A actor friends asked me to take portraits for his work

[DocFrankenstein]

I got dragged into this, and I don't know where to begin. Basically, he needs some pictures in different poses and with different facial expressions.

I don't know what he needs for the acting part, but he wants me to try. He's gonna need letter size printouts.

How should I pose him?

How many "expressions" should I get from him?

Do I need to get a 50mm lens?

Anybody done this before?

I have a Digital Rebel with 18-55 lens and 70-200 f/2.8

 

[craig]

Regretfully I have not shot actors. Ironically, I do community theater. That is a whole other story. A 50 or something as equally distortion less is important. Generally the subject will have the poses down. The hard part is the lighting and the background. Soft light without any shadows is the norm. Lighting the hair and shoulders from the back makes a great effect. The background may need to be WHITE, so as not to distract.

 

[htkchen]

I also have a Digital Rebel and the default lens. Been shooting a few portrait shots. The pre-set portrait mode is decent so if not sure I would go with that. I used that several times and the pics came out quite nice. Do you have a room that you're planning on shooting in? If so, how's the lighting? It might be helpful to get a set of lamps or other sources of light that you can move around for different effects. Just not something that's too strong. The questions that youre asking, perhaps you should ask him those as well to see what he wants. If it's with different facial expressions, I would go with at least 10 different ones. And for each one, take at least 10 so you get a nice range to pick from later. Remember to adjust exposures and lighting for 10 different shots for each pose. Those are just my recommendations from what I've done with portrait shots.

 

[tr0gd0o0r]

I shot some senior portraits for a friend (who just happened to be an actor one time) I find that actors are really good on the poses and facial expressions, espessially with jsut a little coatching.

 

[Tok]

He does need make up too. And if it is indoor u need all those lighting equipment as well.

 

[DocFrankenstein]

I have NO flash and NO lighting equipment except a desk lamp here and there :twisted:

I am planning on taking him out to the park on a nice cloudy day and shooting him there.