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Nikolai Francis Headshots | Coral Springs, FL

April 16th, 2011|0 Comments

Head shots are always fun.  Sometimes, you get the chance to slow things down, really concentrate on your subject, and bring a lot of creativity to their character.  Sometimes, you get to experiment with new lighting techniques.  Of course, that’s only sometimes.  Most of the time, you have to do all of that PLUS get it done in 15 minutes or less.  Either way…it’s still fun.

A little while ago, First Data, a financial and merchant solutions provider in Coral Springs, FL, called me for a last-minute head shot.  No problem.  Nine times out of ten, you have to make do with space and time constraints.  This time, we set up in a tiny conference room (maybe 8′ x 15′) with a giant table that couldn’t be moved, which left just about a 4′ x 12′ stretch of space to put my backdrop, lights, subject, and me with the camera.  Not a lot of space to work with.

The set up was really simple.  A 5′ x 7′ white-black reversible, collapsible backdrop was hung from a light stand behind the subject.  I gelled a speedlight flash and placed it on the floor just in front of and pointed to the backdrop.  My only light source was another speedlight shooting into a white umbrella, attached to a stand resting on top of the conference table.  It was at a 45 degree angle to the subject.  A wall was equidistant to the subject on the opposite side and kind of acted as a nice reflector, if you will, to help fill in the shadow side.

 

 

Using this basic set up, we were able to capture a couple of different looks for Nikolai, simply by changing the lighting on the backdrop (from color to pure white) and adjusting Nikolai’s attire (from full suit to something more relaxed).

 

 

 

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