Trevor contacted me about headshots and liked the idea of coming to my home photo studio setup in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He had looked through my dozens of headshots posted on my business website and showed me three styles that he wanted for his own headshots. Also, he wanted some for his modeling work and also to use for business on Linkedin, etc. The headshot above was similar to one I created for one of my last clients back in Florida.
Liz called me up needing headshots for the company she works for. They did not have any set guidelines nor did Liz have any so I suggested a modern style business headshot, one that can be cropped perfectly square (above) that can be used as a profile photo on social media sites, then one cropped rectangular (below) for more traditional placement on about pages on websites. I made these headshots right in the living room of her Cape Coral home using my mobile headshot studio setup.
Model Portfolio Creative Headshot in Cape Coral Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm f/7.1 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 and SB-600 each in 42" brollyTuesday afternoon I met Lauren to make modelportfolio headshots for her right in her home in Cape CoralFlorida! All these photographs were made on location in her home allowing Lauren to make easy wardrobe changes. All shots were made on a white background and in editing color backgrounds were added digitally, as well as adding a pure white background for maximum impact.
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I went to Brian's office in Clearwater to make a creative business casual headshot - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/125th - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly to frame right & SB-600 in 43" shoot-through-umbrella to frame left rearI went over to Clearwater, Florida on a recent afternoon to meet Brian and make a creativebusiness casual headshot for him right in his office. It was a nice long office with plenty of space to setup my portable studio equipment. He wanted a white background for his headshot, so I put the white cover over my collapsible background so that I could easier cut him out and place him on a digital white background as seen above in the final image.
During the headshot I learned that Brian was about to run his first Iron Man and had been running triathlons. I told him how I have photographed the St. Anthony's Triathlon a few times and we also talked about fitness in general. He was a natural in front of the camera so it was only a very brief hello, make the headshot, and good-bye, which is my goal to not take up much more than 15 minutes of the client's time.
Business Headshot made on location in the Dale Mabry area of Tampa - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrellaI packed up my portable photography studio equipment and headed to the north Dale Mabry area of Tampa to make an on location headshot of John in the lobby of his office building. I was sent examples of headshots other staff members already had made and was told to make his headshot as close to that as possible. The examples were not shot on a photography background of any type, just using existing walls or areas. So we went out into the large atrium/lobby in his office building and I arranged my lights and produced a headshot very similar in look to all the others already on the employee page of the company website. For the shot above, I cut out the darker background and placed the subject onto a digital white background to compliment the modern style of the over headshot.
Audi R8 supercar at Crown Audi in Clearwater - Nikon D300 f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDR - orange background added digitallyWhile photographing an Audi A3 premiere event at Crown Audi in Clearwater, I took a moment to make a photograph of an Audi R8supercar that was also on site. It was parked just outside the greenhouse like showroom, which made for a pretty good background, but when I was shooting it I already had in mind I would remove it from the existing background and put it on a digital one.
Below is the existing background HDR image. Despite the complexity of the background, it was not too complicated to use the Quick Select tool in Photoshop and cut out the Audi R8 onto an empty layer. I chose an orange gradient digital background as recently I am starting to really like that color (also used for a headshot).
The same Audi R8 as above in its original setting at Crown Audi in Clearwater Florida - 5-exposure HDR
One day it would be nice to be able to just shoot a car in a large studio with an existing white background for an even easier and more efficient editing process.
Attorney headshot for a global investor in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" brolly to frame leftThe third attorney in as many weeks visited my home photography studio in St. PetersburgFlorida for a professional business headshot. Sarah was starting a new job and all the employees for the global investor company that hired her have their own profile page on the company's website. There were guidelines to follow for the type of shot so that it would have a consistent look with the other headshots made previously for the rest of the staff.
The shot you see above is not the one following those guidelines of course, it is one we did for our own creative look. After making the needed corporate headshot, I turned off one of my speedlights to introduce more dramatic shadowing and then in editing adding a digital background. I tried the usual white and black first, but then decided to try orange. Thankfully Sarah liked my bold orange choice as well!
