hansdamkoehler

HD Headshot for Hurley Contest

Canon EOS 5D Mark III

settings

Aperture f/11.0 ISO 200 Shutter 1/200 Focal Length 170/1

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Apr, 2015

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+85

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Denver, CO based World Music band, Atomga, at The Boulder Theater during their benefit concert on April 4, 2015.

Behind The Lens

Location

This shot was taken at my son's and daughter's middle school play rehearsal. (More on this later.)

Time

Well, it was shot in the afternoon in the hallway outside of the theater. We (my son and I who was assisting me) had to push all of our gear to the side to setup so that the competing basketball team and fans could push past us for the afternoon game! I brought along with me some black seamless and threw that up in the background to give me the look I wanted and to block out the doorway to the bus lane!

Lighting

I just love the light from an octa. Now, this one isn't THAT big (a 42" PCB octa - God bless you, Paul) but the light just has this wrapping, butter-like quality that seems to give me a lot to work with. The octa was pretty much center and in front at a 45 degree angle up and above and I had a 50" Mega Apollo in the rear to camera left for a hair/rim light. At first the shots weren't working but, thankfully(!) I remembered my motto to "never leave home without a reflector" and I had my son add the reflector for a sort of clamshell setup. (If you pixel peep, check out the reflection in his eye, picture right.) I had to push my shutter speed basically to the max (for my Canon, not going high speed at 1/200) to drown out the fixture lighting of the hallway which I had no control over.

Equipment

The run down is two Einsteins on C-Stands as noted above with one in the PCB 42" Octa as the key and the other in the Mega Apollo camera left 45 degrees to the side and above for hair/rim. Then the all too important reflector held by my son, right up against the talent's stomach and angled up a bit to scoop and fling the light towards his face (it does that, right?! McNally makes me think that's possible!) I did not use a tripod as I have found that I have a tendency to move back and forth a bit, even though I am shooting with a 70-200mm 2.8 (Canon L, IS) on a 5D MKIII. I was using a PocketWizard MiniTT1 on the Canon with the ever-important AC3 which I have found to be indispensable. This is talking to the PW MC2's on the Einstein's. I'm about 8-10 feet or so away and there is about 10 feet or so from him to the seamless. The seamless had no lighting as I just wanted the light to die away.

Inspiration

I grew up in and around the theater. I have great memories of hanging out at Trinity Rep Theater in RI as a kid watching my dad who was a resident actor there for about 30 years. The theater was just a place I loved to be around ... and, as any actor will tell you, a staple of the business is the headshot. So, when my kids got involved in theater I thought that providing free headshots for the kids of the cast and crew would be a great experience for them, fun for me to connect with my kids and their friends, as well as be good portrait/headshot practice for me. I've found that "if you build it, they will come" works even better if you add "for free!" to your tag! Thus, in addition to this shoot, I've been steadily doing free work for about 6 months now just to get some practice in. This shoot was close to my heart though as it resonated on all levels of history, passion, and family.

Editing

I gotta admit, I love the post-processing piece, though I really need to speed it up! When it comes to headshots/portraits I've been hugely inspired by a mix of Peter Hurley (of course), Luke Fontana, Joey L, Zack Arias, Joe MacNally, Scott Kelby, etc. I've been trying to cultivate a natural, real, but clean and textured look based on what I like and gravitate too in these rocking photogs' shots, as well as the myriad of those in the streams of great sites such as ViewBug, etc. Cutting to the chase, I try and stay in LightRoom as much as possible, basically because Photoshop and Nik are like going to Disney World for me, and I just don't have time to ride all of the rides! For this shot I followed my usual path of dialing in exposure (was a little hot at first by about 1/2 stop or so) then dialing in basic portrait clean up stuff - blemishes, hair, etc. My poor talent had horribly blood shot eyes so I dropped that down with the "teeth whitening-it's-not-just-for-teeth-anymore" brush and popped his iris' a bit with the good ol' Iris Enhancer brush. At this point I try to tame hotspots that I missed when throwing the shot together -- particularly in a scenario like this where I have basically less than 5 minutes (that would be a luxury) with each kid. Next I use a hybrid Kelby Photoshop technique (that you can totally do in LR) to get the overall look that I like using Clarity/Blacks/Shadows/Contrast to dial in the overall feel. There's a lot of "100's" in the mix to help ya see what I'm saying. Finally, as I said, I'm trying to develop this natural, but cleaned up look and so I've been tweaking a lot with the sharpening tools to help dial that look and feel in to add the texture that I like, not just getting things tack sharp. Finished with a bit of a vignette to taste.

In my camera bag

This was a special day as I knew that I wanted to use the Einstein's and compare them to what I "normally" have in my bag. Which is: For natural light shooting I carry my 5DMKIII, a 16-35, 24-70, 70-200, and if I want the extra weight cuz I really think I will use it, I'll throw in my Sigma 50mm ART. For flash: add to that the PW's, at least one 430 EXII and a Westcott 25" Rapid Box with deflector and a light stand. This is my go-to, one light kit ... although I could probably leave the 16-35 and the 50 at home and cut down on weight. I've just recently gone "big" with the strobe setup, and I just added the Hurleypro ProBoard into the mix which I cannot wait to use, but I need a few more C-Stands to do it right when using the Einstein's. C-stands and sandbags are a must or you are in Dangerville and that's not a place you wanna go. Oh! And don't forget the reflector!!

Feedback

I learned about and joined ViewBug because Peter Hurley was tweeting about his "Lookability" contest on twitter. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that (to me) when it comes to headshots Peter has been my go-to source for trying to get it all figured out. His work just explodes off of the page or the monitor -- can't wait for his new book to come out! Anyway, I watched his tutorial class on KelbyOne, expecting to get a bunch of technical data to throw at my gear. Well, he basically said all of the technical stuff in about one breath and that was it! I had to rewind just to catch the quick details ... what I got out of his session though, after that was, truly, priceless. What it boiled down to was, to get this kind of shot, or any kind of headshot that mattered was to be able to draw that person out in some fashion. To get WAY beyond "cheese," or "smile." I can't say for sure that I did exactly this on THIS shot, but what I was doing throughout this day was straight out of the Peter Hurley book of swami! I basically had like three minutes with each kid -- nothing like the 2-3 hours you are going to get when doing pro sessions as a gig. So I had fun with the kids, acted like an idiot (basically just being myself) and tried to get them to NOT think about having their headshot taken. On this particular day I was having them turn away from the camera and then give them a word ("sly" was a big one) and then turn back to camera, showing me what that looked like (a total HurleyIdea). Most often they would just crack up when they turned back and I would get my best shots on their REACTION to my suggestion. This guy was a straight-shooter though and as soon as I chimped on this one I knew we were done. Couldn't wait to post-process it as the combo of look, hair, eyes, freckles -- it all struck me and I couldn't help but want to go back and work with that shot ... basically what Peter means by "Lookability," I believe. What it comes down to is, yes, you need to make sure you have exposure locked in, you need to have depth of field not kick you in the pants, you need to feel like you are giving yourself something to work with in Post, all of that. But then you just need to find the quickest way possible to connect with the inner being of that person in front of you who is stepping in front of these lights and umbrellas and pops and flashes, in front of their peers, while the basketball team walks by -- and just make them feel like it is okay to be themselves. To feel comfortable in their own skin so that the inner aspect of THEM oozes to the outer ... and then expose it right, and highlight all of that in Post. Two last thoughts - First, every shoot is a learning experience for me and the absolute KEY I have found is to JOURNAL after I finish shooting, at least as soon as I can. I draw out a little sketch of what I setup with horrible stick figures and then I write about how I felt and what I did, what worked, what went horribly wrong. This has helped me to remember important things the next time when I am in the craziness of the shoot. This has helped me to remember to give myself enough f-stop to have crisp depth of field, or to control my ambient light with my shutter, etc. Things that I have forgotten over and over when in the thick of it ... so, my bottom line advice is to journal after shooting and analyze what you did right and wrong, and then move on. Second, and finally, look at TONS and TONS of photos whenever you possibly can! That's why making it a habit to cruise through ViewBug and other sites as much as you can will inherently help you to hone in on what it is that you actually want to capture. Stephen King once said that the only way to write good books is to read good books. It's the absolute same thing with Photography. Seek out Heros and learn from them.

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hansdamkoehler

HD Headshot for Hurley Contest

Behind The Lens

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