Butterfly/Clamshell Headshot - Learning Lighting

adamhiram · Mar 24, 2018

A lot of headshots I have seen look to be taken with butterfly or clamshell lighting, so it seemed like a good next step in my learning process. This time I figured I would dress the part, with the added bonus that I got a new headshot out of it. Any C&C is welcome!

A couple interesting observations... With the flatter lighting, there was a lot less post processing needed to fix blemishes, which was definitely nice. Also, this lighting pattern seems to work much better with glasses - no glare meant I didn't need to composite eyes from another shot without glasses, although I may go back and fix the horizontal line in the catch light.

Key light is octobox directly in front of subject, angled down at 45 degrees
40" white reflector used for fill from below for pseudo-clamshell
2:1 key-to-fill ratio used for subtle shadows

20180324-DSC_6745a by adamhiram, on Flickr

smoke665 · Mar 25, 2018

Nice solid image. For future at least for me it would be helpful if you posted your exposure information also. I've found Clamshell lighting to be very forgiving on blemishes. Another thing you might try is to switch out the white reflector with a silver. For me it seems to decrease red blotches in the skin, giving a more even skin tone.

Braineack · Mar 25, 2018

I really dislike clamshell lighting on men. and i don't always find it to be that flattering on women either.

Comparing this shot to your right most (3 head shots post) I don't like how much light is on your neck -- it makes you appear heavier without any shadow separating your chin from your neck.

I just really don't think the flat light is flattering, yeah it smoothed out some inperfections of your skin, but you lost character, imho.

here for example, while it actually does look flattering here on her, there's something about how it flattens the face that removes a lot of character. it feels like too clinical lighting to me in most cases. I like directional, I like shape and I like shadows.

In both these, the main light was about the same, but the fill light was the big difference. The left shot the fill was maybe 10° off camera axis, the right shot, the same fill light was moved directly in front of the camera and angled up at a 45° angle.

it really flattening her nose and cheeks. even the dimple in her chin is nearly washed away.

smoke665 · Mar 25, 2018

Hey I discovered this sight by accident and thought you might find it interesting Home - Online Lighting Diagram Creator - Tools for photographers It allows you to draw out your lighting diagrams and save as a PNG or JPEG to share. More important is if you click on the OLDC Strobox community, you'll find photographers who have submitted their images along with their lighting diagrams.

tirediron · Mar 25, 2018

Braineack said:
I really dislike clamshell lighting on men. and i don't always find it to be that flattering on women either.

There's definitely no 'one style fits all', but I think in certain circumstances, the OPs image is ideal; for instance for a corporate head-shot board, or 'who's who' listing, it's spot-on. It's not really flat lighting, there's sufficient shadow, albeit soft shadow, to avoid looking like a passport image.

smoke665 · Mar 25, 2018

While I think we can all agree that it is the photographer's job to pick the lighting scheme that's best for the subject, I think it's equally important that we not forget that the OP's post was an excersise in learning a specific lighting scheme.

zulu42 · Mar 25, 2018

Great headshot. Especially for a selfie. Nice work.

adamhiram · Mar 25, 2018

smoke665 said:
Nice solid image. For future at least for me it would be helpful if you posted your exposure information also. I've found Clamshell lighting to be very forgiving on blemishes. Another thing you might try is to switch out the white reflector with a silver. For me it seems to decrease red blotches in the skin, giving a more even skin tone.

Thanks for the feedback! As I mentioned on another thread, I'm always conflicted about using the silver side of the reflector. I like that it reflects more light when I need it, and I definitely see your point about reducing red/pink skin tones, but it also tends to create a noticeable 2nd catch light instead of just a highlight. I'll have to give it a shot and see how I like the results.

For my own skin tones, that's just the color of my skin when I'm clean shaven, and the reason I usually leave some stubble. It's not something I really know how to fix in post - changing the tint results in a green cast, and reducing reds/magentas with the HSL tool leaves my skin tone too pale. I'll be curious to see if using a silver reflector makes any difference.

tirediron · Mar 25, 2018

adamhiram said:
... reducing reds/magentas with the HSL tool leaves my skin tone too pale. ...

Used the Colour Range tool to select the reddest areas, > new layer, > Saturation -10

adamhiram · Mar 25, 2018

Braineack said:
I really dislike clamshell lighting on men. and i don't always find it to be that flattering on women either.

Comparing this shot to your right most (3 head shots post) I don't like how much light is on your neck -- it makes you appear heavier without any shadow separating your chin from your neck.

I just really don't think the flat light is flattering, yeah it smoothed out some inperfections of your skin, but you lost character, imho.

Thank you for the feedback! For portraiture, I definitely agree, I prefer the deeper shadows and greater detail that comes with off-axis lighting. I thought the recent headshots you posted were a great example of that, especially the more dramatic lighting on the boy. My usual lighting setup for portraits is a single light 30-45 degrees off-axis with a large reflector opposite it for fill, and the subject holding a sheet of styrofoam on their lap for some additional fill under the chin. I just started experimenting with additional lights and other lighting patterns this year.

That being said, the goal of this exercise was to experiment with butterfly/clamshell lighting with a lot of fill from below. I looked through the headshots of the executive leadership team at my company, and they were about 50% side lit, and 50% clamshell, usually with a very flat key/fill ratio. I don't know that I'm sold on this lighting pattern, but it does match other corporate headshots I looked at.

smoke665 · Mar 25, 2018

adamhiram said:
For my own skin tones, that's just the color of my skin when I'm clean shaven,

I would highly recommend this book https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Complete-Digitally-Photographing-Retouching/dp/0470592125 when it comes to skin retouching in PS this really has some great techniques, including selective color adjustment.

As Tired Iron showed above there are so many tools at your disposal to improve on an existing image, but what if you just don't like the skin tone and wish you had someone else's? Then PS again comes to the rescue. Here's a great video that I use on babies/young children occasionally, but the technique works with all ages.

Braineack · Mar 25, 2018

adamhiram said:
That being said, the goal of this exercise was to experiment with butterfly/clamshell lighting with a lot of fill from below. I looked through the headshots of the executive leadership team at my company, and they were about 50% side lit, and 50% clamshell, usually with a very flat key/fill ratio. I don't know that I'm sold on this lighting pattern, but it does match other corporate headshots I looked at.

I totally get that, I just never like it for guys, and then I never really like it in general when I see it.

We have a really nice studio at the office, but they use two LED panels for lights. Both 45° on either side at equal power. SO BORE.

adamhiram · Mar 25, 2018

smoke665 said:
Hey I discovered this sight by accident and thought you might find it interesting Home - Online Lighting Diagram Creator - Tools for photographers It allows you to draw out your lighting diagrams and save as a PNG or JPEG to share. More important is if you click on the OLDC Strobox community, you'll find photographers who have submitted their images along with their lighting diagrams.

Bookmarked! I had a similar app I used on my iPad a few years ago, but didn't have much use for it at the time. I may start including lighting diagrams on my lighting-related posts moving forward.

smoke665 said:
I would highly recommend this book https://www.amazon.com/Skin-Complete-Digitally-Photographing-Retouching/dp/0470592125 when it comes to skin retouching in PS this really has some great techniques, including selective color adjustment.

Added to my virtual bookshelf, once I finish getting through Light Science & Magic. I've wanted to learn more about skin processing and retouching for a while, but just haven't really had the time to focus on it. This book keeps coming up as a recommendation, so it's time I added it to my reading list.

adamhiram · Mar 25, 2018

tirediron said:
adamhiram said:

... reducing reds/magentas with the HSL tool leaves my skin tone too pale. ...

Click to expand...

Used the Colour Range tool to select the reddest areas, > new layer, > Saturation -10

Thanks, looking forward to trying this out. That actually seems pretty simple, and the subtle change makes a noticeable difference.