Portraits vs. Headshots

Portraits vs. Headshots

by William Lulow

Since I do many portraits as well as many headshots, I thought I would touch on the difference between them again. Basically, a portrait is more about the photographer and his or her choices, techniques and efforts, whereas the headshot is a more or less, directed image.

The HEADSHOT should show the person for who he/she is but at their best. This usually means a well-lit image with little shadow, but with a pose and expression that hopefully reveals a bit of the subject’s personality. It’s a “sales tool.” It has a purpose which is to create some interest in the person, showing what they look like:

Here, the subject is well-lit so that we can see all the features. There is a bit of separation from the background so that the person stands out. Here’s another example:

Here the hair is lit to separate the subject from the background. The lighting lights up the face totally, with just a bit of shadow to add depth on the right side. This was achieved by lowering the power of the fill-in light, camera right. When I do any kind of studio images of people, I usually try to keep the main light as soft as possible. For this, I use my large, 5.5′ diameter umbrella. I also like to use a gradient background achieved by using a gray no-seam paper and lighting it partially with a large reflector. 

A PORTRAIT, on the other hand, can be something the photographer wants to say about a person. Here is an example:

This was an image designed to fit in to a website with other photographs that were more dramatic in nature. So, I used just a regular reflector on my main light to create this REMBRANDT LIGHTING image of a film producer. 

In this portrait of reknowned bassist, Ron Carter (made back in 1975), I wanted the stark contrast of the African American man against a stark white background. 

One of my latest portrait efforts was of a high school senior. I decided that I wanted to make some kind of statement about this individual without really knowing what he was into. It turned out that he loved my choice of colors:

I was thinking that I would show this student the way I wanted to without thinking that it would be used to sell him or just show him in a normal headshot pose. His main interest was fencing (for which he traveled all over the world), so we used the sword as a prop. Not knowing about him in advance, I just asked him to bring some kind of sports equipment that he liked. The main light was still provided by my big, portrait umbrella and I knew I had to separate the subject’s head from the background, so I added to accent lights. The red tone was produced by lighting a black background with a red-gelled light. 

Some other examples of portraiture:

So the portrait can be anything the photographer wants it to be, without any restrictions. The idea is to do what seems to work for the image wanted.