A Head Shot?! ME?? I Don't DO Head Shots! PLEASE Help. C&C

sm4him · Apr 17, 2013

Good grief! I've really only started to dabble a little bit in portrait photography--it's something I mean to really learn better this year, but I've been too busy hunting birds, so far.
I've done exactly THREE "photo shoots" with people since I got my DSLR--one was my niece and her baby, one was just a fun thing at our women's ministry retreat last year, and one was last weekend, shooting some pictures of a friend's daughter before prom (which was a Disaster--maybe I'll do a thread on it someday, when I recover from the trauma...

).

Oh, well--I also shot the portraits for our church directory. But that was before I had even an inkling of an idea what I was doing, and they Sucked. HARD. And nobody cared, except me. I knew they would be awful, I carefully explained how awful they would be, given my lack of expertise, and our lack of an even remotely decent setup. So that doesn't even count in my "portrait" experience list.

Flash forward to today: The BIG boss (General Manager) comes in to my office and asks if I have my camera. Yes, I do, I say, thinking she needs a picture of one of the buses or something in or around the building, though it's not usually the Gen'l. Mgr. who comes asking for those things.

No, she wants me to do a head shot of her. Because someone is there from out of town and needs it for what they are working on. No rush though, because this person just needs to take it with them when they leave...which will be in about 20 minutes!! Okay, so no pressure or anything.

Oh, and this boss lady HATES Every. Single. Picture. I have EVER taken of her (all casual shots at events). Hates them. She raves about my photography, she just hates pictures of herself.
And, it's raining.
And, I have no tripod with me. No external flash. Just the camera, and several lenses. Fortunately, one of those lenses IS my 50mm f/1.8, which I almost never use but carry around anyway. Good on me!

So--under that scenario, with that equipment, I feel like I did fairly decently. But, since I do want to learn portrait photography, I'd love some suggestions on how to improve.

ANY C&C at all is welcome, but some specific things I'd like to know:

1. Since it's a public transit system, taking a picture of her in front of a bus seemed to make sense. But I feel like the bright header sign on the bus is distracting. Short of turning it off (which is way more complicated than you might think) what might I do about that in post, or on future photos?

2. Skin smoothing--I didn't have TIME to do much of any post on this at all anyway, but even if I had, I know absolutely NOTHING about how to do all the skin smoothing and other portrait enhancements. Any helpful tutorials that I might try out, since I have the headshots to play with now?

frommrstomommy · Apr 17, 2013

I don't know that this qualifies as a headshot.. but it doesn't look too bad to me. She looks a bit cold though!

jwbryson1 · Apr 17, 2013

Yeah, the WB is a bit off. :scratch:

sm4him · Apr 17, 2013

frommrstomommy said:
I don't know that this qualifies as a headshot.. but it doesn't look too bad to me. She looks a bit cold though!

Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that I cropped from this to make the headshot. So yeah, I guess even the yellow destination sign isn't a big deal in the actual headshot, but I foresee using the photo more as it is for other purposes, so I'd like to work on it some more. Plus, I just need the practice.

I was afraid it was too warm to start with, so I cooled it down a little. Let me post it the way it was originally, and see if it's better.

EDIT: Okay, here's the way it was originally. Better? Still too cool? Too warm? One thing I need is to learn to be a better judge of skin tones--I just can't quite TELL what it looks "right." Could be related to my vision issues, I don't know.

(This edit has some dark spots on the jacket, which is rain drops that I edited out, but didn't bother doing it again on this shot--it's just to check the wb)

EDIT OF EDIT: It's still too cool, isn't it? This is the way the auto wb had it, and originally I thought that was too WARM. She IS pretty pale-skinned.

Derrel · Apr 17, 2013

WOW--good shot! I love the bus backdrop. Well-done! Her positioning in front of the bus is excellent--the strong black vertical of the bus door assembly on the left side of the frame is good, and her head positioned in front of the windshield's light diffuse reflection gives terrific 3-dimensional "POP!" to her. Camera height is is just PERFECT...not too high, not too low, but low enough to make her appear powerful. Her gaze approaches the viewer directly, and her expression is not too-smiley, and not too sour. All in all, this looks like a pretty solid effort. I suppose you could soften the skin a bit using various Lightroom methods, or a Gaussian blur technique, or any one of a half-dozen other recognized methods, but I don't think I'd go "too far" in that vein.

pgriz · Apr 17, 2013

WB aside, she comes across as a strong, professional woman who can be tough when needed. So, what were you saying about not doing good headshots?

ronlane · Apr 17, 2013

sm4him, looks like you got an overcast day for it. I would agree about the sign being bright but the photo looks good to me.

tirediron · Apr 17, 2013

Actually Sharon, I think under the circumstances you've done very well here. The composition works, the the white balance seems fine ('though I'm on a non-corrected monitor), but it seems that she's got rather pale skin. The skin processing seems appropriate given the nature of the shot. The lighting is a little flat, but it's not bad; perhaps grabbing a reflector low and camera left just to add a little depth? As far as the route board, good idea to have it up, but yeah, it is a little bright. Maybe slap a cut of .3 ND gel over it next time?

Granddad · Apr 17, 2013

Given the circumstances I'd call it a winner!The WB looks better in the full size version than in the thumbnail and since you say she's pale skinned you probably have it spot on. Her skin doesn't need any attention (unless she's really under 30). She ought to be pleased with this one.

Based on this shot you might want to ditch the birds and start shooting people. :thumbup:

TenaciousTins · Apr 17, 2013

That is a great shot and I love her positioning...when I saw it, I knew exactly what she did and where she belonged. The WB did look a bit off, but it's actually not bad. The bright header on the bus isn't so distracting that it's a real problem at all but if you wanted to you could try selecting just that and desaturating it a hair, not enough to notice...but I don't think it needs it.

YvetteC · Apr 17, 2013

Very nice job on the fly! I wouldn't do too much to her skin...she's a beautiful woman and she looks like she earned her lines. Her face has character the way it is!

DiskoJoe · Apr 17, 2013

sm4him said:
Good grief! I've really only started to dabble a little bit in portrait photography--it's something I mean to really learn better this year, but I've been too busy hunting birds, so far.
I've done exactly THREE "photo shoots" with people since I got my DSLR--one was my niece and her baby, one was just a fun thing at our women's ministry retreat last year, and one was last weekend, shooting some pictures of a friend's daughter before prom (which was a Disaster--maybe I'll do a thread on it someday, when I recover from the trauma... ).

Oh, well--I also shot the portraits for our church directory. But that was before I had even an inkling of an idea what I was doing, and they Sucked. HARD. And nobody cared, except me. I knew they would be awful, I carefully explained how awful they would be, given my lack of expertise, and our lack of an even remotely decent setup. So that doesn't even count in my "portrait" experience list.

Flash forward to today: The BIG boss (General Manager) comes in to my office and asks if I have my camera. Yes, I do, I say, thinking she needs a picture of one of the buses or something in or around the building, though it's not usually the Gen'l. Mgr. who comes asking for those things.

No, she wants me to do a head shot of her. Because someone is there from out of town and needs it for what they are working on. No rush though, because this person just needs to take it with them when they leave...which will be in about 20 minutes!! Okay, so no pressure or anything.

Oh, and this boss lady HATES Every. Single. Picture. I have EVER taken of her (all casual shots at events). Hates them. She raves about my photography, she just hates pictures of herself.
And, it's raining.
And, I have no tripod with me. No external flash. Just the camera, and several lenses. Fortunately, one of those lenses IS my 50mm f/1.8, which I almost never use but carry around anyway. Good on me!

So--under that scenario, with that equipment, I feel like I did fairly decently. But, since I do want to learn portrait photography, I'd love some suggestions on how to improve.

ANY C&C at all is welcome, but some specific things I'd like to know:

1. Since it's a public transit system, taking a picture of her in front of a bus seemed to make sense. But I feel like the bright header sign on the bus is distracting. Short of turning it off (which is way more complicated than you might think) what might I do about that in post, or on future photos?

2. Skin smoothing--I didn't have TIME to do much of any post on this at all anyway, but even if I had, I know absolutely NOTHING about how to do all the skin smoothing and other portrait enhancements. Any helpful tutorials that I might try out, since I have the headshots to play with now?

View attachment 42506

First you need to crop this tighter. Dont worry about cutting into the sign or part of her shoulder. The face is the main focus. Also this image is a bit on the cool side and giving her more of a blue twinge then she needs. I would warm this image up some and it will provide a better contrast to the blue blazer she is wearing. This could be a good shot with a small bit of work.

DiskoJoe · Apr 17, 2013

YvetteC said:
Very nice job on the fly! I wouldn't do too much to her skin...she's a beautiful woman and she looks like she earned her lines. Her face has character the way it is!

Yeah, this is not the ideal candidate for skin smoothing.