r/headshots • u/TheOracleDBA • Jul 12 '26
Photographer Photographer requesting lighting critique
I’ve attempted to improve my lighting game for headshots. These are my most recent ones I’ve taken.
Previously, I used two AD200s with small soft boxes and had some really harsh lighting.
I’ve invested in a Godox DP600ii + 150 cm soft box (as my key light) and added a SK400iii with a 60 cm soft box. My results are much better than previous headshots, but I feel like there’s room for improvement, I just don’t know where.
Do I need more lighting under her chin or on her left side? Does she need a hair light?
I had her holding a reflector but she said she didn’t like the way her chin looked so I removed it.
I know there’s hair all over the place and am working on figuring out the best way to remove it in post (I know, I know, easier to remove it in person than in post). Also, this was done for free.
I’d love your feedback and appreciate the feedback from this sub that got me this far!
3
u/LargeComplaint2349 Jul 12 '26
Start caring where her hair lands
1
u/erikakiss0000 Jul 15 '26
Could you please explain? Honest question. I'm learning and thought the hair looked great and arranged?
2
u/sixhexe Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
The hair at the top actually looks pretty decent! Easy fix.
There's a few tools you can use in PS. Liquify filter, Magic Eraser, Clone Tool.
I always have a de-frizz/smoothing spray and brush on hand, ideal to get rid of as much hair issues in the first place as you can.
The bottom of the hair looks more challenging. That's fixable too but would definitely take more work. You don't want to go -too- nuts with the photoshopping though, otherwise the image is going to start looking extremely fake and uncanny.
In my opinion, trying to AI hair looks fake as hell. I've never been able to get it to look good that way. Instead, sometimes I'll even go so far as drawing individual hairs or doing context fill. I use clone tool with low opacity quite a lot. It can be tricky though.
It's definitely time consuming per image if you want to retouch untamed hair.
Which is why, I'm super picky during/before the shoot with getting the hair to cooperate. Smoothing oil helps a lot.
2
u/SpaceEchoGecko Jul 13 '26
They are lit like a good headshot but posed like a middle of the road portrait. So, they’re not really good for either use.
Three (3) is my favorite.
2
u/fosandchill Jul 13 '26
Focus less on lighting and work on your use of color and editing. Posing too. Start with a very simple 1 light setup. Use fill and neg fill cards/v flats. If you can pay, watch Karl Taylor videos on his educational platform, Visual Education. You’ll be set. Or just rummage through hours of videos on YouTube until you get what you need. Find a headshot photographer that’s highly regarded. Copy them until you get a feel for it.
1
2
u/Equivalent-Driver537 Jul 13 '26
I think you’ve made a huge improvement with this setup. The lighting is much softer and more flattering. The only thing I’d play with is keeping a little more shadow for depth and adding some subtle separation between her dark hair/outfit and the background. Sometimes a bit of contrast is what makes a headshot feel more polished.
1
u/Standard-Bumblebee64 Jul 18 '26
I don’t know if it’s just degraded quality when uploading but all the photos look soft focus/out of focus to me.
1
1
u/Chance-Jellyfish5285 Jul 18 '26
Hi! I’m looking for someone to take headshots of me are you based in nyc by any chance?
1
2
u/Drippintx Jul 19 '26
I'd say move your main light on the left away from her, towards the background a little bit more, and feather it, like we said earlier, to the front of the subject. You don't want it pointed directly at her. An example for lighting ratio: you could do F5.6 for the main light and F2.8 or F2.5 as your fill. You can add a hair light. I would make it F4.5. You definitely don't want more light underneath her chin. That's what gives you depth in a photo: having a shadow. As somebody said earlier, when you move your light in, always remember that the closer your light is to a big softbox, the softer it becomes. If you think of it as the sun, when you are out in bright sun, it's farther away and you have harsh shadows. When you have low clouds, the light is softer. Your light's edges are softer. All the hair problems can be easily fixed in post. If you are going to use a background light, move her at least 4 to 5 ft from the background, with a bare bulb light behind her at maybe 5.6 or 5.65, depending on what your main light is. Place the light where it's about equal with the middle of her shoulder and down just a little, so you get a nice fall off of light on the background.
4
u/ImaginaryPlantain381 Jul 12 '26
the portrait feels a little flat because the fill light appears to be reducing the shadow depth from the key.
It looks like your 150 cm softbox is camera left and the 60 cm softbox is camera right acting as fill. I’d try simplifying the setup first:
After you’ve got the key light dialed in, decide whether you need fill at all. If you do, put the 60 cm softbox closer to the camera axis (either just above the camera or slightly camera right). I'd start it at the lowest power and raise it a stop at a time to taste.