We photographers tend to have a fascination with a few different subjects including old cars and bicycles.
But what other modes of transport are there that we love to shoot? How many can you see here, and how have these photographers captured their essence, done them justice?
Photographing a headshot can seem like a daunting prospect. To have one person in front of your camera, looking to you for direction and positivity, is an intense environment. People are generally very critical of themselves in photographs, and feel very nervous. However, there are some simple things that you can do to make it a lot easier for everyone.
Here are 10 tips to help you photograph headshots:
1. Have a pre-session consultation
Before your session make sure you know how the images will be used and what style they would like. This can be on the phone or face to face. Talking to them, will help them relax so much more than email. This will allow you to help them prepare for the session. Make sure they know what to expect, and are as relaxed as possible.
Find out about what profession your subject is involved in; a corporate lawyer may well opt for a clean white background look (above), while a more relaxed style of business (yoga instructor) may prefer a more colourful, environmental image (below). Find out in the consultation what they want so you are prepared on the day.
2. Help them to choose the right clothes
Generally speaking, solid, neutral colours, work best for headshots, as you want to avoid anything that distracts away from people’s faces. If it is a formal style you are looking to achieve, make sure that everyone gets the message, and remembers to bring formal work clothes with them. Men often forget their jackets, so for a consistent look, try and have a spare one on hand, even if you need to clip it at the back. If you have time with a person, get them to bring a few items of clothing. Remind them to iron their clothes as well.
Here are some example of good clothing choices:
3. Create separation from the background
Make sure that your subject doesn’t stand too close to the background. If you are using a studio background (or wall in an office) and you stand someone close to it, you may see shadows on the wall, which makes the images look less professional. For environmental headshots outdoors, I still recommend separation from the background. The bokeh creates a nice nondescript background, especially when shot at a wide aperture. Typically I aim for an aperture of f/4 for environmental and natural light sessions, and f/8 for studio style sessions with lights.
4. Starting the session
Whether you are photographing headshots for a single person, or a whole team, make sure you have a general chat with each person first, to help them relax. This can be just a 10 second, confident handshake, and a “how are you?”. People generally feel very tense about having their photograph taken, and talking about something in their comfort zone (where they live, if they have children or pets, etc) will really help them appear and be more comfortable.
5. Silly Faces!
A great way of helping people to relax in front of the camera, if you don’t have much time with them, is to ask them to pull a funny face for the first frame. Use this as a lighting test for a new person as well. This is great at breaking the ice, and very few refuse to do it. Once they have pulled a daft face, everything else is easy!
6. Lighting and positioning
For business and actors’ headshots, I tend to light quite evenly. There are a few circumstances when the images are low-key, but for the main part, they are evenly lit. A classic beauty lighting setup works well, with one light above, and a second light, or a reflector filling from below.
I ensure the subject is turned with their body 45 degrees away from the camera, and towards the main light source (if your lighting allows for this). Their face should be straight towards the camera. You may need to guide people to look straight down the lens. It’s surprising how many people look off camera, at the flash, or somewhere random.
7. Sit people down
People may be more comfortable sitting down, and by asking them to rest their hands on the tops of their thighs, it gives them something to do with their hands. It also ensures that the subjects all know where they need to be, and they don’t move around too much.
8. It’s all about the little adjustments
What separates a great headshot from an average one, are generally very small changes. These little adjustments can make all the difference. The slight tilt to the head, leaning forward, a gentle but intriguing smile. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to make very specific changes to their expression and position, until you get the image you’re looking for.
9. Keep talking and be positive
When you’re in the midst of taking photographs, make sure that you keep talking to your subject. Reassure them that they’re doing it right, and you’re getting great images. Even if you’re not satisfied with the images when someone turns their head in a certain direction, or how the light is falling on them, never express that to your subject. Silence will kill the atmosphere, so no matter what is happening, just keep chatting and being positive.
10. Shoot tethered
If you have all the necessary equipment, shooting tethered is a fantastic way the get great headshots. When people see a couple of shots on the screen, they can very quickly get an idea of what needs to be changed. The immediate feedback on the screen will help everyone massively.
I hope you find these tips for better head shots helpful. Do you have any others we missed? Please share them, and your headshot photos in the comments below.
You already know that pine cones are nature’s mysterious seed pyramids, but did you know they have a gender? Yes, there are both female and male pine cones. Did you also know that pine cones are an interesting time-lapse subject? Go get a female pine cone, and give it a shot. Let this whole male/female Nature Notes youtube revelation be your last straw, or should I say pine needle that breaks your procrastination. Here was my result:
Here’s how to make your own pine cone time-lapse:
Step 1. Find pine cones
Collect some good looking pine cones (preferably female: watch the Nature Notes video above). Look for good cones in fresh condition, without rot or discoloration, uniform shape, and bottoms that provide support for upright standing. I’d grab two or three for variety, and a dog chew backup. Here’s an example of an open found pine cone.
Step 2. Make them close
Pine cone motion is all about moisture, it’s a hydromorphic response. In high moisture environments pine cones close. In low moisture, over time, they open. This video showing both opened, and closed cones, with visible moisture is a perfect learning example.
To close a cone, simply put it in a cup of water and leave it for an hour or two. That’s it.
Step 3. Prepare for the opening shot
Key thoughts: Steady (consistent) lighting, simple background, camera position, power. Let’s take these one by one.
Steady light: Light fluctuations in a sequence of time-lapse images are bad, as they create unappealing bright and dark frames in the rendered movie, better known as time-lapse flicker (learn much more about that here). Chose a room that you can cordon off for a day or so to prevent disturbances, and block all light from any windows. Move any light sources near the photo white box, to provide a constant uniform brightness, then adjust their positions to eliminate shadows.
Background: Completely up to you creatively. I chose a minimal white background, using a simple inexpensive white box. By slightly overexposing each shot, you can effectively eliminate almost all appearances of a background.
Camera position: Choose one or more angles from which to shoot. I chose first, a front downward angle, and a second fully vertical angle from above.
Power: A pine cone bloom from closed to opened may last anywhere from 8-24 hours, so you’ll need an AC adapter for your camera to make sure it keeps going.
Step 4: Craft the time-lapse and begin
We talked a little bit about avoiding stray light sources in the room where you are shooting, as these changes introduce time-lapse flicker into the image sequence. Having your camera in any automatic mode may also introduce flicker. To get the best possible consistent exposure over many frames, shoot in manual mode, set a manual white balance, manual ISO, and manual focus. In the example video above I used a Sony A7s and FE 90mm f/2.8-22 Macro G OSS lens.
Exposure: Six seconds at ISO 200, f/22, produced a great image, and just started to wash out the brighter white background. You can push the whites a little further in post-production, and really create a clean image background.
Time-lapse interval: To be honest I didn’t know how long I would be shooting, or when the action would begin. Times will vary, as no two cones and no two climates, or indoor humidity levels are exactly alike. The side angle pine cone shot took from about 9:00 a.m., to 3:00 a.m. the following morning, approximately 18 hours. I chose a 30 second interval, and set the shot count to infinity, so it would continually shoot until it was manually turned off. When unsure of how quickly to shoot, or how many frames to capture, it’s always good to capture more, rather than less. You can always speed up a time-lapse with too many frames, but if you don’t get enough shots and miss important movement, you are usually stuck.
These 30 second exposures, over 18 hours, resulted in about 3,246 images. That’s a lot of frames. Pine cones are slow. Much slower than I anticipated, and my interval was pretty fast capturing more frames than necessary for smooth movement. For your experiment I’d recommend increasing your interval time to about 50 seconds, or one minute. Having a longer interval time will result in less photos, and with the slow moving nature of the bloom it will not result in a jumpy or less smooth cone opening video.
Step 5: Adjust the exposures and render the time-lapse
The beauty of Lightroom, or Adobe Bridge and other applications, is that you can adjust the exposure on a single reference photo, then apply those changes across all your photos. Simple – and so is rendering the basic time-lapse. There are several different applications to choose from, to turn your collection of images into a video – varying from free and inexpensive, to not so inexpensive. Fear not, you can learn much more about time-lapse rendering in previously mentioned article, but the diagram below provides an overview of time-lapse software and applications.
Patience is your most valuable commodity for this project. From pine cones to The Milky Way, I hope this mini peak into the world of creative time-lapse photography has ignited your curiosity to learn more. Time-lapse has a way of slowing the world for the photographer, while at the same time accelerating it for everyone else. I shoot time-lapse because it alters the way I think, it challenges my view of the world, and teaches me things I can bring back and share with everybody else. It’s a real honor and privilege to partner with you on this training journey. I hope is helpful and I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
You are so excited about an upcoming newborn session. You can’t wait to cuddle the new baby, as you soothe them to sleep and pose them. Then you find out that the parents want to include their toddler, or even worse, toddlers! Now the excitement has changed to anxiety about throwing a toddler into the mix. Toddlers can be unpredictable, difficult to bribe, and sometimes want nothing to do with the new little person in their life.
Take a deep breath and remain calm. You can do this! Here are my three secrets to getting amazing toddler and newborn photos:
1. Friend the older sibling
What are their interests?
Remember that just a couple weeks ago, they were front and center in their parents’ lives. There have been a lot of changes, and most likely a little less attention for them.
Talk with the parents to find out about big sister. What does she like? Does she have any favorite songs or shows? What is her favorite treat? Talk with mom and dad beforehand, and see if they are okay with a little reward. Make big sister the center of attention when you arrive. Get down on her level, tell her about yourself, and ask her questions. Have her introduce you to her new baby sister. You want big sister to trust and like you.
Siblings make great helpers
Toddlers are so curious, and love to help. Show them some of the hats or headbands you brought for their little sibling. Ask them to pick out their favorites. Once they are comfortable with you, it will be a lot easier to get them to listen, when you want to take a picture with their new baby sister.
After you are done setting up, ask them to help you test out the light. If you can get them to lie down, the battle is half over. Tip: have baby all wrapped up and ready to go, before you have big sister help by being a light tester.
2. Let the toddler rule the session
Choices
Now that you and big brother are friends, give him some choices. He needs to know that he is in charge. Forcing him to do something he doesn’t want to do, can backfire.
Some choices could be:
Do you want to lay down on this cream rug or this blue rug?
Would you like your baby brother on this side or that side?
Would you like to kiss your brother or look at the camera?
Do you want the red truck or the blue car as your prize?
Choices make big brother feel in control. If he doesn’t want to cooperate in the beginning, that’s okay. You can try again later.
Do you want to take the picture now or come back in 5 minutes?
Let him take a break and then you can try again in a little bit. Use this break to get some images of baby alone. After big brother has had a break, you can give it another try. Sometimes multiple breaks are needed.
Expectations
Tell big brother what to expect, and how long it’s going to take. Children have a much easier time if they know what to expect, and that there is an end time. You want to tell them what they’re going to do, how many pictures you’re going to take, and what happens after (the reward!).
“We are going to take a picture of you and your baby brother for mommy and daddy. It won’t take long. I will take five photos, then we’ll be done and you can pick out your prize! I’m going to start counting. 1 – 2 – 3 …”
Counting works great as even young toddlers can understand counting to three or five. You can take multiple photos while you draw out one number so you’ll end up with a lot more than five. With squirmy toddlers, multiple images are definitely needed. Once you hit the number, they are done.
If you don’t think you got a useable image give them a choice of counting again or taking a break. You want it to be short and sweet so big brother is more likely to cooperate.
3. Praise and Reward
Praise
After big sister has done what you have asked, give her a lot of praise. Even if all she did was make a choice to do pictures in five minutes instead of now. You asked her to make a choice, and she did. Great job big sister! It might not seem like a big win, but it will help when you try again.
Praise and thank big sister for every little thing she does. Kids love being praised, and to know that they are doing a good job. There is no such thing as too much praise when you are trying to get a toddler to cooperate.
Reward
Make a toy chest or prize bin. You can add toys that your children don’t play with anymore, or find items at the dollar store. When you first meet big sister and are becoming friends, show her what you brought. Point out a few items in your prize bin, and tell her that after she takes some pictures, she’ll get to pick out any one item to keep.
While you are praising big sister, remind her of her reward. “You are doing such a great job with your little brother. I can’t wait to see what prize you pick out!”
You can show the prize bin during breaks. A toddler’s attention span isn’t the greatest, so sometimes they need reminding that they’ll get a prize soon. For a real challenging toddler, you can let them pick out their prize ahead of time, and put it on a shelf or with mom and dad as a reminder.
Do you have any other tips for working with toddlers and newborns? Let us know if you try these and how you make out. Please share your results in the comments below.
In this lighthearted mini-tutorial we’ll take an 80/20 approach to creating a simple time-lapse of a common pinecone (in this case a Black Pine).
