Selfy

Austin Greene · Mar 15, 2015

I'm going to start shooting head shots for some local folks, so I thought I might as well break out the flashes and see what I could do one afternoon after work. My rented room is quite small, so I ended up only having about a 4x6ft space to work in. Some of you might have seen the version of this I messed around with in photoshop. Worked ok, wish I had a better model!

1.

Selfy by TogaLive, on Flickr

Grid spot on the wall behind me. Umbrella camera left and up.

Designer · Mar 15, 2015

You're getting fair separation with the background light, but I think you need a hair light. If you have only two flashes, let the background go to black and use the second flash for a hair light. Try it anyway. Use a reflector opposite the key light.

Austin Greene · Mar 16, 2015

Designer said:
You're getting fair separation with the background light, but I think you need a hair light. If you have only two flashes, let the background go to black and use the second flash for a hair light. Try it anyway. Use a reflector opposite the key light.

I'll give it a go

I've used hair-lights in the past, but that wasn't really the look I was going for here. I wanted there to be a fair amount of shadow, not just a run-of-the-mill, light-all-around headshot. I suppose I wanted to work with a bit more chiaroscuro.

bribrius · Mar 16, 2015

looks like your nose is crooked. (lot of peoples are). Reverse the lighting and it might make it look more straight and pronounce it less.

gsgary · Mar 16, 2015

bribrius said:
looks like your nose is crooked. (lot of peoples are). Reverse the lighting and it might make it look more straight and pronounce it less.

Mine is from too many broken noses from rugby and fighting

JustJazzie · Mar 16, 2015

Oh! Nice one. ;-) I guess I am easy to please, because I think you look great! I wouldn't mind a little more dof so you were sharp past the ears. I like the texture and processing.

Designer · Mar 16, 2015

Austin Greene said:
I've used hair-lights in the past, but that wasn't really the look I was going for here. I wanted there to be a fair amount of shadow, not just a run-of-the-mill, light-all-around headshot. I suppose I wanted to work with a bit more chiaroscuro.

You can still have a high lighting ratio even if using a reflector opposite the key light.