link for my personal favorite light company (and I'm not affiliated with them at all).  They are the nicest company, have amazing customer service, and their lights cost about the same as a speed light.  

Ever wonder how to use gels in lighting to get eye grabbing portraits?  Here's how, get a gel (I use Lee filters and I order them from amazon).  The filter just gives your light a bit of color.  See Lee Filters (which I order through Amazon) at the link below.  

I use these filters to gel the light coming from the kicker light to give a touch of blue light to the shadowy side of the face.  I don't like using gel filters to light an entire face from the front.  I think that looks creepy.  I think this video shows a better way to use filters for portraits.

In this session we'll learn to get perfectly white backgrounds with just one background light and we'll see how to get some fantastic female portraits.  

Let's get that key light working for us and clean up our background.  In this lesson we dial in our key light and background  We also look at what happens if our background is over exposed.  In short, you'll start to decrease the contrast of your images and make them look flat and lifeless.  If that's happening, turn down your lights.  

Want a better of understanding of contrast?  While not part of this course, if you're not sure what contrast is or why it's important, the link below may be helpful.

In this lesson we again fill in the shadows with our reflects.  This is especially important for woman as you really don't want strong shadows for female portraits.  Notice again, the importance of the reflector position.  Too far from your subject and it won't have an effect.  Too close to your subject and you'll find it overpowering.  If you want to learn more about reflectors below is a great resource to read product specs.  

Now we'll learn hot to get some fun and beautiful head shots.  We'll see the magic to getting great jaw lines by adjusting the body position.  The key is head position, and once you see the right way to do this, you'll never go back... ever.  It's that good.  

Please note I've included a few images as downloadable resources for this lesson.  I hope you find them useful and they inspire you along your journey.  

Your images aren't complete until they are edited.  See a fast and easy way to turbocharge your images in post.  We'll be using Lightroom and a free tool or two to get the most from our images.  Not necessary, but alway appreciated by your subjects.  We'll learn to edit like a pro without taking hours editing and retouching all night.

Congratulations on making it all the way through this photography class. What an accomplishment.  You're in the top 10% as most will never finish after they've started - so pat yourself on the back.  You did great!

In this lesson we've seen how to get perfect colors.  I show you how to use the Color Checker Passport.  I know this device is expensive, but it is very, very helpful.  There's a link below to ready more if you're interested. 

We also go over how to make profile corrections in Lightroom to remove any lens distortion.  When you've done this, your images should be very nicely adjusted.

We also learn Google NIK for photo editing.  Good news!  Now Google NIK is free.  The second link below is to Google NIK.  On mobile, Snapseed gives you almost the same capability.  Do yourself a favor and check them out.

In this lesson we've reviewed frequency separation editing in Adobe Photoshop.  It's a wonderful way to use an advanced technique to get wonderful color while preserving details in skin.  This goes beyond just a healing brush or cloning, it's an amazingly powerful technique.  Below is a link to the action we're using in the lesson.  

See how to use Adobe Lightroom in order to fine tune an image.  We use Lightroom tools to lighten the eyes, darken some areas, and lighten others.  We also make a few quick and easy skin adjustments.  We'll be using some easy to use, but powerful tools.  You may (or may not) be a Lightroom user so, in case you're not, below is a link to Lightroom.

Creating black and white images without all the headache 

Time for another portfolio image to come to life through some great post processing you can use on your images.

Here's the results of the May 2016 Photo contest.  Great work.  Will you be joining us next month?