Beauty Headshots

I teamed up with Makeup artist Calista and Model Lea Faye for some beauty headshots this week. When I spoke with Lea at our planning session, she brought some pictures with her of what she wanted to accomplish.

We decided that the bare shoulders look was less distracting and were looking to grab a few profiles as well as some hair and full-face portraits.

For lighting, I wanted both high-key (white background at the top of the post) and dark field (dark background with bright rim lights) setups.


I used a combination of studio strobes and reflectors.

I never realized how much time it takes for full makeup to be applied. I had setup my lights and run extension cords with time to spare. It may have taken longer than I realized, but the results were worth it!

Click here to see a slideshow of my favorite shots from the day


Technical info:
High key images were obtained with 2 calumet genesis strobes aimed at the background. They were set to f11, 1 stop above the main light. To get the wisps of light that provide contour on here neck and under her chin I positioned Lea where the refection off the back wall read f8. The main light was a softbox up high, set to f8. For some of the shots, I removed the outer diffuser to give a higher contrast light. Fill light was behind me with a strobe fired into an umbrella and set 2/3 stop below main. A reflector was placed against the main light stand to fill some of the shadows.
Dark field images were done with the same main light and reflector, but the background lights were fitted with softboxes and aimed back at the model. They were set to 2/3 stop over the main light.