Portrait vs Headshot Sessions

by William Lulow

Portraits

The great thing about portrait sessions is that the results can be what my client and I want and how he or she wants to be portrayed. They are not dictated by the constraints of “professional headshots,” which need to be done to show what the person looks like, but in the best, possible light. So, the setups for real portraits can be a whole lot different than for “formula” headshots. But, not to be mistaken, even though headshots need to show the person with little shadow, they can still be more “creative.”

Here is a portrait I completed a couple of weeks ago:

This was for an author’s book jacket. You can see how we were able to take advantage of creating more shadow. This image was made with just two lights, a main light set high and to camera right and an accent light used to separate the subject’s hair and shoulders from the dark background.

Here is what the studio setup looked like:

You can see the positions of the lights. The one on the floor lighting the background was not used. The mainlight was in the position shown here, not quite as high as I usually place it.

These days, as I have mentioned in previous blog articles, the power required for studio shooting with this type of equipment is far less than it used to be for film. Digital sensors are far more sensitive to light than film ever was, so I usually have the power on my Dynalite packs dialed way down. Here was the setting for this shoot:

The main light was plugged into the “A” bank with the power cut down to one-half, or 250 watt/seconds. The other lights shared the “B” bank which was set to 500 watt/seconds so each light had a power output of 250 watt/seconds each. Now in order for highlights or accent lights to register white on the image, they should be about one f/stop brighter than the light providing the basic overall illumination. Here, since the mainlight was bounced into an umbrella for many of the images and the other two lights were used just plain raw, with no diffusion or bounce, they were about one f/stop brighter than the umbrella light. Exposure was ISO 125, f/11 @ 1/100th of a second.

Here is another image from this session:

This is more in line with the kind of lighting for corporate headshots, but the mainlight was placed a lot lower than normal in order to render the subject’s face with a bit more shadow. The result is a much more intense portrait, more suitable for a dust cover than a commercial headshot. Here, I also used the background light to add that gradient-gray tone to it.

Here is another shot from that day’s session:

With an author’s portrait, you can experiment with much more dramatic lightings. This one was made with my large, soft umbrella as a mainlight, the accent light creating the highlights on the hair and shirt and a small fill card (camera left-subject’s right) to bring up the shadow a little. It gives the subject, who happens to be a theologian, a bit more gravitas with a much more serious and studious look. This kind of lighting would not be acceptable for a normal headshot, but it sends a definite message as a serious portrait.

Headshots

As mentioned, headshots have specific requirements that need to be followed to be successful.

1. They must show the whole face, lit fairly evenly.
2. They should show the person at his or her best.
3. They can be three-quarter length, but usually more head and shoulders
4. They need to look like the person looks at the time, not excessively retouched.

So, here is an example:

This is more of a one-half/three-quarters style head shot on a simple gray-ish background. The face is well lit with just a hint of a shadow on one side. This was made to be compatible with other headshots on the company’s website.

This one is a headshot for an actor:

This is a typical headshot for actors because it shows the person’s face and how he looked when the photo was made. The shadow under the chin was left purposely just to hide some wrinkles, but the rest of the face was pretty much left as it was.

Here is another example:

Here, there are no shadows on the face at all except a bit under the cheekbone, camera-left.  This shows the person totally as they looked at the time.

So, to recap a bit: A portrait can be whatever the photographer and the subject decide. The headshot has to fulfill certain requirements. Those are the main differences. With a portrait there is much more leeway in terms of light and shadow, with more shadow being acceptable and sometimes even desirable. Headshots need to show the face fully lit with little or no shadow.